I. Sebastian Royer 8
I. Sebastian
Royer (Reier or Ryer), with four sons, emigrated
from the Palatinate, (*) Germany, to America in the year 1718.
He
was born near the city of Metz, but retired to the Palatinate about
the Revocation Period (1685). He likely accompanied
his father,
for at this time Sebastian was likely only a youth, otherwise he
was a very old man when he died in 1758.(+). A number of Royers
are said to fled to the Palatinate at this time. It
is said that
his sons persuaded him to come to America (~). The two oldest were
young grown men. They had a long and tedious journey,
and de-
spaired of ever reaching the New World; but the ship finally landed
in safety at Philadelphia.
It is claimed that he stopped for a time
in Royersford, on the
Schuylkill River, and that the place was named after him. On this
point there are grounds for doubt. According to Rupp,
a Bastian
Royer settled in Lancaster County in 1719. This was certainly our
Sebastian. So his coming to Lancaster County followed almost
immediately on his arrival.
His wife had died
in Germany, but after his arrival in America
he remarried. The name of his second wife was Agnes;
her
maiden family name has not been learned. It seems that his three
daughters were by the second wife. She was a member
of the Re-
formed Church, while he was not only a Lutheran, but also a deacon
in said church (**). On account of these conditions in his family it
is said that he donated two tracts of land at Brickerville, one for
* The
Palatinate is a province to the north-east of France on the river Rhine,
adjoining BadenIn 1815, have when the allied armies defeated Napoleon,
the treaty
of peace signed at Paris, on the 20th of Nov ceded it to Baden. It is now
a
province in Bavaria, in the German Empire. --Markham's History.
+One authority states
that at this time Sebastian was nine years old. This
would make his birth 1676.
~Sebastian
was a strict churchman. In Germany he always required his boys
to go to church on Sundays. Just before landing in America the boys, likely
the
older ones, for the younger were yet in tender years, came to the old gentleman
and informed him that now, inasmuch as they were coming to a free country,
they
would go to church when they pleased. The father was very sad and would
fain
have returned to Germany. "If I had known this," said he, "I
would not have
given one kreitzer to come to America. A kreitzer was a small German coin.
* *The story is told that
the pastor of the Brickerville church, a young man,
had t walk from place to place to fill his appointments. He preached at
Bricker-
ville in the morning, at White Oak in the afternoon, and at Schaefferstown
in
the evening. The good Lutherans took pity on him and decided to buy him
a
horse, not seeming to realize that he was no horseman. After the service
at
Brickerville, the horse was brought to the door and presented to the young
preacher. He was very grateful. The generous impulses of the members having