Shumacher/Shoemaker

         This page sketches the genealogy of Arnold Schumacher^A in the first half of the seventeenth century in Germany to his granddaughter Susanna Shoemaker² who married in 1695/6 Isaac Price in Pennsylvania. [See an explanation of the National Genealogical Society's Numbering System used on this web page.] The Notes and Sources are at the bottom of the page, or click on a "footnote" number. A more complete and detailed work-in-progress that embeds this genealogy into its larger historical context is expected to be published by the end of 2011. I am posting this now, in a somewhat abbreviated form, in the hopes of communicating with distant cousins who may have data that I've been unable to find. Please contact me at .

German Ancestors

         We will begin with Arnold Schumacher¹ and his wife Agnes Roesen, Mennonites, who were forced to sell her family's estate around the Siebengebirge in about 1655. Agnes, a widow, died that year. The family fled to Mainz, then to Kriegsheim, in the Pfrimm valley. Quakers made some convincements among the Mennonite families in the village.

         Children of Arnold and Agnes (Roesen) Schumacher:

1. Arnold Schumacher¹, remained a Mennonite.


2. Peter Schumacher, b. ca. 1625; Quaker; emigrated with his family 1685, taking his niece Sarah; one of three supervisors for a school in Germantown; naturalized Third Month [May] 7, 1691. Had children:

   a) Peter Schumacher, Jr., naturalized Third Month [May] 7, 1691.
   b) Frances Schumacher
   c) Maria Schumacher
   d) Gertrud Schumacher



3. Jacob Schumacher, (perhaps a cousin rather than a sibling), Quaker; emigrated in 1683 indentured to Francis Pastorius; naturalized Third Month [May] 7, 1691
4. Jörg Schumacher, d. by 1684; m. Sarah __; Quaker.

         Jörg Schumacher¹ married Sarah __ in Heidelburg in 1662.[1] A descendant suggests she was Sarah Hendrichs/Hendrix, born in 1641.[2]

         There was a good deal of persecution of Friends in Kriegsheim from 1663 to 1666. Jörg Schumacher, and his brother Peter were listed by Joseph Besse among the sufferers[3] Jörg had died by 1684, when Sarah paid estate taxes in Kriegsheim.[4]

         On May 8, 1685 Jörg's brother Peter Schumacher applied at Hochheim for permission to leave the Palatinate with his family. Peter was described as a widower, aged 60 years. On 15 August 1685, while in London, he received a deed for 200 acres. They arrived in Philadelphia on 22 October 1685 on the Francis and Dorothy. Peter Schumacher brought with him his son Peter Jr. and daughters Frances, Maria, and Gertrud, and his niece Sarah, eldest daughter of our Jörg.[5]

         Our ancestor, the widow Sarah Schumacher and her seven children arrived on the Jeffries the following 20 March 1685/6. [See an explanation of Friends' Dates.]

         Sarah Schumacher purchased 200 acres in Cheltenham Township from Patrick Robinson for £20. They were members of a small meeting that met for worship in the home of Richard Wall/Waln and was part of Abington Monthly Meeting.[6]

         Children of Jörg and Sarah (Hendricks?) Schumacher. They all anglicized the spelling to Shoemaker.

1. Sarah Shoemaker², emigrated with her uncle Peter Schumacher and his children, before the rest of her family came to Pennsylvania.


2. George Shoemaker²b. 1662; m. 1694/5 Sarah Wall, daughter of Richard.


3. Barbary Shoemaker, b. 1665.


4. Abraham Shoemaker, b. ca. 1666.


5. Isaac Shoemaker, b. ca. 1668.


6. Susanna Shoemaker, b. ca. 1672 or 1673; m. 11m [Jan.] 4 1695/6 Isaac Price.


7. Elizabeth Shoemaker, b. ca. 1674


8. Benjamin Shoemaker, b. ca. 1675

Second Generation in Pennsylvania

         Susanna Schumacher², daughter of Jörg and Sarah, was born about 1673 in the Palatinate. She emigrated to Pennsylvania with her widowed mother and siblings, arriving in Philadelphia on the Jeffries, First Month [March] 20, 1686/7. Susanna married Isaac Price on First Month [January] 4, 1695/6 at the home of Richard Wall/Waln, her brother's father-in-law, in Cheltenham.[7]

         Susanna and Isaac Price had four children, of whom the first three died before reaching adulthood. Isaac Price died in 1706/7. Susanna married for a second time 27 Third Month [May] 1708, William CUERTON, at Plymouth Meeting in what later became Montgomery County. It was a second marriage for both of them.[8]

         William was a son of Richard and Margaret Cuerton. The three of them, plus daughter Jane arrived in Philadelphia on the Rebecca of Liverpool, Eighth Month 31, 1685. Richard Cuerton of Merion, husbandman, died in 1699 and his estate was administered by his son William, to whom letters were granted in Philadelphia July 20, 1699. William and Mary Cobourn, daughter of Thomas made known their intention to marry to Chester Monthly Meeting 6 First Month 1689. They appeared again Twelfth Month 3, and were cleared to marry.[9]

