Misc: Blue Book Of Schuylkill County By Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliott:
Genealogical Records: Orgins of the Zerby's thru Second Generation pages 187-200

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SCHUYLKILL CO. BLUE BOOK                                                    Page 187
Genealogical Records--Zerbeys

Origin Of The Zerbeys


NAME TRACED TO NINTH CENTURY

	The Zerbes were originally Norsemen and natives of ancient  
Scandinavia, a general  name given in the early centuries to the great tract of 
country north of Germany, comprising Denmark, Norway and Sweden and 
including Iceland and the Danish Archipelago. 

		Their tribal name, like the Gauls, Goths, Normans, Teutons and others of
the early races was "Servi:" and their coat of arms a knight with the heraldic 
device, "To Serve," emblazoned on it.

	They were the retainers of the Duke of Holstein, ruler of the Princely 
German House of that name, which includes the royal line of Denmark and other
 collateral royal branches.

	Holstein, on the North Sea, a duchy of North Germany, belonged to 
Denmark, but is now an adjunct of Prussia and known through its alliance with 
Schleswig as the province of Schleswig-Holstein, its limits being circumscribed 
through the frequent changes of the boundaries of Northern Europe, brought about by 
the Roman conquerors. 

	From the reign of Charlemagne, in Eight Hundred A. D., who was then the 
most powerful monarch in all Europe and whose empire extended from the Atlantic to
the Save, the 

Page 188

Theiss, the Oder and the lower Vistula river, from the Baltic Sea to the Ebro 
and from the North Sea and the Eider to central Italy, the power of the independent 
dukes, of the small duchies was almost equal to that of the reigning sovereign. 

	In some instances these nobles were wealthier than their rulers. Their castles 
were magnificent in their fortress-like proportions, they maintained a sovereignty over 
large armies of vassals and retainers and if their ruler could not compel their 
obedience, they made war and peace upon their own terms and rendered only a 
nominal service to their reigning sovereign. Of such, was the Duke of Holstein.

	In the ninth century a race of pirates began to inflict great suffering upon the 
European coasts. They sailed up the navigable rivers of the German Ocean and 
ravaged the countries along their shores and the North German free-holders were 
despoiled of their homes and their possessions by the marauders. The Norsemen 
became, more or less, a nomadic race. The frequency with which they made war upon 
the southern countries and weaker principalities led them into frequent migratory 
expeditions and when Paris was besieged, in A. D. 885, Charles, "the Fat," bribed 
them to withdraw their forces instead of opening a conflict with them.

	In 894 A. D., when Arnulf made war upon the Norsemen and afterward
entered Italy, to settle the quarrel between the rival claimants to the crown, some of 
the defeated Norsemen accompanied his army; among them were some of the Servi 
(pronounced Sarve, two syllables), who remained in that country and settled, and the
name became "Zerbi." Others settled in the duchy of Hanover, where it was known as 
"Zarva," but the greater number, after participating in the wars that led up to the 
crowning of the German Kings as "Roman Emperors," in 962, some of these northern 
feudal Servi migrated to middle Europe, uniting with the Galicians, 

Page 189

where they became powerful and noted for their vigor of frame, valor in war and love 
of freedom. 

	About the tenth century they received a grant of land from the Emperor Leo 
VI, situated on the Danube River, which they proceeded to cultivate, establishing their 
feudal rights as freeholders, only pausing in their career as agriculturists, to take up 
the sword and lay aside the ploughshare, to defend their little independent kingdom in 
the 11th century, when the Greeks invaded it and again when the Turks reduced it and 
in the frequent insurrections that followed until it became a free and independent State 
under the protection of the great Powers.  The Austrian-Servian crisis, when 
Montenegro and Servia disagreed and when King Peter, of Servia, desired to be 
considered the head of all the Servians and Prince Nicholas, of Montenegro, proposed 
to constitute himself "Czar" of the two little States, Austria was obliged to interfere to 
preserve their neutrality. Recent historical events, 1914-15, show the Servians still 
resenting all efforts on the part of other powers to absorb their principality into a more 
powerful dynasty (June 1, 1915.)


