Mathias Ambrose
Clovers
of Franklin County, Ohio: A Study of Henry Clover, His Ancestors and
Descendants
Mathias Ambrose
Ambrose - Ambrosi - Ambrosius
Mathias Ambrose was the grandfather of Catherine Ambrose, wife of Henry
Clover of Franklin County, Ohio. I did a great deal of research on this
group while I was living in Virginia because it was all at the National
Society DAR Library in Washington, and what I couldn’t find there
was on microfilms in one of the local Family History Centers.
Some of my subscribers have asked me to share some of that
research. Although he is not, strictly speaking, a Clover,
he is the direct ancestor of thousands of Clovers. One of
the reasons for the delay in publishing this is that I do not consider
my research finished. However, my correspondent says she is tired
of waiting and wants to see my research NOW. So I obey.
Mathias Ambrose was born February
1696, died 10 August 1784, and was buried in the graveyard associated
with Peter Apple’s Church, Thurmont, Frederick County,
Maryland. The tombstone in German is difficult to read. However,
when I downloaded the picture, and blew it up, it appears to me to say
that he died 10 August 1784 and was born February 1696, aged 87 years 6
months and 3 days. This disagrees with the cemetery book. If my
reading of this is correct, he was born 7 February 1696.
The following photo of his tombstone is from Findagrave.com
This exact date is important because of a recent major find. The
LDS church has been transcribing millions of records and one of
interest to us was recently discovered by Pat Asher. Pat is
a major Ambrose researcher today. She runs an Ambrose site
at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pasher/ or http://wc.rootsweb.com/~ambrose/ She can be contacted at [email protected] She
sent me the following:
Matthaeus
Ambrosi was born and Christened 7 February 1696 in the
Evangelische Kirche, Brackenheim, Württemberg, Germany, parents
Matthaeus & Barbara Ambrosi
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NCQK-4MB
Pat tells me that the tombstone reads
Geb Die 7 February 1696 which means born on that date.
The LDS uses some numbers to
identify the sources of the transcribed records. The batch number of
this set is C95512-1. This
means that the information was transcribed from LDS microfilm no.
1184720. In the catalog, this is described as Tote [deaths] 1587-1605,
Taufen [baptisms] 1558-1679 Heiraten [marriages] 1562-1607, Taufen
[baptisms] 1679-1832 There are no other Ambrose or similar names in the
database. The marriages are in batch number M95512-1 and includes no
Ambroses, however, they appear to be from the wrong years.
We are not sure if the family was from another small town
or the years we need are not included. One thing of interest in
German Churches is something called the Famielienbucher. This was
a book kept by the churches in which the various families were grouped
together. It includes births, baptisms, marriages, deaths,
confirmations, etc. In this kind of scheme all entries for the Ambrose
family would be on one page. The Famlienbucher for this church was on
LDS microfilm no. 1184723. I knew that this book would be in German
script, but was hoping that I could pick out an Ambrose page if there
was one. So I ordered the microfilm. I thought I could get a copy of it
and get someone to actually translate it. There is an index in the
beginning of the film which I could just barely pick out.
Unfortunately, there was no Ambrose in the index. There was not an
Am~~~ in the index. I also looked under the first letter B
because I have seen Ambrosius as Brosius. There was nothing there that
looked at all likely.
This suggests to me that they
were not actually from this area. They may have been from a nearby
town, but, right now, there is no way of telling which one. We may have
to wait for more indexing. If anyone actually reads German script
and would like to work on this, it would be a great boon.
Unfortunately, neither Pat Asher nor myself have any skills long
this line.
The earliest record found for
Mathias Ambrose in America is an immigration
record. Matheis Ambrosi was one of “42 Palatines who, with their
families, were imported in the Ship
Pleasant, James Morris, Master,
from Rotterdam, last from Deal, as by clearance thence.” The
passengers appeared at the courthouse in Philadelphia, 11 October 1732.
