Genealogy of Seth Bunker CAPP, born 1875 in Philadelphia

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Genealogy of Seth Bunker CAPP, born 1875 in Philadelphia

Source: George Norbury MacKenzie, ed. 1907. Colonial Families of the United States of America. Grafton Publishers, New York (reprinted 1966 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD; OCR'd version online at Ancestry.com). Genealogy of Seth Bunker CAPP on pp. 132-137.

WARNING: This entry in MacKenzie's compilation is an example of the worst of the "vanity books" published around the turn of the previous century. The genealogy here is at best incompetent, but more likely deliberately fraudulent. I suspect Seth Bunker CAPP paid good money to have his pedigree researched, but if so, he was taken by a con artist. The unfortunate thing is that the fraudulent genealogy was published, so it's errors will plague us for the foreseeable future as newbies find and perpetuate them.

Speaking in general, anyone familiar with early Pennsylvania genealogy is immediately struck by the fact that Seth's Philadelphia CAPPs are prosperous city dwellers, while the author has connected them to the earliest KAPP immigrants, who were mostly uneducated, relatively poor farmers. One would expect to find that the ancestors of anyone settled in Philadelphia would be direct immigrants from Europe, or their descendants. Those immigrants we find in the country were subsistence farmers, who moved to the country soon after, if not immediately after, arriving at the Port of Phildelphia. It was extremely unusual for any of these farmers, or their descendants, to move back to Philadelphia because, as farmers, they had no marketable skills or trades that could sustain them in the city. So here we have a family of city dwellers — educated professionals all — claiming descent from the very earliest immigrants to Pennsylvania, all of whom were uneducated farmers. Not impossible, but certainly questionble.

SETH BUNKER CAPP of Devon and Philadelphia; b. in Philadelphia, 23d May, 1875; educated at De Lancey School, Philadelphia, Class of 1893; has resided abroad for a number of years, making Paris, his home, he retains however a residence also in Philadelphia; is an expert in antiques and has a valuable personal collection; takes a deep interest in the advancement of the Arts and Sciences; is a member of over sixty associations and societies in America and Europe.

SETH BUNKER CAPP is descended from JOHN HOWLAND of the Mayflower.

Seth's descent from John HOWLAND is given in a membership list of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, but if the genealogy making the link is as bad as the genealogy presented elsewhere in this article, the connection is suspect.

GEORGE BUNKER, 1632, son of William BON COEUR, a French Huguenot, for whom Bunker Hill was named.

George BUNKER, founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and namesake of Bunker Hill, was not a French Huguenot. He was an Englishman, with origins in Bedfordshire, England, with no history of having the French surname, "BON COEUR" (see the Bunker Family Association web site). Nor is it even within reason that a French Huguenot would be the namesake of a hill in Massachusetts. An unlikely tie to a French Huguenot or to a famous name or place is another hallmark of a fraudulent pedigree.

CAPTAIN LAWRENCE WILKINSON, one of the founders of The Providence and Rhode Island Plantation, who claimed descent from Henry DE BOHUN, Earl of Hereford, a Magna Charta Baron, through Ida Estelle STITT, dau. of Seth Bunker and Sarah Wilkinson (WALL) STITT. Ida Estelle STITT m. 4th March, 1868, William Musser CAPP, M.D. of Philadelphia (see Mayflower Descendants, Huguenot Society of America, and Baronial Order of Runnemede.)

The first sentence in the above sentence doesn't even make sense. How can a man (Capt. WILKINSON) born in the 1600s claim descent "through" a woman (Ida Estelle STITT) born in the 1800s? But the gist is that Seth claims these ancestors through his mother Ida Estelle STITT. How true these claims are I can only guess, but if the genealogy of Seth's mother was prepared as badly as the genealogy of his father, we shouldn't trust it.

Seth Bunker CAPP is also descended from Capt. George MUSSER and John SINGER, soldiers of the American Revolution, through Sarah SINGER, who m. 1829, John Charles CAPP.

The claims to Revolutionary Patriot ancestry are not unreasonable, and there was a Capt. George MUSSER from Lancaster County in the Pennsylvania Militia in 1776. John SINGER (1763-1829) was rather young to have served, but could have done so later in the war.

The CAPP family were Scotch and trace their origin and Arms to the days of Bruce. Owing to religious differences they went to the Palatinate and became Germanized.

First of all, it's Scots (or Scottish), not "Scotch." You drink scotch. <Sorry, pet peeve.>

The idea that the Germanic KAPPs who immigrated to America from the Palatinate (and Bavaria and Switzerland) were originally Scottish is sheer tommyrot and is probably added evidence of our subject's profound snobbery (i.e., craving an ancient British origin over a Germanic one). If Seth's CAPP family believed their ancestry to be Scottish, they may very well have been correct, which is to say that CAPP, strictly spelled, is a Scots/English surname, not a German one. In other words, the CAPPs may have no connection to the Germanic KAPPs, which I suspect is the case.

