Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/19

Rh Dutch merchant, who came to Germantown in 1687, secured from Penn by letters patent a tract of land containing about six thousand one hundred and sixty-six acres. This is the famous Bebber's Township which in 1731 became the possession of Hendrick Pannebecker. By deed, dated June 8, 1717, Van Bebber conveyed to seven trustees one hundred acres of this ground, stipulating therein that “it shall be lawful for all and every the inhabitants of the aboves'd Bebber's Township to build a school house, and fence in a sufficient burying place upon the herein granted one hundred acres of land there to have their children and those of their respective families taught and instructed, and to bury their dead.” This Van Bebber did in consideration of “the true love and singular effection he the said Matthias Van Bebber bears to them and all theirs.” These provisions, as Governor Pennypacker points out, are “without precedent in our Annals, and have never been followed elsewhere.”

The school thus provided was conducted by Christopher Dock, and it was here in 1750 that he wrote the Schul-ordnung, and in 1764 the several articles that Saur published in the Geistliches Magazien. It is significant to note that Saur solicited contributions for his Magazien from few American authors. Two alone were regarded by the great printer as possessing the necessary qualifications to produce articles of sufficient worth for this important