	(Note-There is a town in Austria-Hungary named "Szarvas" (Szahrvas) on 
the Koros, 22 miles northeast of Csongrad, population 18,917.)

	Before the birth of Christ the Thracian or Illyrian races inhabited all the 
country south of Austria-Hungary and when the nomadic tribes of Servians came 
from Galicia, a province of Spain at the extremity of the Iberian peninsula, and gave it 
their name, they were converted to Christianity.  In 636 A. D. others came and the 
land was known as Galicia, part of Galicia-Lodomeria.  After the bloody wars, 1459, 
between Hungary and Turkey, the Servians were freed.  The land given them by 
Emperor Leo VI in the tenth century was erected into an independent kingdom by 
Pope Honorius III

Page 190

in 1217. It was not until 1815 that the country secured its independence under the 
protection of Austria and Russia. The religion of the Servians is that of the Greek 
Catholic church. The population of Servia is four million. 

ZERBIS IN ITALY

	After the crowning of the King of Lombardy, A. D. 962, several of the feudal 
Servi from Holstein settled in Italy, where the name was Zerbi. A medical work in 
scholarly Latin and in the professional language of Italy, entitled "The Anatomy of 
the Human Body" was published by Gabriel Zerbi. He held the title of Medicus 
Theoricus and was an authority on the olfactory nerves. 

	The following letter is self explanatory:

		                    University of Penna., Phila. Library, August 25, 1913.
Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliott,
	Dear Madam:--There is a copy of the work by Gabriel Zerbi, published in 
Verona, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, in the British Museum, London. It 
bears the following title:--"Liber Anathomie Corporis Humani Singulori, Membro 
Illuis, etc., per B. Localette Venetiis, 1502 folio." There is no reprint of the work.
-Morris Jastrow, Jr., Librarian,  K. S. L., Assistant Librarian.

	(The following is extracted from notes and letters of Benton H. Zerbe):

	"August Zerbi went from Graz and Vionna, Austria, to Italy with the 
Austrian army, where he married the daughter of Chevalier Ughetti, of Verona.
Taking the name of his wife he became a prominent merchant trading with
vessels on the Mediterranean and high seas. His descendants are still living 
and use the name "Zerbi" among their surnames. The last male descendant 
bore the name of his grandfather, Augustine Zerbi Ughetti. A public square in
Verona is named for the latter.

	(Note-January 13, 1915, the Servian legation in London addressed a letter to 
the press and public, urging the adoption of the spelling "Zerbian"
and "Serbia" instead of "Servian" and "Servia" which is gradually being
accepted.)

Page 191

	Christian Zarva settled in Mecklenburg, a territory of North Germany, 
between the Baltic, Prussian Dominions, West Hanover and Luebeck, before it 
was divided into the Grand Duchies of Schwerin and Strelitz. He had two sons,
George and John, the latter an officer in the Hanoverian army.

	George2  Zarva, Zerbi, (Christian) had three sons, George, Wilhelm and John 
Phillip. Wilhelm, is said, "to have settled in Spain, where he married the daughter of 
Count De Luna, of Toledo, 'the city of swords', and where he took the family name. 
Marquis de Aspiroz, was a colonel of artillery in the Spanish army, 1875. His wife 
was the daughter of Count de Valle, Director General of Artillery. Marquis de Aspiroz 
claimed direct descent from Wilhelm Zerbi, of Mecklenburg."  (Benton H. Zerbe,
Genealogical Record, Part 2.)

	(Benton Zerbe, a foreign powder agent from this country, who met many 
prominent heads of the military while in the pursuance of his business, met Marquis
de Aspiroz with the above result, as related.)

	John Phillip Sevier, Zerbi, Zarva was the head of the American branches. He
settled in France and came from Paris where some of his children were born, to 
Alsace, near Strasburg, where it is supposed that his brother George and his father
George lived, the Seviers and Serviers, as the name was spelled in France, being 
numerous in Alsace and Lorraine.

