Heartz, John Jacob

From: An Island Refuge- Loyalists and Disbanded Troops on The Island of Saint John, The Abegweit Branch of UELAC, 1983

  • The first known Heartz in this family lived somewhere in Germany but due to religious beliefs fled to Holland where JOHN JACOB HEARTZ was born c. 1735. As a young man he emigrated to New York where his name appears in the New York Gazette in 1776 as one of the signers to a Declaration of Allegiance to King George the Third.
  • It is thought that Jacob and his family arrived on the Island of Saint John about 1786, probably going to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, first. With Jacob came his wife, Dorothea Rhene, and three sons, Martin, Jacob and George and one daughter, Anne Catherine. Another daughter, Dorothea, was born here in 1786, and Wilhelmina followed in 1789. Both were baptized by Reverend Theophilus DesBrisay. This family apparently settled at Lot 32 because on May 12, 1788, Governor Patterson conveyed to Jacob Heartz (sic) mason, of Lot 32, two parcels of land — one hundred acres on the east side of York River and four hundred acres inland, both at Lot 32, and for which he paid a certain sum of money. Besides paying Quit Rents to His Majesty, Jacob was subject to paying Walter Patterson one Peppercorn every year hereafter. Between 1788 and 1809 Jacob built a large whitewashed house on this land. Dorothea apparently died prior to the taking of the 1798 census, as in April, 1798 the census shows Jacob Hartz (sic) in Lot 32 with the household consisting of one male over sixty, three males between sixteen and sixty and three females all under sixteen.