The first of the name of Capp in America was Andreas KAPP, who with his wife Regina Sophia, left the Palatinate and moved with many others to America in 1710, settling first on the Hudson River, New York; becoming dissatisfied with property conditions, they purchased land in Pennsylvania and under the leadership of Andreas KAPP in 1728 they marched through the unbroken wilderness, assisted by friendly Indians, and settled in the Lebanon Valley about twenty miles from the present city of Reading, calling their settlement Heidelberg. Andreas d. 1746, without issue, leaving a considerable landed estate. His two younger brothers John Michael and George Frederick had previously come to America by the ship Pennsylvania, arriving in 1732, at Philadelphia, and purchased 425 acres of land adjoining Andreas' holdings.

There was, indeed, an Andreas KAPP who came to New York by 1710; and he does, indeed, appear to be the first KAPP in America. There was a large contingent of Palatine Germans imported into New York in 1709/10 as part of a government program to produce naval stores (e.g., lumber, turpentine, pitch) for the British navy. Some of these Germans did become dissatisfied with their situation in New York and did migrate south into Pennsylvania. The romantic tale of the trek through the wilderness was written about a group that made the journey in 1723 (The German Emigration from New York Province into Pennsylvania by Rev. Henry Richards, 1899). However, Andreas KAPP moved first to Schoharie, NY, in 1713, then made the move south into Tulpehocken, Lancaster/Berks Co., later, in 1728. More importantly, this Andreas KAPP is not the one who married Regina Sophia.

The Johann Andreas KAPP who married widow Regina Sophia (MÜLLER/MUELLER) SIEGMANN did so in 1739 in Tulpehocken, Berks Co., PA, not in Europe. This Andreas KAPP was born in 1711 in Bavaria and immigrated to America in 1732, so he cannot possibly be the Andreas KAPP who came through New York 20 years earlier.

Johann Andreas did die in 1846, leaving his widow to marry a third time (to Peter WERNER), but Andreas was not childless, as baptismal records in the Tulpehocken church prove. Johann Andreas had four known brothers, Joh. Michael and Joh. Friedrich, who were his two older brothers, not his younger ones, who also immigrated in 1732, plus two genuinely younger brothers, Joh. George Viet and Joh. George Martin, who immigrated in 1737. And here we run into an internal inconsistency by the author, himself…

The author first states that Andreas came to New York in 1710, then turns around and says he immigrated to America after his brothers in 1732. <duhh>

Their surname in autograph signature on passenger list, to oath of allegiance and on title to lands was spelled CAPP and this spelling has ever since been retained by the descendants of John Michael. George Frederick CAPP m. Eva Marie and by his will left his estate to his widow and their children, John Frederick, John George, and George Michael.

The spelling CAPP was not at all rigidly retained by the KAPPs. It may very well have been retained by Seth's family because they were all educated, literate individuals, which makes me suspect they never were KAPPs, but were CAPPs from the start.

I clearly would like to see Andreas's supposed will leaving his estate to his brother's children because that would be difficult to explain given that Andreas had a widow and children of his own.

John Michael [KAPP] was educated at the University of Heidelberg; nineteen years after his settlement in America he visited Europe and his native town of Heidelberg in 1751; he d. in 1764. He bequeathed a considerable estate to his widow and children; m. 1737, Margaret, surname unknown, d. 1785.

I. CHRISTOPHER, b. 5th October, 1738, of whom later.
II. Barbara, m.—— DINGIRT.
III. George.
IV. Valentine.
V. John Andreas.
VI. John Michael.
VII. Anthony.
IX. Peter, m. Christina BEFF.
X. Susanna, m. John GUNDRUM
XI. Catherine, m. Martin FRY.
XII. Christina, m. Michael NEF

I hardly know what to make of this segment. Johann Michael KAPP and his siblings were born and baptized in Bavaria. I know of no one suggesting he was, or even could have been, from Heidelberg, nor that he was college-educated. His wife was Maria Margaretha FREY, and the given list of children somewhat resembles the list of children currently accepted for them, with one major — and very significant — difference…

