About Isaac Kaufmann, The Anabaptist Preacher from Canton Berne, Switzerland
Father of KF-Isaac, the Immigrant of 1737
Email From: Stan Kauffman, kit # 50836
Date: June 25, 2006
To: Donald Kauffman
Subject: Re: About Isaac Kauffman
Greetings to another newly-discovered cousin,
I am descended through Jacob (KFC, according to the new classification system) and his son Christian (KFC1). Prior to the DNA project, I had accepted the accuracy of the assumed link that had Jacob the grandson of Isaac (KF). But this has now been disproved. Nevertheless, the information on KF's father, Isaac Senior, the Amish preacher from Steffisburg (Canton Berne) is still very interesting.
There is a group of researchers in France, "de L'Association Française D'Histoire Anabaptiste - Mennonite" (l'AFHAM). They publish an annual bulletin, "Souvenance Anabaptiste Mennonitisches Gedächtnis". An article by Robert Baecher in issue Number 18 - 1999 contains an "Annexe A -- (Appendix A). Stan Kauffman says, "Attached is my translation of the court extract. It is in early 18th century French "legalize", with lots of run-on sentences and obscure terminology, but I think I got the gist of it".The magazine itself is copyrighted, but if you would like to obtain one, the author can be e-mailed at: <robert.baecher@wanadoo.fr>. (Note: Baecher will refer you to Jean Hege, librarian for the l'AFHAM, at "'Jean HEGE'" <hege.jean@wanadoo.fr>. Go directly to Jean Hege if you want to buy a back issue. --- ddk)
The cost (June, 2007) for the magazine issue and postage was about $15 - USD.
Souvenance is a French word that translates to "recollections". The magazine is written in the French language. In "Mennonite Family History - January and April, 2004" (Masthof Press) you will find more of Robert Baecher's work, translated into English - same general topic as this translation; early families who became Amish, banished from Canton Berne, to Montbeliard.
Stan's comments about the translation:
The main article in Souvenance says nine early Amish families including the
Isaac Kauffmans settled near the village or town of Clemont in what was then the
apparently semi-autonomous French-speaking principality of Montbeliard, at the
invitation of the Count of Montbeliard, Leopold Eberhard, who interviewed
representatives of the Amish group and found nothing in their doctrines or
practices that he considered subversive. And besides, the Count had apparently
had some dispute the previous year with the tenants who farmed his land, who
were Catholic, and terminated their lease, so he was looking for others to farm
his land. The Amish, having a reputation as accomplished farmers, were a
slam-dunk for the job. The Amish signed a three-year lease in April of 1709, and
Isaac K. was one of the signers of the lease. However, the former tenants of the
land persuaded a local government official to file a complaint on their behalf
with the government in Paris, alleging that the Amish held beliefs that were
incompatible with the welfare of the state and that they should be expelled. The
French government, which was officially Catholic, perhaps in part to assert its
authority in this region where it had recently obtained sovereignty, sent a
fact-finding delegation with legal authority to interview the parties and
determine what should be done. Representatives of the Amish families were
interviewed twice: once in September, 1710, with Michael "Poussemanne"
(actually, Mosimann) and Ulrich Bruner; and a second time, in October or
November, with Bruner, Ulrich Fisher, Blaise "Sergur" (Zurcher?), and "Isaac
Cauffmann" representing the Amish. The outcome was that Count Leopold Eberhard's
lease was nullified and the Amish were given a month to settle their affairs and
leave. But Count Eberhard, apparently behind the backs of the Paris officials,
offered at least some of the Amish, including Kauffman, refuge in or near his
own town of Montbeliard, where a 1720 tax list shows an "Isaac Kauffmann"
stating that he employs a young servant ("petit valet"). The author Mr. Baecher,
in another article translated and published in Mennonite Family History magazine
(January, 2004), is of the opinion that Isaac senior may have lived there until
his death.
----------
Extract from the registers of the Clerk of
Criminal
Court, District of Beaume-de-Dames (found in the
Municipal Archives of Strasbourg, France -- Fonds de
Grand Chapitre, 18 NR 186.)
[tr. from French, Stan Kauffman, Nov.,
2004. Originally published as Annex A to an article by Robert Baecher, "Le
Prince de Montbeliard Accueille les Anabaptistes", in Souvenance Anabaptists,
(the annual bulletin of the French Association of Anabaptist History) No. 18,
1999.]
Note: This is a translation of official extracts or summaries of court
documents.