They were qualified on that day. There are several lists for the same
ship with the same list of names. He appears as Marthies Ambrose,
age 37, and as Matheis Ambrosi.(2) Only the head of the household
is
listed so whether he had a wife and/or family at this time is not
known. Several of the names indicated that they signed with a
mark. Since this was not by his name, we expect that he could sign
his name. The above age indicated that he was born ca. 1695. It is
just possible that the two children of his whose
ages are not really known, may have come with them on the ship. Again,
I have no evidence for or against this.
He must has married shortly after
he arrived, if he was not already married at the time he came to
America. There is considerable information published that his wife was
Maria Catherine Spogn/Spough with other variant spellings. The
information usually states that she was the daughter of Adam
Spongh. I have stacks of information on Adam, because, with my
usual diligence, I have been trying to find some kind of proof of this
descent. Since we had the Shepherd fiasco in my family, I have become a
very suspicious person. Just now, I am smelling a rat. However, I
have not finished researching. There is an Adam Spone in the 1750
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania tax list. So it is possible.
However, there are no Spone’s or variants in the Lancaster County
Will Indexes. We have more available to us now than was available
20 years ago. So if someone found it 20 or 40 or 60 years ago, you
should be able to find it. If you can’t, you should be very
suspicious. I do not believe he was married to a Spogn or
whatever spelling is used. I strongly suspect that the person who
jumped to a conclusion on the Shephard nonsense is the same person who
created this. I can't prove it but I am sure in my own mind after
wasting YEARS on this, that he was not married to a Spogn.
Mathias was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania by 6 February
1734, when Johan Phillip Ambrose was baptized. He must have stayed in
the area for a few years because four of his children were baptized in
the Muddy Creek church, the last one was John Frederick Ambrose,
baptized 20 June 1741. Augustus Heinrich Ambrose was baptized in 1736,
and Matthias Ambrose was baptized 20 March 1739.(3)
Although John Frederick was baptized in
Pennsylvania, the family moved on to Frederick County, Maryland,
somewhere in this time frame. Many of the Pennsylvania Germans were
moving on past Lancaster. There was a road from New Jersey all
the way to North Carolina which went through Lancaster and Frederick
County, Maryland.
The first indication of his wife’s name is in
a set of deeds where Catherine Ambrose signed as his wife.
Ambrose’s Mill was the forerunner of
today’s town of Thurmont and was used as a reference point in
many of the old road records. It was situated a half mile south
of Ambrose’s land parcel which was called Gap. The farms or
land parcels have names in that area which are carried from owner to
owner. The Gap was originally surveyed for Adam Spuch, 3 June
1743. However, he did not actually appear to have taken possession and
the land was later patented to Mattheis Ambrose, 10 November
1752. This is the only known connection between Adam and the
Ambrose family and probably led to the error about Maria
Catherine.
According to the Frederick County
Debt Books, 1755-1756, he owned Arnold’s Chance, 500 acres, and
Arnold’s Delight, 125 acres.(4) By this time, the Gap, 100
acres, was owned by Jacob Ambrose.(5)
In late September of 1743, Mateas Ambrose received
communion from Pastor Candler in the Lutheran Church of Manaquice
preparatory to his naturalization on 19 October 1743. (6)
Mathias and Jacob Ambrose were listed as members of
the committees which were formed during the Revolution to resist the
British. “At that period, the majority of the population of
Maryland lived in the western part of the province, within the limits
of what was then Frederick County, of these by far the greater number
were the Germans who had come down from Pennsylvania and their
descendants. These people had abandoned their homes across the ocean
and had come to America to escape from just such oppression and it was
but natural, therefore, that they should quickly resent any attempts of
the British government to enforce what appeared to be unjust laws,
particularly in the matter of taxation.”(7)
Will of Mathias Ambrose, Sr., of Frederick County,
yeoman. Will dated 19 October 1782, in good health. To the church
at Peter Apple’s called Jacob’s Church: £3; To
daughter, Catherine Weller: 40 shillings. To John Weller, Senior,
remainder of real and personal estate. None of my children except
Catherine Weller shall have a claim as I have given them their shares
for many years past. Friend, John Weller, executor, Signed with mark.
