Call Number:

0362

Repository:

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Extent:

0.9 linear feet (; 3 boxes, 2 flat files)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here], Christian Lehman papers (Collection 362), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Date:

circa 1704-1867, bulk 1748-1774

Creator:

Lehman, Christian.

Abstract:

Christian Lehman (1714-1774) of Dresden, Germany, was the first of his family in America. He arrived in Philadelphia some time before 1748, as in that year, he married Elizabeth Fende, a native of Germantown, Philadelphia, who was born in 1730. The couple had at least one son, William, born 1760.

Lehman, appointed a notary public by John Penn, found a successful career as a local surveyor, though he traveled to other regions of Pennsylvania and into New York state for surveying jobs, as well. He worked most extensively surveying lands in Germantown during the mid to late 1700s, and he was one of the first people to map the neighbohood in the 1760s. In addition, Lehman was close friends with mathematician and clockmaker David Rittenhouse, with whom he shared an affinity for astronomy. He also reportedly worked for a time as the secretary of the Germantown Library.

The Christian Lehman papers consist chiefly of surveys, drafts, and plats of land situated in colonial Germantown and Roxborough, including lands held by the Rittenhouse family (Box 2, Folder 12). These documents show the names of landowners, their holdings, changes in titles, along with other survey data. Along with the surveys, the collection also contains legal papers, such as deeds and mortgages, pertaining to many of the lands that Lehman surveyed. The land surveys and legal papers, which have been arranged alphabetically by place (county, township, etc.), take up all of Box 1 and the bulk of Box 2. Besides Germantown and Roxborough, other spots where it appears that he frequently worked are Bristol Township (Box 1, Folder 1), Chestnut Hill (Box 1, Folder 4), and Northern Liberties (Box 1, Folder 16). Additionally, there's a significant grouping of surveys and papers from unidentified locations in Box 2, Folder 11. Groups of solely legal papers have been arranged near the end of Box 2, with the largest group being miscellaneous items in Box 2, Folder 22.

Other items in the collection include miscellaneous bills and receipts, a calculation table (Box 2, Folder 26), and German manuscripts on astronomy and astrology, as well as bee culture. There are also a few folders of items that date from after Christian Lehman's death in 1774. These include an early 1800s case involving one Benjamin Lehman versus The Turnpike Company (Box 2, Folder 24) and a group of newspaper clippings from the 1850s and 1860s concerning legal satire and humor (Box 2, Folder 25). There is also a unbound volume of writings, likely from the mid 1800s, that was found in the collection under the title "humorous writings about lawyers" (Box 3).