The data descriptive of Coat of Arms was secured by Mrs. Jessie Loesch Saunders, 127 Arlington Ave., Jersey City, N. J., from Library records.

W. W. L.

LOESCH.

A family of Hilgartshausen, resident Bavaria during past 400 years, from which William in 1541 was created a knight for services in Algiers. The king at that time presented him with a gold chain in shape of a belt (kind worn by barefoot monks) worth 398 ducats, the ownership of which, according to family law, was always to be passed on to the oldest Loesch. Lang, Vol. I, page 47, says the family of Loesch bore this chain in their arms and in older illustrations it used to hang around the shield. Wolfgang and Adolf Loesch of Hilsgarthausen were liberated by King Leopold in 1653. The family were created counts, 1790. The coat of arms is a red shield upon which are two silver hatchets with gold handles, the edges turned outward. On top of the helmet is a maiden with a red dress (Einsinger names it a butcher-boy), who has, instead of arms, two hatchets. This coat of arms is now used as a centre part of the present escutcheon. The first and fourth quarterings

of the present escutcheon is a gold shield in which are placed two stag horns colored blue (representing the Hirschhausen arms). In the 2d and 3d quarterings the shield is divided, silver and blue, on which are placed three gold fleur-de-lis (representing the Kockeritz arms. This family is of Saxony and it came into the present coat-of-arms in 1653 through the letter declaring them Barons). Of the three helmets, the center one belongs to the Loesch family. The first one to Hirschhausen family (being a crowned blue hat with a silver brim, this brim having on it blue buttons. The hat has five feathers on top, stuck in the crown alternating, blue, silver, blue, silver, blue. The third helmet has on top two Buffalo-horns, one of silver and the other blue; between them a gold fleur-de-lis. (This helmet belongs to the Kockeritz family arms.)

Lambrequin; to the right is decorated in blue and gold, to the left blue and silver. Supporters, two gold Giffons.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

The country comprising the Lower Palatinate lies on both sides of the river Rhine, bounded by the states of Mainz, Treves, Loraine, Alsace, Baden, and Wurtemburg. Its capital was Heidelberg, and its principal cities are Mayence, Spires, Manheim and Worms. The origin of the name, Palatinate, is derived from the title of its ruler. Its boundaries were changeable with the shifting fortunes of diplomacy and war. Situated between the greater and rival powers of France, and the German princes, its soil was the frequent path of armies and field of battles. With change of rulers came changes in religious tolerance, each ruler endeavoring to stamp out those opposed to his religion. whether Lutheran, Reformed or Roman Catholic. The principles of the Reformation had taken almost universal possession of the people. Both Lutheran and Reformed doctrine found a friendly and fertile soil in the Palatinate. At Worms, Luther nailed his Thesis on the church door.

To this day, in the valleys of the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Schoharie, the Swatara, and the Tulpehocken the children of those Palatines, still Lutheran and Reformed, worship side by side as their fathers of the sixth generation gone worshipped on the Rhine.

Frederick III, the first Palatine of the House of Zimmerman, signalized his accession to power by the strenuous advocacy of the Reformed doctrine. During his reign, on his urgency and authority, Olevian and Ursinus, professors of divinity in the University of Heidelberg, published that Catechism which, under the name of Heidelberg, remains to this day throughout the various branches of the Reformed Church, the dearest among its symbolical books. It is specially notable for its freedom from the controversial spirit of the age, and for the high tone of spiritual experience it depicts.

The successors of Frederick III did not all adhere to the Reformed doctrine of the Church.

A Calvinist in the Electorship was pretty certain to be followed by a Lutheran, who in his turn gave place to another Calvinist, to be followed yet by another Lutheran. It was a kind of religious see-saw, in which all the power of royal favor, and influence of Court patronage, and at times the force of decrees and enactments, brought very serious discomfiture and loss to the people.

