The Lehman family is mentioned only a very few times in the Hebron Lutheran Church Register, but, fortunately, there is some other data to use with it. George Lehman (21) and John Lehman (15) were confirmed at church on 22 May 1785. This same day, another George Lehman was a communicant, i.e., already confirmed and taking communion. Ten years earlier, on Christmas Day in 1775, George and Michael Lehman were communicants, but without any wives.
Deeds tell us something about the family, but a lawsuit tells us a little more. In 1786, George and Elizabeth Lehman had sold to Lewis Baker, 205 acres of land, which later fell into Madison County. George took a mortgage for twelve years, but at the due date the money had not been paid. George transferred the mortgage to his son Jacob, who was living in Sevier Co., Tennessee, before he, George, died. Jacob returned to what was now Madison Co., in the late fall of 1798, and brought a lawsuit against Lewis Baker. Baker paid the money with interest, and the mortgage was cancelled.
The children of George Layman and his wife Elizabeth Bleistein were:
The ancestor of the family was Peter Leman (Sr.), who was born, in 1680, in Switzerland. He died 1741, in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania. Married twice, he had a total of eleven children. He was an Anabaptist. The Lemans came, most likely, in 1717, a year of above average emigration. A grandson of Peter, Sr., is believed to be the George who was the father in the Hebron Church Register. Over the course of several years the family moved from Pennsylvania to the French Broad River in the eastern part of Tennessee.
A Jacob Layman (1759-1841) noted in his Rev. War pension application that he returned home to Culpeper Co., VA, after each tour of duty. Researchers have been unable to find any Layman family in Culpeper Co., in the period 1778 to 1786, besides George Layman. Therefore, Jacob is probably the son of George.
Not all of our Germanna families lived in the community for extended periods of time. Many of them treated Culpeper County as a way point, where they stopped for a short while. It would appear that they had no fixed objective in mind when they left their original home. George Layman seems to have purchased several pieces of land, seeing if he could find one that appealed to him. In the end he moved on. One of the questions that we always have is whether they took any brides (or grooms) with them.
(31 Jul 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.