	John Phillip Sevier (Servier) after the revocation of the edict of Nantes fled 
with his wife and eight sons to Switzerland and from there to London, England. 
Valentine Sevier, one of these eight sons, was the father of John Sevier, the great
commonwealth builder.

	Another son, John Phillip, was the father of the three immigrants, John
Phillip, Mardin, and Lorenz, 1710, who came to America in the same vessel with 
Conrad Weiser,

Page 192

settling in New York and subsequently in Pennsylvania. The name on the ship lists 
was spelled according to the Swiss method, "Zarva, Savar, or Sarvar."

	(Note:--Alsace, a province bordering on the Rhine, belonged to Germany 
until 1648, when part was ceded to France. Louis XIV took Strasburg, 1681, and the
city, with the remainder of the Province, was secured for France, 1697, where it 
remained until 1871, when it was ceded to Prussia, the surrender being made 
September 27, 1870.)

	(Strasburg, capital of Alsace-Lorraine, two miles west of the Rhine on the 
river Ill. Before the present war it had a population of 150,000.)

HISTORY OF ZERBES IN AMERICA

	The name Zerbe affords an interesting etymological study and is spelled in
sixteen or more different ways, according to the nomenclature of the country in
Europe from which the claimant hailed, or, as Dr. Egle, State Historian, says 
of the 30,000 immigrants, that, "their names appeared on the ship rolls according
to the intelligence of the ship masters." These Swedish ship masters did not speak 
English and were phonetic spellers, hence the many changes from the original 
Sevier, Servier, of France, and the Serfas, Serfass, Sarva, Zarvar, of Switzerland 
and Sweden, to Serwe, Surfass, Serwes, Serwies, Zarva, Zerwe, Serv, Serbe, 
Serwitz, Zerb, Surface, Zerver, (the "e" having the sound of "ah"). All these 
variations in spelling are not important, they are all from the same origin, 
"Servi" (Sar-ve) and are all of the same name. 

	(Note:--When one of the Sevier, Zarva, families died they sent a mortuary
 notice to the representative families of that name throughout the United States,
 a Huguenot custom brought with them from the old world.)

	The Sevier (e, as in ah) and Zarvar, Zarva, being the nearest phonetically
and best translations of the original name. The Virginia, North Carolina and 
Tennessee branch adhered to the French name Sevier, while those of Pennsylvania
and their descendants in other states adopted the Swiss spelling.  The Zerbes 
of Berks County and the southern part of Schuylkill County were, until a decade 
or two ago, known as "Zarvas," the present generation adopting the anglicized
"Zerbe," or changing the spelling of the latter according to taste.

	The history of the Zerbes in the United States begins with that of the
 three immigrants, John Phillip, Mardin and Lorenz, who sailed from Rotterdam
 the day before Christmas, 709, for the Province of New York, in the English
 colonies, of North America.  They came on the same vessel with John Conrad
 Weiser.

	(The history of the Zerbe colonists is involved in the preceding chapters,
Part I.)

	John PhillipZarva (Zerbe) joined one of the four companies of 300 men 
who were part of the expedition in 1711 against Montreal under General Nichols 
and the defense of Albany against the French, only one year after his arrival 
in his adopted country. John Phillip Zerbe was of the village of Annesburg, on the east 
side of the Hudson river, New York.  (State of New York, Report of
the State Historian, Colonial Series, Vol. I, p 442.)  (Part I.)

	There is no record to be found of his having come to Pennsylvania, and
 it is believed that he remained in New York for a time, subsequently removing 
with the German colonists under Samuel Waldo, 1732, to Broad Bay, Maine,
 and founding that branch of the Zerbes, now numerous in that state and the
 Canadas.

	(Henry Cady, Secretary, H. F. Kingsley, President, of the Genealogical 
and Biographical Society, of Schoharie, N. Y., writes the author thus:

	"The church records of Albany county go back only to 1737. There
was a Zeibert and a Ziebel but no Zerbe, in this county. I have the records
of all of the old families."