The Elector Palatine, Philip William, died in 1690. His son and successor, John William, a devoted adherent of the Roman Catholic Church, set himself to compel the conversion of his people to his own faith. They were Protestants; mostly Lutherans and Reformed. Under

his rule the poor people of the Palatinate suffered in their religious affections and privileges intolerable hardships and cruelties, impelling many of them to break off their attachment to the fatherland and to make and seek new homes in distant America.

They went from the Palatinate to other parts of Germany; the larger number to Holland; and, by invitation of Queen Anne, thousands were transported to England in 1707-08-09, where they encamped near London.

Of the large number that came to England, seven thousand, after having suffered great privations, returned in despondency to their native country. Ten thousand died for want of sustenance and from other causes.

Ten ships were freighted with upwards of four thousand of these people for America; among them Balthaser Loesch and family. They departed from London, December 25, 1709; and, after six months tedious voyage, reached New York in June, 1710. The father, Balthaser Loesch, died at sea.

On the inward voyage and immediately on landing seventeen hundred died. The survivors were encamped in tents, on Nuttings, now Governors Island.

Here they remained until late in the Autumn, when about fourteen hundred were removed one hundred miles up the Hudson river, to "Livingston Manor." The widowed women, sickly men, and orphaned children remained in New York. The orphans were apprenticed to citizens of New York and New Jersey.

Among these so apprenticed was the writer's paternal ancestor, Johann George Loesch, son of Balthaser Loesch, who was then a lad of 12 years of age. He was apprenticed to a linen weaver in New York. His mother, Susanna P. Loesch, remarried; name of second husband and stepfather not known.

After serving his apprenticeship, he removed to Schoharie County, and joined his parents and family. On December 15, 1721, he married Anna Christina Walborn, who was born July 24, 1700, at Wisbad, Nassau, Germany.

At Livingston Manor, the Germans being unjustly oppressed, became dissatisfied with their treatment and with their situation Governor Hunter resorted to violent measures to secure obedience to his demands. In this he failed.

One hundred and fifty families, to escape the certainty of famishing, left late in the Autumn of 1712 for Schoharie Valley, some sixty miles northwest of Livingston Manor.

They had no open road, no horses to carry or haul their luggage. This they loaded on rudely constructed sleds, and did tug these themselves, through a three feet deep snow, which greatly obstructed their progress. Their way was through an unbroken forest. It took them three full weeks to reach their destination.

Having reached Schoharie, they made improvements upon the lands Queen Anne had granted them. Here they remained about ten years, when, owing to some defect in their titles, and the sharp practice of some of the Governor's agents, they were deprived of both lands and improvements.

After much vexation and many fruitless efforts to secure to themselves what was intended for them by the Indian present to Queen Anne, and, having heard of unoccupied lands on the Swatara and Tulpehocken, in Pennsylvania, thirty-three families left Schoharie for Pennsylvania. They wended their way in a southwesterly direction, guided by the Indians, until they reached the Susquehanna river. Here they constructed canoes, freighted them with their families, and floated down the river. Their cattle they drove by land. Arriving at the mouth of Swatara Creek, they worked their way up the creek until they reached the Tulpehocken Valley, then Lancaster County, Pa., where they settled among the Indians in the Spring of 1723. Others from Schoharie followed later on, among them the celebrated Conrad Weiser, a leader, and prominent as their defender, in their troubles with the governor of New York.

No other people in the world's history of the human race suffered more persecution, or longer continued privations, on account of religious intolerance, than did the Palatines, for decades of years. Only when they reached the glorious land of Penn did they find relief from persecution and a haven of rest. No wonder that during the following thirty years tens of thousands of their countrymen followed them, and joined them on the fertile soil of Lancaster, Berks, Lebanan, Northampton, Chester and Philadelphia Counties. It was here that the problem of human freedom was wrought out, and the part that the children of the Palatines performed in the achievement of our national independence was noteworthy. The daughter of Conrad Weiser was destined to be the mother of the Speaker of the first national House of Representatives, and of other celebrated sons; who became famous as clergyman, statesmen, and soldiers, in the Revolutionary War. There have been few families in American annals that have been more illustrious than that of the Muhlenbergs.

In Archives at Harrisburg are found the names of Balser Lesh, Peter