The original court transcripts have not been found, but the underlined passages
were indicated as having been actually copied from the original transcripts. SK
Seen by us Jacques Bassand, lord of Anteuil and
other lands, Councilor of the King, and his lieutenant general in the district
of Beaume, the request presented to us by Sr. Joseph Dorin, Councilor, Attorney
for His Majesty of said district, the 9th of this month of September in the
current year 1710, containing that he has been informed that contrary to the
prescript of the sovereign ordinances of this province, nine families of
Anabaptists driven on account of their religion from the States and cantons of
Berne and Chafouse, where this sect is no longer tolerated and has been
abolished by various edicts and ordinances, have settled a short time ago in the
villages and territory of Clemont and Liebvillers, dependencies of said district
of Beaume and the sovereignty of His Majesty, and that they have been publicly
professing their religion, to the great scandal of all the Catholics and even
the people of the so-called Reformed religion, which is tolerated now in several
places in the neighboring area. (This is) why it was, as a matter of official
duty, that he made prompt diligence to oblige the afore-mentioned families of
Anabaptists to remove themselves from the district and from the Count of
Bourgogne, and that they were condemned for their temerity toward the penalties
handed down by the sovereign ordinances, which in order to enforce, we were
required to go to the afore-mentioned places and environs, to conduct for
ourselves the verbal processes that were found necessary for the justification
of these facts. Moreover, to these ends, the leaders of these Anabaptist
families (were) interrogated by us on the content of the said request, (their)
circumstances and possessions, as well as on the points and articles of their
doctrine and belief, to put in order afterward that which would be learned.
Interrogation made by us the thirteenth of the month of September of the said
Poussemanne (Mosimann), so much in his name as in that of (i.e. representing)
his associates of said sect resident at Clermont, and said Ulrich Bruner also so
much in his name as in that of his associates of said sect resident of said farm
(the French word used describes a sharecropping arrangement) of Adam, territory
of Liebevillers, together the responses by them, attributed to our said requests
and interrogations, by which they avowed and declared that they were of the
Anabaptist sect, following the so-called reform and doctrine of Michel Seullier
(French translation of Michael Sattler) and Leonard Cuerigez (?) and which
consists among other points in that they recognize among them no Prince or
sovereign, neither any ecclesiastical power but those of the so-called
Ministers/Doctors that they choose among themselves to instruct them: that there
can not be "just war" with Christians, even between princes and pontentates,
that self-defense is not permitted, even if death is inevitable otherwise, that
baptism may not be validly conferred except on those who have obtained the age
of reason, and who have been sufficiently instructed and informed in the
principles and maxims of the religion, that it (baptism) cannot erase original
sin nor actual sins, that in no case is an oath permitted, that they have been
driven from the canton of Berne where they resided. In accordance with the
edicts and penal ordinances of Their Excellencies and States of Berne that have
been executed with all rigor against all who have refused or failed to obey in
embracing the Calvinist (actually Reformed) religion and in leaving the lands of
said canton and, despite the recommendations of the Queen of England, the King
of Prussia, and of their high powers that employed their good offices along side
of their Excellencies to reconcile them to tolerate, as they had done for a long
time past, said Anabaptist sect, such that there no longer remained for them any
(way to live) except in secret, that said respondents and associates have been
obliged for fear of said difficulties to leave their said country, they
addressed themselves to the lord Count of Montbeliard, who having examined and
caused to be examined the printed books they presented to him which contained
the doctrine of their religion, found them acceptable and admissible to his
lands and lordships, that they settled themselves in said villages of Clemont
and Liebevillers, having been given by virtue of lease and tenancy the entire
property that belonged heretofore to said Catholic families who had also left
said village of Clemont, that he (the Count of Montbeliard) had also promised to
employ them for a very long time if they found this settlement to their
convenience. On this basis, they were settled there and had resolved to stay
there always.
Another interrogation made by us the seventh of the present month (October or November) was with the leaders of the said nine families in the persons of Isaac Cauffmann, Ulrich Ficher, Blaise Sergur (Zurcher? Or Sorg?) and Ulrich Bruner, their representatives and deputees, by repetition of the interrogation and amplification based on new accounts furnished by said Sr. Attorney of the King, by which latter interrogation they persisted in the responses attributed to them in the first (interrogation) and added that when His Majesty in the most pressing needs of is kingdom would order them to take up arms for his service and the defense of these States against his enemies, they could not be so obliged and would moreover decide to leave said States, and that that was principally because they could neither take up arms for any reason whatsoever, that they had been obliged to leave the states of Berne and Schaffouse, that they had not been instructed at all in the religion Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, that they had no desire whatsoever to be instructed or embrace it, that they would better prefer to leave the country of Bourgogne and the States of His Majesty, asking only that they be given a delay sufficient to arrange their departure and to dispose of their crops and effects. Final conclusions of the Attorney of the King and all considered, yes (with) the agreement and advice of Sr. Guilliame Boilloz our assessor in this district: we order as regards said Poussemann, Blaise Surger and Isaac Cauffmann to leave, in one month at the latest after the signing of our judgment, with all their families, servants or others belonging to or suspected of belonging to said religion of Anabaptists, from said lands and district and those of the Count of Bourgogne, with prohibition against them and all others of the same sect or religion, or those suspected of belonging to the same, from returning and settling under any pretext whatsoever; we declare in addition that in case of default by said Anabaptists here named, their families, servants and adherents to their said sect to leave said places in said timeframe and in case, after having left from there, they should come to return, the said delay having expired, they will be taken and bodily seized and conducted to the royal prisons of said district to there be processed, perfectly and extraordinarily to the letter of the ordinances which pertain.
Isaac
Kaufmann's signature as found in these court records.