Page 194

Moravian Historical Society, Vol. IV, sketch of the Moravian Settlement
at Broad Bay, Maine, by John W. Jordan, President of the Pennsylvania
Historical Society, Philadelphia, gives a succinct and interesting account 
of the perils and hardships endured by these colonists from the above date
to 1769, when they scattered to North Carolina, other states and the Canadas. 

	In 1863 when Andrew G. Curtin, the great war governor, was a 
candidate for a second term in the gubernatorial chair of the State of 
Pennsylvania, Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States during
the first term of the Abraham Lincoln administration, was one of the speakers
at a political gathering at Harrisburg. After the meeting was over a reception 
was held at the capitol in honor of the distinguished guest.  Charles A. Zerbe,
deceased, a prominent citizen, of Lewistown, Mifflin County, was among
those presented to the speaker, who said, as he took Mr. Zerbe by the hand:
--"Zerbe, that is a familiar name to me, we have many Zerbes in the State of 
Maine."

FIRST GENERATION

	Martin1 Zerbe, Martin Zarva, (Sevier), Huguenot, was of the more
than 1000 German and French who came to New York from Europe, June 13,
1710, leaving Rotterdam before Christmas, 1709, and settling in Linvingstone 
Manor and the Scholharie Valley, that State.  (The history of the immigrants 
is found upon a previous page, Part I.) Martin Zerbe joined the expedition 
against Canada, July 16, 1711, in Queen Anne's war.  Both he and his brother,
John Phillip, were enlisted as volunteers from the village of Annesburg, New 
York, in Captain Hartman Windecker's company." (State of New York. Report
of the State Historian, Colonial Series, Vol. I, p. 442, Part I.) He came to 
the region of the Tulpehocken, Chester County, Penn-


Page 195

sylvania, with the thirty-three families who settled in the Schoharie Valley, 
1713, coming overland to this state, 1723, from New York. (Part I.)

		The University of the State of New York, Albany, 22 May, 1915. 
Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliott.
	Dear Madam:--Your letter of the 19th to the Custodian of Public Records
has been referred to the State Library which has the records referred to. The
roll of the Palatine volunteers from Annsburg in the expedition against Canada, 
in 1711, has been printed.  The records in our keeping give no additional 
information in regard to John Phillip and Martin Zerbe, and there is no 
necessity therefore of any certificate. The facts as they appear on the printed roll are 
sufficient.
			Yours very truly, 
				PETER NELSON, Assistant Archivist

	(The names of Martin, John Phillip and Lorenz Zerbe are found 
in the state papers, Astor Library, New York Colonial Series, and in 
D. Rupp's 30,000 Immigrants.1)

	Martin Zerbe, (Zarva, Sevier) was born in Alsace, near Strasburg,
 France, about 1685. There is no record of where in Switzerland and 
subsequently the Palatinates, his father fled to with his family from Alsace.
Martin was already married and had one or more children, upon landing
in New York, 1710. His death occurred between 1739 and 1750. 
"Baptized Anna Elizabeth, daughter of Albrecht Strauss and wife Maria
Margaretha Zerbe; Sponsors, Martin Zerbe and wife Anna Elizabeth, 
March 25, 1739.2"

	Death records of Christ Lutheran church, Stouchsburg, Pa.: "July 22,
1750. Mrs. Anna Elizabeth Zerbe, wife of Martin Zerbe."

	No trace or record of Martin Zerbe's tomb has been found. He may 
be buried in a private burying ground on or near the old homestead, at Host's,
Jefferson Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, or his grave is doubtless 
among the many unidentified mounds in Christ church cemetery with that of 
his wife.

	(Note 1-Rupp's 30,000 Immigrants says, "that of the names given on the ship
list, the men on landing were each over 21 years of age.)
	(Note 2-Records of  Rev. John Caspar Stoever from 1730 to 1779.)


Page 196

	Martin Zerbe settled, 1723, on Fell's Manor, Chester County,
now Host's Postoffice, Berks County, Pennsylvania, and known as "Schaffner's". 
Owing to the Indian difficulties the authorities were not authorized to survey 
lands to the early settlers and it was not until the Indian settlement for lands
with the Penn heirs was ratified, 1730-'32, that deeds could be obtained for 
them. Martin Zerbe lived upon this tract during his life time, being already 
an old man when the deed was vested in the name of his eldest son, George
Peter Zerbe.

