Margaret Myrtilla Holstein
& The
Descendants Of
Matths Hollsten
[Holstein, Hollstein, Holsteen, Holstein, etc.]
Families
~~~
~ From Dithmarschein in Holstein - Sweeden ~
First Generation
Matths Hollsten
2. MATTHIAS "MATTS" CLASSEN2 HOLSTEIN (MATTHS [1] HOLLSTEN) was born June 01, 1642 in Dithmarschen in Holstein., and died April 09, 1708 in Pennsylvania.
He married (1) HELENA COCK 1672 in Passyunk, daughter of PETER LARSSON COCK.
He married (2) CATHARINA MANSDOTTER 1688.
He married (3) BRITTA RAMBO October 10, 1705, daughter of ANNA LARSON COCK. She was born in Passyunk Twp, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died 1758.
Notes for MATTHIAS "MATTS" CLASSEN HOLSTEIN:
[108018.GED]Matts Holstein, as the name was written in the earliest Swedish records, the ancestor of this long line of descendants was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1644, two years after the second emigration of Swedes to America. It has been a long family tradition that The Holsteins came from Sweden with Governor Peter Minuit on the good ship "Kalmar Nykel" or "Key of Calmar."
In 1693, Matts Holstein was one of the Swedish congregation known as Wicaco, which is an Indian name meaning pleasant place.
In 1693, in the lists of heads of families sent at the request of King Charles XI of Sweden, is found Matts Holstein's name and those comprising his household, even their date of birth.
There is a family legend that the name Holstein descended through a noble line. The Swedes of that time were a thrifty, industrious people, inclined to farming pursuits more than trade. We can imagine what Philadelphia was like in the 17th century, when our American ancestors of this ancient family were living on the banks of the Delaware, or dwelling peacefully upon their farms that are, at present, in the center of Philadelphia.
There are other records which show Matts as "Matthais Claesson Holstein", born in 1642 in Dittmarschen, Holstein, Sweden, and that he was the son of early Swedish Settlers. But since the record of Old Swedes Lutheran Church show him as being baptized there in 1642, I find the other records in doubt. Excerpt from "BEAN'S HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER LXXVII, UPPER MERION TOWNSHIP, By Wm. J. Buck: P. 1119
Upper and Lower Merion appear to have been originally one township called Merion, or rather by the early Welsh settlers Merioneth, after a county in North Wales. At what exact time it was divided has not been ascertained, but it must have been before 1714; for in this year we find the earliest mention in records of Upper Merion as a township. From Thomas Holme's map of 2 original surveys, commenced in 1682, we learn that the upper half of the township was included in Letitia Penn's manor of Mount Joy, the middle portion in William Penn, Jr's., and the lower part, adjoining Lower Merion, in John Pennington and company's. The remaining portion of the manor lay in the adjoining township of Tredyffrin, in Chester County, and included in all seven thousand eight hundred acres. It was patented to his daughter by William Penn, 24th of Eighth Month, 1701, and he retained possession of it until 1736. The land belonging to John Pennington and company, it is probable, formed a part of the Welsh tract, which we know extended through a portion of the township into Chester County, comprising in the whole forty thousand acres, and of which mention was made in the history of Lower Merion. It was chiefly through this last great purchase that the original settlers were Welsh, and named it after a shire from whence many of them had come.
Although the Swedes had settled near the mouth of the Schuylkill in 1642, and four years later erected a church there, yet no evidence exists of their having located early anywhere within the present limits of the county. It has been recently ascertained that Peter Cox had made a purchase of land within the present limits of Upper Merion before 1702, and that Gunnar Rambo in said year had endeavored to secure a tract beside him. The Swedes came into the township about 1712, and settled on a large tract which they purchased from the Welsh, who had for some time preceded them. The names of these settlers were:
- Mats Holstein
- Gunnar Rambo
- Peter Rambo
- Peter Yocum
- John Matson.
They took up several hundred acres each, which lay from the present borough of Bridgeport down to the Lower Merion line, and back nearly two miles from the river. This tract, for fertility, is almost unequaled in Pennsylvania, and is still chiefly in the hands of their descendants, and comprises nearly one-fourth of the present area of the township. On this tract the names of Swedes' Ford, Swedes' Church, Swedesburg, Swedeland and Matson's Ford sufficiently indicate the presence of these settlers. Near the close of this subject some additional information will be given respecting those Swedish families. P. 1120
The following possesses interest, being a list or settlers residing in Upper Merion in 1734, thirty-two in number, and with the amount of land returned as belonging to each: Mats Holstein, 252 acres P. 1125
THE SWEDES IN UPPER MERION. -The credit is due to the Swedes of having made the first permanent settlement in Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1637 two vessels arrived from, Goettenburg, called the "Key of Calmar" and the "Bird Grip." A purchase was made by those colonists from the Indians the following year of the lands on the west side of the bay and river from Cape Henlopen to Santhicon, or the falls of the Delaware, which they called New Sweden. Tradition has it that the ancestors of the Rambos, Holsteins, Yocums and Matsons came in these vessels. After more arrivals, in February, 1643, Governor Printz, selected for settlement the low alluvial island in the Delaware, called Tinicum or Tinnekonk, situated below, but near the mouth of the Schuylkill. Here a settlement was made and a fort and a church built. Peter Lindstrom, the royal Swedish engineer, in 1654, made a map of New Sweden, on which the Schuylkill is denoted as far up as to Contain a Small part of the territory now comprised in Montgomery County. But no evidence, strange to say, exists of any early settlement or explorations up or along this river by the Swedes, even thirteen years after the arrival of Penn.
