♂Henry Light

Henry Light (died 1830) was a landholder of Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, who owned half of a fulling mill^W and wrote his will in German, signing it “Henrich Licht”. A fulling mill pounded woven woollen cloth in water to shrink and thicken it. He was the third great-grandfather of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014), through his daughter Magdalena Light (1796–1868).

Family

His will names his wife as Magdalena, still living in May 1830, and she was probably Magdalena Funk (1764–1841), a daughter of Martin Funk (1732–1796). The grave memorials and the lineage book give her maiden name as Funck. In 1797 the will of Martin Founk the elder of Lebanon Township left a legacy to his daughter “Magdelena now the wife of Henry Light the younger”.

The papers that settled his estate, and the estate of his son Samuel, settled in 1833, name more than a dozen of his sons and daughters. His daughter Magdalena married Henry Holdeman (1792–1824). In 1820 a “Henry Light (fuller)” stood security in the Orphans’ Court for Henry Holdeman and his brother John, who had been appointed to sell their late father’s land; the trade fits the mill in his will, though there was more than one Henry Light in the county.

Will and estate

He made his will on 21 May 1830, in the German Kurrent^W script, describing himself as living in Swatara Township. He left the plantation where he lived, with half of the fulling mill and half of the great wheel in the mill-house, to “my youngest son Joseph Licht”, who was to pay for it in yearly installments; his other land was to be sold. His wife was to keep the house she lived in, a share of the kitchen and garden and ground to plant, and Joseph was to give “his mother” each year wheat, rye, oats and maize ground and delivered, firewood hauled to the house, a cow and its pasture, pork and beef, the use of the horses and the three-seat wagon, and the interest on one hundred dollars for as long as she lived.

The will was recorded on 15 October 1830. A grave memorial gives his death as 3 October 1830 and his burial in the Light-Hemperly farm cemetery in North Lebanon Township. The executors’ account was filed on 10 October 1831, and a hundred acres the will directed to be sold went to a Martin Light. On 29 November 1831 nine of his children, with their husbands, signed a release for $7,390.98, $821.22 to each, as the “children and legatees named in the last will and testament of Henry Light late of Swatara Township”, calling him “our father”. Magdalena signed it herself, as Magdalena Wenger. The five children of his late daughter Elizabeth, the first wife of Martin Wenger, took their mother’s share, $102.65 each, by a separate release of the same date, which calls them his grandchildren.

Notes

The will as recorded names its executors only as “Henrich, Daniel und Zacharias”, with no legible surnames, while the releases name Henry, Samuel and John Light as the executors. The will also names none of his daughters, although the releases describe them as legatees named in it. The records do not explain either difference, and no second testamentary paper is known.

The will proves that his wife in 1830 was named Magdalena, but it does not name the daughter Magdalena or say that his daughters were her children. That rests on a grave memorial’s list of the couple’s children.

His wife

The 1797 will of Martin Founk the elder is a record, and it names a daughter “Magdelena now the wife of Henry Light the younger”. That she was Magdalena Funk (1764–1841) is probable rather than proved. An 1896 Light family history, a Mennonite family card and a lineage book of the Daughters of the American Revolution all name Henry’s wife as Magdalena Funk, but the three rest on one compiled descent. The card for Henry names her father as Heinrich Funk instead; the will points to Martin. DNA from the family’s tests lands on the expected maternal side for this line, which fits the link without proving it.

Which Henry Light the younger made that marriage is probable rather than proved as well. “The younger” sets him apart from an older man of the name, most likely Henry Light (1738–1806) of Lebanon Township. The release of 18 May 1807, by the older Henry’s children to their brother Joseph, names a son as Henry Light of Bethel Township, with a wife Magdalena. That son is the Swatara Henry only by the same compiled descent, and the county held more than one Henry Light.

Origins

His parents are taken to be Henry Light and Barbara Landis. An 1896 Light family history, a Mennonite family card and a lineage book of the Daughters of the American Revolution all name them, though the three rest on one compiled descent, and the card names his wife as Magdalena Funk (1764–1841). DNA shared between descendants of his own children and descendants of Henry and Barbara’s other children supports the link, but no record of the time names his parents, and no record of his birth has been found. A grave memorial and the card give his birth as 21 November 1760, and the memorial adds a Revolutionary War service in 1782. The county held more than one man of his name. A Henry Light of Lebanon Township made a will in 1803 naming a wife Barbara and a son Henry, and in 1820 five Henry Lights headed households in Bethel Township alone. None of the wills, estate index, deed books or Orphans’ Court^W dockets of Dauphin and Lebanon counties ties him to one of those families.