Witnesses: Benjam Ogle, Frederick Troxall, Frederick Beard, Proved 16
October 1784 by the last two.(8)
The LDS Church has been indexing
German records in massive numbers.
Just for the fun of it, I looked up Matthias Ambrose and found
the following.
Johan
Matthias Brosius married Maria Catharina Hommerich,
date 23 November 1730 in Oberhonnefeld-Gierend, Rheinland,
Preußen, Germany. The father of the bride was Philip
Hommerich [FHL microfilm no. 489993 batch I02568-9
Indexed by https://www.familysearch.org]
I only recently found this and
don't really know if this is our Matthias Ambrose or not. It
needs to be followed up. It certainly could fit into the
known records. If this is our Mathias, it could be a second
marriage because Catherine (Ambrose) Weller seems to be older. But I
can't tell for sure. I did some further searches in that batch
number and discovered more
Ambrosius families so the Brosius could well be Ambrosius. There
is a Johannes Matthius Ambrose with a wife Anne Veronica with a child
in 1728.
Oberhonnefeld-Gierend is in the district of
Neuweid which is in the Rhineland Palitinate. It certainly seems
to be in an appropriate area. Notice that the first child
actually baptized in a surviving record has the name Philip. I
wonder if Catherine was from a first marriage.
There is a large Ambrose DNA project on ftdna.com If anyone has
information from this, I would be delighted to hear.
Mathias
Ambrose Deed Records in Frederick County, Maryland.
Children of
Mathias and Maria Catherine Ambrose:
2. i. Catherine Ambrose, date of birth unknown.
Catherine Weller was named as Mathias’s daughter and her
husband,
John Weller, was also mentioned in Mathias’s will.(9) John was
born 28 May 1716, died 15 June 1792, buried at Apple’s
Church.(10) His will was filed at Frederick County,
Maryland. Catherine was still alive at the time her husband’s
will was written. She is supposed to have died in 1804. I do not
know the source of this date. (11) According to the IGI, John
Jacob Weller was the son of Johannes Weller and Catherine Salome
Ambrose, born 17 October 1752, died 15 October 1831. He was married ca.
1774 to Anna Christina Krall. If this is true, Catherine was probably
born before the sons who were baptized in Lancaster. It is even
possible that she was born in Germany. Pioneers of Moncracy, states
that John Weller and Catherine Ambrose were married shortly after
1743.(12) If this is true, she was much older than her known siblings.
Since her children are known and could presumably be traced, her
marriage date could be surmised from that. I have not done this.
It is hard to understand the chronology unless she married a
later around 1750.
3. ii. Jacob Ambrose born 1734, died 1776, Thurmont,
Maryland. His tombstone gives a birth date of 1734,(13) but there is no
record of his baptism in the Muddy Creek Church Records, so 1734 may be
an error. He may have been born in 1733 between the time Mathias landed
in Philadelphia and when Mathias moved to Lancaster. Jacob married
Maria Catherine Salome. Her name appears in the baptismal records of
their child in Apple’s Church Records.(14) Maria Catherine
was born 15 December 1731, died 28 August 1807.(15)
Jacob is assumed to be a son of Mathias on the basis of
geographical proximity, but the link is not proven. There is a
Frederick County, Maryland estate record for a Catherine Ambrose,
first R. B. #1, 1806-1809: 499. I saw the entry for the estate
but have not seen it.
Jacob, like others in his family,
was very active politically in the Revolutionary War. He was at
meetings and on committees intended to resist the British.(16)
Descendants of Jacob should really try to get DNA testing to
prove the descent.
Further information on the family of Jacob Ambrose.
