The Balliet of Whitehall

The first known Balliet was Jacob Balliet (ca. 1642 - 19 Feb. 1706), associate judge in Schalbach, Lorraine. Jacob's wife was Anna Freibeau, born before 1666. They had five children, perhaps six:

    1. Hans Nickel Balliet (24 Oct. 1680 - 24 Jan. 1745) was a blacksmith in Rauweiler, Alsace. He married in Diedendorf, Alsace 3 Dec. 1707 Margaretha Durand (15 Mar. 1684 -27 Mar. 1776), daughter of Matthias Durand and Judith Wintersreit from Lixheim, Lorraine.

    2. Johannes Balliet was a baptismal sponsor in 1702 in Diedendoff. In 1707, a Dominik Balliet was also a sponsor in Diedendoff. According to this record, Dominik was a son of Johannes Balllet from Bischpain, Lorraine. There is no village called Bischpain in Lorraine, but in the vicinity of Kirrberg at ~d Diedendoff, there is a village in Lorraine called Bisping. No further research has been done in that direction.

    3. Anne Jeannette Balllet was a baptismal sponsor from 1702 to 1715. She married Jacob Toussaint Sr., mayor of Weyer, Alsace (died 6 Aug. 1714). The widow Anne Jeannette then married 16 Nov. 1717 Paulus Mltnnlein. Jacob Toussaint and Anne Jeannette had twelve children. Two of them are worth being mentioned:

    a) Anna Margaretha Toussaint, bap. 20 Apr. 1712, m. Jacob Girardin. They emigrated to PA about 1763. a

    b) The mason Jolmnn Jacob Toussaint Jr., m. 24 Nov. 1721 Anna Maria M~nnlein from Weyer. One of their children, Johann Jacob Toussaint III, bap. 23 Feb. 1739, emigrated to PA about 1751.2

    4. Abraham Balliet (1684 - 16 Apr. 1767) was a farmer in Schalbach, b. 22 Oct. 1708, m. Susanna Catharina Hahn (1683 - 18 Feb. 1777), a daughter of the innkeeper Jacob Hahn from Fleisheim, Lorraine, and his wife, Marie Vautrin. Abraham and Susanna Catharina had eleven children. Their son Joseph BaUiet, bap. 11 May 1729, emigrated to PA in 1749 and became the ancestor of the Balliets of Heidelberg. 3

    5. Stephan Balllet m. in Burbach, Alsace, 26 Apr. 1707 Maria Catharina Schweitzer, daughter of Nickel Schweitzer from Schalbach. The dates of tileir births and deaths are not mentioned in the European records. Maybe they intended to emigrate to PA and died during tile journey, for they are not mentioned in America either. Three of their children died in infancy and four emigrated.

    6. According to A. K. Burgert, Mary Balllet m. Hans Deller from Schalbach. When they bad their daughter Sara Deller baptized 4 Mar. 1700, the sponsors were Jacob Toussaint from Weyer and Hans Nickel Balliet, son of Jacob, from Schalbach. Mary Balliet may therefore have been a sixth child of Jacob Balliet and Anna Fruibeau. Sara Deller m. Joseph Kennel. They emigrated to PA on board the Brothers and landed in Philadelphia 16 Sep. 1751.4

Stephan Balliet's son Paulus emigrated to PA in 1738 and became the ancestor of the Balliets of Whitehall. One of Paulus's sons became famous in the history of colonial Pennsylvania: Colonel Stephen Balliet. He married Magdalena Burghalter (born 17 Apr. 1765 in Whitehall Twp., Northampton Co., PA.) Magdalena was a daughter of Peter Burghalter and Eva Catharina Deschler. Peter Burghalter's part in the political and military life of Pennsylvania was as important as his son-in-law' s. According to Stephen C. Balliet (p. 78), "Peter Burghalter was the only son of Ulrich and Anna Barbara, who landed at Philadelphia on Sep. 28, 1735 with their six children. Peter was born in Switzerland Dec. 2, 1731, and was only 2 months old when he came to America."

Ulrich Burghalter was a fellow passenger of David Mertz from Hangwiller, Lorraine and his wife Veronica nee Schneider from Diedendoff, Alsace, as well as of Abraham Vautrin from Fenetrange, Lorraine, and his wife, Anna Margaretha, daughter of Peter Mertz from Hangwilier. His daughter Elizabeth Barbara Burghalter married John Jacob Mickley. According to James B. Laux (p. 5), "Ulrich Burghalter, a native of the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, aged 40 years, and his wife Barbara, landed in Philadelphia with their six children."

But according to the Lutheran baptismal record of Wintersbourg, Lorraine (1688-1752), Hans Ulrich Burckhalter from Hangwilier, Lorraine, and his wife Barbara Mertz had five children between 1716 and 1731:

  1. Maria Barbara Burghalter, bap. 07 Jul. 1716
  2. Anna Catharina Burghalter, bap. 23 Oc.t 1719
  3. Hans Jacob Burghalter, bap. 24 Jul 1726.
  4. Anna Margaretha Burghalter, bap. 11 Oct. 1729
  5. Johann Peter Burghalter, b. 28 Nov. 1731, hap. 2 Dec. 1731

T!us sounds as if Ulrich had spent a couple of years in Hangwilier, Lorraine, between Switzerland and PA. The family is not mentioned any longer in the Wintersbourg records after 1733.

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