[phelps.FTW]
[1353.ftw]
[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 4, Ed. 1, Tree #1353, Date of Import: Nov 9, 1998]
Family tradition states this family arrived 1741 from Rotterdam on the ship St Mark, port of Philadelphia.
FURST - FIERCE
What follows was gleaned from shipping lists of German immigrants, from courthouse and census records and from the traditions in the memory of certain descendants. The name in the German language means Prince.
English courthouse clerks found it difficult to spell and various forms are to be noted, viz., Feast, Fearsts, Fearce, Ferst, First, and Fierce, which was adopted and kept about 1800.
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In September of 1741 the ship St. Mark sailing from Rotterdam, loaded with German immigramts landed at the post of Philadelphia, Pa. Among the passengers was Johannes First. The names of women and children were not given in the shipping lists, only those of the men, but the wife and children of Johannes were with him. He, with the other male passengers, took the oath of allegiance to King George the next day after landing. Johannes was very poor coming from a hard and uncertain life in
Germany in a disturbed period. His two older children, Elizabeeth and Ann, were sold (as "indentured servants" a family tradition has it) to pay the ship's master for their passage and it is to be presumed both
Johannes and his wife also had to work out their passage. This method was in common use for those too poor to pay and those so working after landing were called "Redemptioners". After a certain number of years of service they would be free to do or go where they pleased. No stigma was attached to any one who had to pay in this manner. In 1765 Johannes leased l00 acres of land in Loudoun County, Va., from Geo. Wm. Fairfax, land agent for Lord Culpeper whose land grant extended from the tidewater to the Blue Ridge mountains. This land situated on Goose Creek according to the provisions of the lease was to be cleared, a house for dwelling and other buildings to be put up, orchard set out. The yearly rental to be l00 pounds of
tobacco delivered at a designited port on the Potomac River. Johannes died in 1773 and in his will (the original document is to be found in the Loudoun Co., Va., courthouse) was written in English (probably by a local notary of little education for the spelling in it is quaint) and
signed in good German script "Johannes Furst". This will provided for his wife Sarah, after the custom of the times, setting aside a room in the house to be hers, the use of the kitchen fire, a certain amount of eat, meal, etc., every year. Daughters Elizabeth and Ann are mentioned and this is the last record of them. The farm was left to the two sons,
Christian and Peter, in equal shares as long as they could agree. Either
one to buy out the other on disagreement. Peter, the younger, died soon after in 1775 leaving a wife Sarah and infant son John, who when grown married Michael Myers, the daughter of a neighbor. Christian the elder, and his wife, Hannah had children, Conrod, Peter, Margeret, Sarah, Hannah, Cline and John. Christian died in Loudoun County and his will was probated in January, 1800. Conrod who had married Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of Ebenezer and Hannah Wilson, took his family and with his mother Hannah Fierce, widow of Christian, and with several brothers and sisters moved to Athens County, Ohio. He was a blacksmith and his brother,Peter, was a cooper making barrels for the salt works of Athens
County. In 1830 Conrod moved again and this time to Hamilton County,
Ind., where he and Elizabeth both died and are buried.
Wilson Fierce, like his father Conrod, was a blacksmith and a farmer. He did not stay in Hamilton Co., but went into Illinois settling in Knox County where he remained until his death. A sketch, the facts given by himself, may be seen in a History of Knox County, Ill.
Johannes Furst 