In 1708, Pastor Andreas Sandel wrote in his list of burials at Gloria Dei Church the following entry (as translated from the original Swedish): "9 April. Buried old Matths Hollsten, born in Dithmarschen in Holstein." The man referred to was the founder of the Swedish Holstein family, which left an enduring mark among the Swedish churches at Wicaco, Upper Merion and Swedesboro and gave its name to the Holsten River in Tennessee, whose first inhabitant was Stephen Holstein, a grandson of the immigrant, Matthias Claesson from Dithmarschen in Holstein which then, as now, lies east of the Netherlands on the North Sea.
Matthias Claesson was one of several Holsteiners who ended up as husbands of Swedish wives. Others with similar stories were Marcus Laurensen (progenitor of the Hulings family) and Otto Ernest Koch (progenitor of one of the Swedish Cox families). In 1893, Mrs. Anna M. Holstein of Upper Merion, Montgomery County, PA, wrote a book entitled Swedish Holsteins in America 3 from 1644 to 1892, one of the first genealogies to explore the families of the 17th century Swedes. In this book, she claimed that Matthias Holstein had been born in New Sweden in 1644 and that his father (name unknown) had arrived in New Sweden with Governor Peter Minuit in 1638. She was wrong on all counts.
From a special census taken in 1683 and from pastor Rudman's 1697 church census, we know that Matthias Holstein was born in 1642. From Sandel's burial record, we know that he came from Dithmarschen in Holstein. He was 21 years old in 1663 when he answered the pleas of the New Amstel colony for young farmers willing to go to the South (Delaware) River. Having taken over the former colony of New Sweden from the Dutch West India Company, the sponsors were anxious to recruit new farmers from outside of the country to better exploit the potential of their endeavor.
Shortly after Matthias Claesson's arrival on the Delaware, the New Amstel colony was taken over by the English. The local population, however, was still primarily Swedish. Matthias Claesson, now known as Matthias Holstein, found employment in Kingsessing and in 1671 was residing at Sayamensing Island on the west side of the Schuylkill River on land owned by Lasse Cock, eldest son of Peter Larsson Cock. Soon thereafter Matthias Holstein married Lasse Cock's eldest sister, probably named Helena Cock. With the aid of Lasse Cock, Matthias acquired land in Passyunk, on the east side of the Schuylkill from Peter Mattson, who (in an apparent exchange) acquired Sayamensing Island from Lasse Cock.
It is probable that Matthias Holstein married Lasse Cock's sister by 1672. He acquired his Passyunk property on 5 May 1672 and remained there until his death in 1708. Throughout this time, he was a staunch supporter of the Swedish church at Wicaco, serving briefly as a church warden and contributing £ 7 toward the building of the new church in 1698-1700. In 1684, however, Matthias Holstein became a widower, with four small boys to raise. He hired as his housekeeper Catharina from the Crane Hook congregation, whose father Måns Pålsson had died in 1682. Later, in 1688, he married Catharina Månsdotter and had two more sons and a daughter by this marriage.
Before his death, Matthias Holstein gave most of his lands to his sons Laurence and Matthias. In his will, he made bequests to his other four sons and designated his wife Catharine to be the executrix, "desiring my friends William Carter and Peter Mounts [his wife's brother] to be assistants to my said executrix."
Six children (all males) were listed in the will of Matthias Holstein dated 14 December 1706:
More About MATTHIAS "MATTS" CLASSEN HOLSTEIN:
Aka:: Matts Clawsen
Moved: 1663, At 21 y Moved to S Delaware River Colony
Notes (Facts Pg): 1684, Hired Catharna as houskeaperNotes for BRITTA RAMBO:
Notes concerning Matthias from Rob Beatty: Matthias was born at Passyunk, County of MatthiasClaessen, Alias Holstein and his first wife whose name is not known, incorrectly identified as Britta Gostenburg--from papers of Dr. Craig. Matthias Holstein`s will was signed on March 17, 1736/37 and prove don May 11, 1737. The will names his wife and his four sons: Matthias, 3rd; Andrew, John, and Frederick. For a detailed accounting of Mathias`s land holdings, see Ron Beatty`s book.Sources for RAMBO & HOLSTEIN:
1. Abbrev: Ron Beatty; Title: Ron S. Beatty. For detailed information on this family, see Ron Beatty`s new edition of Beverly Rambo`s RAMBO FAMILY TREE.
2. Abbrev: RAMBO FAMILY TREE by Rambo.;
Title: THE RAMBO FAMILY TREE: DESCENDANTS OF PETER GUNNARSON RAMBO, 1611-1986;
Author: Beverly Nelson Rambo;
Publication: Decorah, Iowa: The Anundesen Publishing Company, 1986;
Text: Very extensive bibliography.
Sources for RAMBO & HOLSTEIN:
1. Abbrev: Ron Beatty; Title: Ron S. Beatty. For detailed information on this family, see Ron Beatty`s new edition of Beverly Rambo`s RAMBO FAMILY TREE.
2. Abbrev: RAMBO FAMILY TREE by Rambo.;Title: THE RAMBO FAMILY TREE: DESCENDANTS OF PETER GUNNARSON RAMBO, 1611-1986;
Author: Beverly Nelson Rambo;
Publication: Decorah, Iowa:
The Anundesen Publishing Company, 1986;
Text: Very extensive bibliography.
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