♂Henry Light

Henry Light (7 March 1738 – 7 January 1806) was a yeoman of Lebanon Township, Pennsylvania, who held 155 acres near the town of Lebanon for almost half a century and owned a brew house in the town, which he left to his son Jacob. He was probably the fourth great-grandfather of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014), through his son Henry Light (died 1830).

Land and family

Henry was most likely the son of Johannes Light, who in December 1738 bought 274 acres on a branch of the Quittapahilla Creek in Lebanon Township, then part of Lancaster County. Johannes died without a will, and on 19 November 1759 his six children, all of full age, divided the land by deed: the other five sold Henry 155 acres and 47 perches of it. Henry signed the deeds “Henrich Licht”; his brother Martin and his sister Barbara made their marks. He is said to have been among the township’s taxables that same year. In 1772 and 1773 he was taxed in Lebanon Township on 150 acres and then 155 acres, with three horses in each year.

Henry Light and Barbara Landis married about 1759. They had twelve children, all of them living in 1807: Henry, John, Elizabeth, Peter, Veronica, Maria, Anna, Jacob, Martin, Joseph, Barbara and Catharine. In 1800 his household in Lebanon Township, Dauphin County, numbered seven, three males and four females.

The Revolution

In December 1774 a Henry Light, most likely this one, was elected one of the four members for Lebanon of the county’s committee of inspection and observation, whose duty was to watch how people kept the Continental Association^W, the boycott of British goods that the Continental Congress had agreed that autumn. When the war came he was enrolled in the county militia: the returns of about 1781 and of 1782 place him in the fifth class of Captain John Stone’s company, 2nd Battalion of the Lancaster County militia.

Will and estate

In July 1802 Henry and Barbara sold land to their son Peter, of Bethel Township, for £912. On 7 April 1803 Henry made his will as “Henry Light of Lebanon Township in the County of Dauphin”; the township had been part of Dauphin County since 1785. He left his son Joseph the plantation of about 155 acres “whereon I at present live”, for £2,000. Of that sum, £700 was to stay on the land as long as Barbara lived, and Joseph was to pay her the interest each year. Jacob was to have the house, lot and brew house in the town for £400, £300 of which he already owed his father. Everything else was to be divided among all the children, with whatever each had already received deducted from his share, “that they may all inherit equally”. He named his sons Henry and Jacob executors.

He died on 7 January 1806, and the will was proved in Dauphin County on 27 January. On 18 May 1807 his eleven other children, with their husbands and wives, released the plantation to Joseph for a consideration of £1,833 13s 4d. Barbara outlived him by six years and died on 16 April 1812. His gravestone, carved in German like hers, begins “Hier Ruhet Henrich Licht”, “here rests Henrich Licht”.

Notes

His son Henry

The line to Ora Emogene Walrath is taken to run through the couple’s son Henry. The release of 1807 names him as Henry Light of Bethel Township, with a wife Magdalena, and in 1797 the will of Martin Founk the elder called his daughter “Magdelena now the wife of Henry Light the younger”. The Henry Light who died in Swatara Township in 1830 named his wife Magdalena in his will. No record of the time says that he was Henry and Barbara’s son, and the county held more than one Henry Light. An 1896 Light family history, a Mennonite family card and a lineage book of the Daughters of the American Revolution all make him their son, and DNA shared between descendants of his children and descendants of Henry and Barbara’s other children supports the link.

Birth year

The date given here, 7 March 1738, is the Mennonite family card’s. His gravestone agrees on the day and the month; the third figure of the year is worn and could be a 3 or a 5, and 1758 is ruled out, since he was of full age in November 1759. Moses Light’s The Light Genealogy in America (1896) gives the year as 1728, though its third figure is faint, and a second family card is reported to give 1728 as well.

His parents

The deeds of 19 November 1759 name a Henry Light among the children of Johannes Light of Lebanon Township. When Henry’s other children released the plantation to Joseph in 1807, their deed traced its title from Johannes through the sale of 155 acres and 47 perches to Henry Light in 1759, which ties the Henry of those deeds to the man who made the will of 1803. The Mennonite family card and the 1896 family history also make him a son of John Light; the card calls the father Bishop John and names the mother as Maria Kreider, a name no record of the time gives.

The marriage

No record of the marriage is known, so the year is an estimate. It comes from the Mennonite family cards: one gives 1759, and another gives 1759 or 1760.

The committee and the militia

A history of the Lebanon Valley published in 1930 lists Thomas Clark, Curtis Grubb, Henry Light and Henry Buehler as the members for Lebanon of the committee of inspection and observation elected on 15 December 1774, without saying which Henry Light. This Henry was the only man of the name on the Lebanon Township tax list of 1772, where he was taxed on 150 acres beside his brothers John, Martin and Jacob, and his son Henry was fourteen when the committee was elected. The lineage book of the Daughters of the American Revolution credits Henry Light (1738–1806) with Revolutionary service, and a grave memorial places him in Captain John Stone’s company of the 2nd Battalion of the Lancaster County militia. Both are compiled accounts, and the Henry Light who died in 1830 is credited with service of his own in 1782. The militia returns themselves, printed in the Pennsylvania Archives, list “Henry Light, S’r.” in the fifth class of Captain John Stone’s 6th Company, 2nd Battalion, in about 1781, and “Henry Light, Senr.” in the same class in 1782; in 1782 his son “John Light, Hen’y Son.” appears in the first class. These entries record enrollment; they do not show that he served.

Other men of the name

Lancaster County held several Henry Lights. The Henry Light appointed on 2 March 1756 as a guardian of the orphans of Jacob Light of Lampeter Township had to be of age, and this Henry was seventeen; one of those orphans was himself a Henry Light. A Henry Light held land in Lancaster Township in 1764, and the Henry Light with a wife Barbara in Lancaster Township in 1771 was a stepson of Peter Leman, not this man.

The 1759 tax return

Egle’s History of the Counties of Dauphin and Lebanon (p. 131) prints the Lebanon Township taxables of 1759, with an entry for “Light, Henry” given in full as certified. The history is a later printing, not the return itself; this Henry was twenty-one that year.

The date of the will

A published abstract of the will dates it 17 April 1803; the will as recorded, and the release of 1807, give the 7th.