	No warrants could be obtained for this land until after the Indian 
purchase of 1728 and final release, October 12, 1730, when Fell's Manor 
was transferred from Chester to Lancaster County, erected 1729. George Peter 
Zerbe, eldest son of Martin Zerbe, received a Warrant Proprietary for 153 
acres, January 2, 1735. Book D, Vol. 2, p. 148. Deed Book Recorder's office,
Chester County, Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I, pp. 400-405. Colonial Records.
Original deed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania.

	In addition to this tract, 100 acres were surveyed and purchased from
Caspar Wistar, agent for the Penns, and the Commonwealth, by George Peter
Zerbe, warranted, November 12, 1737, returned, 92 acres 120 perches by George
Ege, May 29, 1789. (Deed Book, Recorder's office, Lancaster court house.) 
This tract is also found as having been surveyed, January 2, 1777, to Andrew 
Aulenbach, but never patented.

	In a copy of a deed for the settlement of lands on Fell's Manor, Martin 
"Sharvas" (Zarva's) Creek is mentioned in the survey.1

	Martin Sharva's (Zarva's) Run, (as shown on the map on another page), 
sometimes called the Muhlbach, (Mill Creek), survey of Fell's Manor, 1727, is the
	(Note 1-Penna. Archives, Series 3.)

Page 197

branch of the Tulpehocken emptying into that stream near what is now known
as Krick's Mill Post Office, or the Cross Keys Hotel, midway between Sunday's
mill and the site of John Zerbe, the miller's, early mill. Other surveys and 
maps designate this branch as the Mill Creek and as "Serby's Run." It is a
remarkably fine stream of rapid running water, and runs through the land on
which Martin Zerbe located, 1723.

	In addition to the two tracts of Zerbe lands recorded as above in 1735
and 1737, there was another and third tract north of Fell's Manor and west of 
the first tract, which was warranted December 3, 1737, and surveyed, December
16, 1765, to Peter Zerbe, Jr., son of George Peter Zerbe, in right of Frederick 
Arnold.

	The map of Pioneer Homesteads, 1723, by C. I. Lindemuth, of 
Stouchsburg, Berks County, in this volume, contains the greater part of Fell's
Manor. (George) Peter Zerbe's land is found in the northeast corner and Peter
Zerbe, Jr.'s as described.

	(Note:--In the early surveys there were allowed for roads, etc., six 
acres to every hundred acres, the area mentioned in surveys being proportionately
less owing to these measurements.)

	"Mardin Zarben" was among the signers to a petition to the court
of Quarter Session, Philadelphia, September, 1727, for a road from the 
Lutheran Church, in the Tulpehocken, now Zion's church, Stouchsburg, 
Berks County, to the Quaker Meeting House, in Oley Township (a certified 
copy of original petition and cut on another page, Part I.)

	The children of Martin and Anna Elizabeth Zerbe were:

	George Peter Zerbe, born 1710; died between 1780-'82; married 
Christina Loucks, 1732.

	Elizabeth Maria, born 1712; married Heinrich Boyer (Bayer), May
31, 1730. (Stoever's Records.)

Page 198

	John Jacob, born 1714; married Susanna ___________1735.  John 
Jacob and wife stood sponsors for his brother, John Zerbe and wife Catharine 
Stupps' daughter Maria Caterina, April 14, 1745. (Stoever's Records.)

	Maria Margaretta, born 1716; married Albrecht Strauss, 1734.
(Stoever's records.)

	John, born 1722; married Caterina Stupp, 1749.

	Barbara, born 1720; married George Meyer, April 4, 1738. Stood sponsor 
with George Graf, Jr., November 16, 1735, for child of Albrecht and Margaretta 
Strauss. (Stoever's records.)

	Elizabeth, born June 10, 1729; wife of __________Rieth; buried in Rieth's 
cemetery, Stouchsburg, Pa.