         Susanna and William had three children[10] In 1715 they and their blended family moved to Delaware. They presented their certificate of removal from Haverford to Duck Creek Meeting on First Month [March] 21, 1715.[11] Isaac transferred from Abington to Gwynedd Monthly Meeting on Sixth Month [August], 29, 1727.[12]

         Children of Susanna (Shoemaker) and Isaac Price.[13]

1. Miriam Price³, b. 6/10m/1696; d. in infancy


2. Mary Price, b. 29/1m/1699; d. in infancy.


3. Gwen Price, b. 13/1m/1702; d.y.


4. Isaac Price, b. 13/3m/1704/5; d. 4m/1738; m. 10/4m/1729 Margaret Lewis and had 3 children;

To continue the story of this family, go to Price. This specific Price line, with most of its collateral lines, has been expanded as a hard copy book with considerable historical context. It is available through lulu.com. Click on the title, then on "preview" to see the table of contents and a few sample pages.

This Price line contains the collateral lines of Ashbridge, Bonsall, Borton, Cadwallader, Cox, Davies/Davis, and a second (Ellis) Davies, England, Fisher, Haines, Harry/Harris, Hayes, Holliday, John, Jones, Kirk, one Lewis (Henry), another Lewis (Thomas), Malin, Massey, Morgan, Orbell, Paxton, the main Price, another Price (Richard), a third Price (David) branch, Roessen, Sharpley, this Schumacher/Shoemaker branch, Taylor, Thomas, Townsend, Warner, White, Williams, Wood, and Wooderson families. Some of them are very short, as I do not follow them after "my" ancestor married into another surname family. In time I hope that more of them will be posted, although research into those not yet posted has been stymied by a variety of frustrating brick walls.

If you have additions or corrections to this web page, I would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact me at .

Go to the index of other lines that are to be included in this website (not all of them have been posted yet).

Go to the Paxson home page.

Return to the top of this page.

This page was posted 2m/25/2011, and updated most recently on 1m/5/2012.

Notes and Sources

The full bibliographical citation is given the first time a source is mentioned, but is not always repeated each time that source is cited. Scroll up till you find the first mention and there you will find the complete citation.

1. Benjamin H. Shoemaker III, Shoemaker Pioneers: The Early Genealogy and History of the Colonial Shoemaker Families who came to America before the Revolution (Germantown, Philadelphia: Benjamin H. Shoemaker, III, 1975), 92.



2. E mail from Scott Simon, 12/28/2006.



3. Joseph Besse, A collection of the sufferings of the people called Quakers, for the testimony of a good conscience from the time of their being first distinguished by that name in the year 1650 to the time of the act commonly called the Act of toleration granted to Protestant dissenters in the first year of the reign of King William the Third and Queen Mary in the year 1689 (1753), 454-55. George Schumacher's loss of "Bedding" looks a little like "Bodding", because the print is small and the font unclear.



4. "A Partial List of the Families who Arrived at Philadelphia Between 1682 and 1687", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (hereinafter cited as PMHB), Vol. 8 (1884), 329; Benjamin H. Shoemaker III, Shoemaker Pioneers: The Early Genealogy and History of the Colonial Shoemaker Families who came to America before the Revolution (Germantown, Philadelphia: Benjamin H. Shoemaker, III, 1975), 84. A persistent myth in the Shoemaker family holds that George died at sea. See, for example, Robert Shoemaker, "Replies", PMHB (1883) 6:497. He insists on the story because he got it from a direct descendant, Benjamin Hallowell (d. 1877).



5. William I. Hull, William Penn and the Dutch Quaker Migration to Pennsylvania (Swarthmore College Monographs on Quaker History, No. 2, 1935), 289-90, 407-8; Anonymous? The Shoemaker Family of Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania, 1682-1909 (Reading, Pa.: 1909), 4; Charles R. Haller, Across the Atlantic and Beyond: The Migration of German and Swiss Immigrants to America, 15.



6. E mail, Scott Simon Dec. 28, 2006.



7. Abington Monthly Meeting marriage records.



8. Theodore W. Bean, History of Montgomery County (Phila.: Everts & Peck, 1884), 1030, as transcribed by Susan Walters and posted on usgenweb/pa/montgomery/history/local/mchb0027.txt.



9. Charles H. Browning, Welsh Settlement of Pensylvania [sic] (Philadelphia: 1912), 229.



10. Franklin D. Edmunds, The Paxton, Welsh & Price Ancestry (bound typescript, 1942), 108.



11. Edmunds, The Paxton, Welsh & Price Ancestry, 108. Ezra Michener, A Retrospect of Early Quakerism; being Extracts from the Records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and the Meetings Composing It (Phila.: T. Ellwood Zell, 1860, reprinted 1991), 111-12. After the Separation of 1827 the Orthodox meeting in 1830 was merged with Motherkill Meeting to form Camden Monthly Meeting, held alternately at Camden and Little Creek.



12. Abington Monthly Meeting marriage records.



13. Edmunds, The Paxton, Welsh & Price Ancestry, 108.

Return to the top of the page.

If you have additions or corrections to this web page, I would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact me at