page 1

GENEALOGICAL RECORD.

GEORGE WEISS, the first minister of the society of Schwenkfelders
in America, came to Pennsylvania, in 1734,
with the colony, and settled in Lower Salford, then
Philadelphia County. He was born in Harpersdorf,
Lower Silesia, in Germany, in 1687. In 1720, when
the Roman missionaries appeared in Silesia to convert
the followers of Schwenkfeld to the Roman Catholic
faith, George Weiss was selected on the part of
the latter to write their confession of faith, or reply
to the written questions of the missionaries. How
well he performed this important task may be seen by
reference to the "Erl�uterung," page 85, and also page
341.(*) But the more these missionaries were worsted
in argument, the more they had recourse to force; the
result is well known. Weiss with his wife and other
friends fled the country by night in the month of
April, 1726, leaving their properties in the hands of
their persecutors; came to Herrnhut in Saxony on the
5th of May. During his eight years' stay at Herrnhut
he followed weaving and teaching. We do know
that Rev. Christopher Schultz, Sr., then quite a young
lad, came to Weiss for instruction in languages, and
that the warmest friendship and attachment existed


(*)"Erl�uterung fur Caspar Schwenkfeld und die Zugethanen, Seiner Lehre." Printed in Tauer by Mullorn in 1771.