	There were three men of the first generation of immigrants, 1710, Martin,
John Phillip and Lorenz Zerbe. Of the male children of Martin and Lorenz, who 
settled in Berks County, as far as known, there were nine men of the second 
generation.

THE MANORS, WHERE SITUATED

	There were four Manors surveyed in the land grants in Tulpehocken, 
warranted and patented from 1731 to 1735. 

	The Manor of Plumpton, known as John Page's land, contained 5165 
acres; surveyed April 27, 1733, to John Page by a warrant, October 19, 1731, 
and patented September 17, 1735. Part of it, about 1000 acres, was originally 
devised to Letitia, daughter of William Penn, and wife of William Aubrey.

	Fell's Manor, also known as Gulielma  Maria Fell's land, adjoined the 
Plumpton Manor on the west, two miles beyond Myerstown, Lebanon County, 
beginning at the Tulpehocken Creek, at Rieth's church, Stouchsburg, and 
extending in a straight line, three miles in length, to Host's Post Office. Martin 
Zerbe, as aforesaid, settled on the tract of Fell's Manor, 1723.

	The survey of Fell's Manor was made November 2, 1727. The tract 
contained 10,000 acres. Gulielma Maria, daughter of William Penn, Jr., and 
granddaughter of William Penn, was the wife of Charles Fell. In the 
indentures, lease and release made in London, England, October 11, 12, 
1730, it was stipulated, that, whereas, "Gulielma Maria Fell, her husband 
and her children are all settled and do reside altogether in Great Britain and 
have no intention to go or to settle in the Province of Pennsylvania and whereas: 
Some good and advantageous offers made by sundry persons of the said 
province to buy the said lands; the said Gulielma Maria Fell, granddaughter 
of Wm. Penn, and the said Charles Fell, her husband, have judged it to be for 
her and her children's interest to sell parts of said land 'away' until the same 
10,000 acres shall be all sold." Then follows how the monies should be 
invested for the benefit of the heirs.

	A draft of a tract of land situate on the branches of Tulpehocken 
Creek, in Chester County, surveyed for Gulielma Maria Fell (wife of 
Charles Fell, of London) the second day of November, Anno Domini 1727.

	"Beginning at a corner, marked black oak, standing on the Top of a 
Hill, on the south side of the Main Branch of the said Tulpehocken Creek, on 
the East side of a Run called Hans Moore's Run, thence north 30 degrees 
easterly crossing the said branch 872 perches to a white oak, thence west 
by North 130 perches to a black oak, thence North, 32 degrees west, crossing 
a Run called MARTIN SHARVAS RUN, 200 perches to a post by a marked 
white oak, then south 80 degrees westerly 2140 perches to a Hickory, thence 
south west 286 perches to a small black oak, thence south crossing the 
aforesaid main branch, 370 perches to a white oak, thence east by 

Page 200

south, 256 perches to a Hickory, thence east 470 perches to a white oak, 
thence north 65 degrees easterly, 320 perches to a Hickory, thence east 
by north 214 perches to a white oak, thence north 70 degrees easterly, 240 
perches to a small white oak, thence east by south, 480 perches to a white 
oak, thence south 55 degrees easterly, 235 perches to the place of beginning; 
containing TEN THOUSAND ACRES."

	Richard Penn's Manor, on the Swatara, Bethel and Tulpehocken 
Townships, 5,000 acres, surveyed in five warrants of 1,000 acres each, 
extending north to the Blue Mountains, September 27, 1733.  The village 
of Rehersburg is slightly east of the centre of this Manor.

	Thomas Freame's land or Freame's Manor, adjoining Richard 
Penn's Manor, 1,000 acres, September 27, 1733. It was surveyed in 10 
warrants, each for 1,000 acres, dated London, May 12, 1732.

	William Allen's land, adjoining the Manor of Plumpton, October 20, 
1730. This tract contained 2794 acres. It adjoined the Manor of Plumpton, on 
the east, and was in what is now Heidelberg, North Heidelberg and lower 
Heidelberg Townships.