4. iii. Johan Phillip Ambrose, son
of Mattheis Ambrosius, born 6 February 1734, baptized 12 May 1734,
Lutheran Congregation of Muddy Creek Church, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. Sponsors were Philipp Schweickert and his wife
Susanna.(17) He married Eva Catherine [–?–] whose name
appears in the baptismal record for their daughter, Maria Barbara, in
Apple’s church records in 1773.(18)
5. iv. Augustus Heinrich Ambrose,
son of Matheis Ambrosius, born 13 October 1736, baptized 6 January
1737, Lutheran Congregation of Muddy Creek Church, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. The sponsor was August Heinrich Kutschmann.(19) His exact
date of death is unknown, but his estate appraisal was dated 12
December 1811, filed in the
Berkeley County Court on 12 May 1812.(20) He was known as Henry
Ambrose. There are some researchers who do not this that the Henry of
Berkeley County, Virginia, is the same person as this son of Mathias.
However, his father and family moved to Frederick County, Maryland, and
Henry, the son of Mathias, disappears from Frederick County,
Maryland just before he
appears in Virginia. The two counties are basically just across
the river from each other. See also Henry
Ambrose of Berkeley County, Virginia Note that three of his brothers were
baptized in the same church. They moved to Frederick County,
Maryland with their father. Frederick County, Maryland is just
across the river from Berkeley County, Virginia where Henry moved.
6. v. Matthias Ambrose, son of
Matheis Ambrosius, born 20 March 1739, baptized 17 June 1739, Lutheran
Congregation of Muddy Creek Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The
sponsors were Mattheis Rossel and wife Anna Barbara.(21) He died
before 31 December 1808, in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. He married
Maria Barbara Mathews, born 16 March 1744, died ca. 1836.(22) Jacob
Matthews refers to his daughter Barbara Ambrose, in his will, dated 22
April 1776.(23) He served in the Border Militia in the Revolutionary
War, 1778-1793.(24)
7. vi. Johan Frederick Ambrose, son of Matheis
Ambrosius, born 20 June 1741, baptized 24 June 1741, Lutheran
Congregation of Muddy Creek Church, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Sponsor was Joh. Friederick Verdriess.(25) His tombstone reads: Born 4
May 1738, died 29 July 1821. He was buried in Brant’s
Cemetery, 3 miles south of Ligonier, Pennsylvania.(26)
He was married to Margaret Countryman, born 1 January 1742, died
11 September 1809.(27) His descendants from the early 1800's left
records connecting him with Mathias, but there is a possibility that he
is a different Frederick. I am very uneasy about the dates.
He served as a 1st Lieutenant,
Captain Rhoads Company, recruited in Brothers Valley Township, Bedford
County, Pennsylvania, on 10 December 1777.(28) He was elected as
assessor of Bedford County, 12 October 1780.(29)
8. v. Maria Barbara Ambrose,
daughter of Mateas Ambrosse, born 24 January 1743, baptized 13 June
1743, in the Frederick Evangelical Lutheran Church, Frederick,
Maryland. The sponsors were Jacob and Maria Weller.(30) She
married John George Matthews, who was born 30 March 1737. I have no
source for this date. I apparently put it into my computer 18
years ago and totally forgot to put in a source.
Theory
of Naming Patterns
For more on this interesting
subject see: http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm
Generally, Germans of that generation
followed the naming patterns carefully. In this article there are
several possible patterns. This one fits the position of his son
Mathias.
1st son: named after father's father
2nd son: named after mother's father
3rd son: named after father's oldest brother
4th son: named after father
Daughters followed the same pattern
There is some question in my mind about his actual children and their
dates of birth. However, if the above list of children is
correct, it would suggest:
Father of Mathias: Johan Jacob Ambrose [We know that his father's
actual name was Mathias. Jacob may have been another relative.?]
Father of his wife, Catherine: Johan Philip ? [Note the Philip
Hommerich in the above record.?]
