The Bretz Register

Tax Lists, from Penn. Archives

Warranties of Land, from Penn. Archives

Bretz names in the records of the American Revolutionary Army

Correlation of the proceeding lists

Sergeant Ludwig Bretz was one of the three brothers who landed in 1750, according to Parthemore, in “The Genealogy of Ludwick Bretz”. Private Jacob Bretz from Northampton Co., 1778, probably was not one of the immigrant Jacobs.  If the immigrants of 1732 and 1743 were 25 years old at time of landing, they would have been 60 and 71 respectively in 1778, too old to have been in the army. The Jacob who appears in the Berks Co. Tax lists in 1779 may have been Private Jacob. Possible relations of this Jacob to Jacob, son of John, are discussed later.

Captain Michael Bretz was probably the “Michael Bretz” found in the tax lists of Berks Co. 1779-85 because the enlisted Michael disappeared from the army in 1778 and the farmer Michael appeared in the tax list in 1779. He is said to be the Michael whose descendants (named Michael) held the same place for three generations. Information from Geo. Z. Bretz, Brooklyn.

Among John’s sons was a Philip, a John, Jr., a Jacob and an Anthony, all names appearing in the Pennsylvania records. Of those four, a birth date is known only for Philip; 1765 and John; 1768.  Philip was therefore eight years old when Philip, the joiner, appeared in the record and only 16 when Sergeant Philip was first recorded in the Continental Army. He was not the joiner and very probably he was not the sergeant. John Jr.’s oldest child was born in 1803 and the John of Ralpo Twp., married by 1772, cannot have been John Jr. The birth date of only one of Jacob’s four children is known; 1802, 24 years after Jacob, the private in the Northampton Co. Militia, was listed. It is therefore unlikely that Private Jacob was John’s son.

If Anthony, son of our John, was an early child in John’s family of 16, he was old enough to have been Private Anthony. Anthony, Jr. paid taxes in Dauphin Co. (1815), the county where Anthony, son of John, was living when John’s estate was settled (1820). He could have been a grandson of John.  Sergeant Philip Bretz may have been the Philip found in Lancaster Co. Tax lists. The joiner in Manheim town paid taxes in 1773 and the sergeant’s record begins in 1781. But the immigrant Philip of 1744, if 25 at the time, was 62 when the sergeant was first reported. Possible relations of these Philips to the family of our John are discussed later.

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