Oldest brother of Mathias: Heinrich
Mother of Mathias: Maria Catherine ?
Mother of Catherine: Maria Barbara ? [Since we have found the baptism
of Mathias, we know that the Maria Barbara is named after HIS mother so
perhaps, her mother was Maria Catherine.
Endnotes:
(1) Jacob Holdecroft, Names in Stone,
(Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Company, 1985), 78.
(2) Ralph Strassburger, Pennsylvania
German Pioneers, Volume 1,
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), 100-1.
(3) William John Hinke and Frederick S. Weiser, translators, Records of
Pastoral Acts at the Lutheran & Reformed Congregations of the Muddy
Creek Church, East Cocalica Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
1730-1790, (Breinigsville, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania German
Society,
1981), 27.
(4) Frederick County Debt Books, 1755-1756, Western Maryland Genealogy,
volume 8 (1992), page 131.
(5) Frederick County Debt Books, 1755-1756, Western Maryland Genealogy,
volume 8 (1992), page 24.
(6) Provincial Court Records, 1742-1744, EI 7: 296, Pioneers, page 203.
(7) Daniel Wunderlich Nead, The
Pennsylvania-German Settlement of
Maryland, (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania German
Society), 180,
181, 188 and 190.
(8) Frederick County Wills, pages 106-108, Western Maryland Genealogy,
Volume 6, (1990), issue 2, page 125.
(9) Frederick County Wills, pages 106-108, Western Maryland Genealogy,
Volume 6, (1990), issue 2, page 125.
(10) Jacob Holdecroft, Names in Stone,
Volume II, (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985), 1210.
(11) Information from Janis Rager.
(12) Pioneers, page
203.
(13) Jacob Holdecroft, Names in Stone,
(Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Company, 1985), 78.
(14) Baptismal Records of
Apple’s Church (Lutheran and Reformed)
Near Thurmont, Maryland, 1773-1848, 5.
(15) Jacob Holdecroft, Names in Stone,
(Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Company, 1985), 78.
(16) Daniel Wunderlich Nead, The
Pennsylvania-German Settlement of
Maryland, (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania German
Society), 188
and 190.
(17) William John Hinke and Frederick S. Weiser, translators, Records
of Pastoral Acts at the Lutheran & Reformed Congregations of the
Muddy Creek Church, East Cocalica Township, Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, 1730-1790, (Breinigsville, Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania
German Society, 1981), 27.
(18) Baptismal Records of
Apple’s Church (Lutheran and Reformed),
near Thurmont, Maryland, (Hudson, Wisconsin: Star-Observer
Printers,
1963), 11.
(19) Hinke and Weiser, translators, Pastoral
Acts, Muddy Creek Church,
27.
(20) Berkeley County Will Book 3: 509, Probate Court, Martinsburg, West
Virginia.
(21) Hinke and Weiser, translators, Pastoral
Acts, Muddy Creek Church,
27.
(22) DAR application no. 333907.
(23) Frederick County Wills, pages 106-108, Western Maryland Genealogy,
Volume 6, (1990), issue 1, page 28.
(24) DAR application no. 333907.
(25) Hinke and Weiser, translators, Pastoral
Acts, Muddy Creek Church,
27.
(26) Tombstone, Brant’s Private Burial Ground, Ligionier
Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Sent by Janis Ragar.
(27) Information sent by Janis Ragar.
(28) Pennsylvania Archives,
2nd Series, volume 14: 45, also 5th Series
Volume 5: 65.
(29) Pennsylvania Archives,
6th Series, Volume 11: page number unknown.
(30) Frederick S. Weiser, Frederick
Evangelical Lutheran Church,
Frederick, Maryland, 1743-1811, Volume 1, (Manuscript). Copy at
Adams
County, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Gettysburg, Maryland. FHL
microfilm 1414857 Item 4. Does not circulate. Extracted to IGI.
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