Johann Michael & Maria Margaretha did, indeed, have a son (Johann) Christopher, but I know of no other source that gives this Christopher a wife named Anna FABER. All other sources give Michael & Maria's son, Christopher, a wife named Anna Catharina SPITTLER. And it appears that it is at this juncture that the pedigree goes astray because there is no correspondence between the wives and children of the two Chrisophers. In other words, the author has confused two different Christopher's: 1) a Johann Christopher KAPP who was son of Johann Michael & Maria Margaretha (FREY) KAPP, and 2) a Christopher CAPP of unknown parentage. And this mistake is exactly what an unethical genealogist would do when he couldn't find Christopher's real parents — he would connect him to whoever was handy. And please note that our author has Christopher born in Heidelberg, Germany, which may be true, and which is probably why the author had to concoct the tale of Joh. Michael returning to Germany, to explain Christopher's birth in Heidelberg. But I suspect Christopher was the immigrant and that that is why the author could find no ancestry for him in America, all of which means Seth Bunker CAPP's ancestry has nothing to do with that of any of the above KAPPs! And to my mind, this makes good sense, because, as I said before, I see great difficulty in attaching the CAPP city-dwellers to the KAPP farmers. It makes far more sense that Christopher was the immigrant to Philadelphia who settled there and whose descendents stayed there.

I have verified Seth Bunker CAPP's ancestry up through his great-grandparents, John & Catherine (CHAMBERLAIN) CAPP. I still need to confirm that John's parents were Christopher & Anna (FABER) CAPP. I do believe that this Christopher CAPP has nothing to do with the earlier KAPPs in the pedigree.

I do not remotely claim to be entirely correct here. I've done the best I can with the documentation at hand. I may have made mistakes, but I will continue to work on sorting out this pedigree.

CHRISTOPHER CAPP of Harrisburg; b. Heidelberg, 5th October, 1738; d. 13th May, 1806, at Harrisburg; was an active man in Council and of considerable wealth and largely increased his landed holdings; he built a commodious stone Colonial Mansion which is still (1916) in excellent preservation; m. 1764, Anna FABER, d. 1792, dau. of Elizabeth FABER, widow, d. 1775.

I. Jacob, b. 1765, of Jonestown, Pennsylvania; d. 16th March, 1826; established a store at Jonestown, and also had large landed holdings; m. Elizabeth ZIMMERMAN, b. 1767, d. 1841.

1. Michael, b. 1790; d. 1844; m. Catherine BROWN.

11. Mary, b. 1819, d. 1844.
21. Sabina.
31. Susan.
41. Jacob, b. 1825; m. Caroline BOWMAN, of Lebanon.
12. Henry M., b. 1852; m. Emma DEAN, a descendant of Gen. Israel PUTNAM.
13. Henry M.
23. Emma.
33. Ninian.
43. Dean.

2. Sabina, m. John STEIN.
3. Catherine, m. John CONRAD.
4. Joseph, no issue.
5. John, b. 1801; d. 1864; m. Sallie SELTZER, b. 1804; d. 1863.
11. George Thomas, b. 1825; was a man of prominence in his community; m. Sarah BICKNEL.
12. George S.
22. John A., M.D., of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
32. Hon. Thomas H., Lawyer, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Member of the State Legislature for several years, and was the presiding officer of that body, and a Judge.

II. JOHN, b. 1768, of whom later.

III. Christopher, Jr., b. circa 1770; d.s.p.

JOHN CAPP, b. 1768; d. 14th February, 1826; was educated at Dickinson College, in which institution he was offered a professorship; he served as a Burgess and was appointed a Commissioner for the Eastern States to settle all claims of officers and soldiers who served under Col. George WASHINGTON in the French and Indian Wars from 1754 to 1764; he established a bank in Harrisburg; was the first President of the Turnpike Roads Company of Pennsylvania; m. 1793, Sarah CHAMBERLAIN, d. 1821, dau. of Charles CHAMBERLAIN, who was regarded as a Tory and whose house in Philadelphia was occupied by General HOWE, during the British occupancy of that town.

I. Sarah Elizabeth, b. 1876; unmarried.

II. Samuel, b. 1796; d. 1854; unmarried.

III. Mary Ann, b. 1807; d. 1870; m. Dr. William GALLAHER, a descendant of General MONTGOMERY who fought at Quebec.

1. Sarah Elizabeth GALLAHER, unmarried.
2. Stephen GALLAGHER, unmarried.
3. Samuel Capp GALLAHER, who makes his residence in London, England.

IV. JOHN CHARLES, b. 26th June, 1800, of whom later.

JOHN CHARLES CAPP, of Philadelphia, b. Harrisburg, 26th June, 1800; d. 3d March, 1876; engaged in the banking business; at the time of his death was the dean of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange; m. 28th July, 1829, Sarah SINGER, b. 16th November, 1798; d. 8th April, 1876, dau. of John and Anna Maria Musser SINGER.

I. Charles Singer, of San Francisco, California; b. 19th December, 1831; d. 1912; went to California in 1849; was a Lawyer and for many years connected with newspaper work; m. 6th August, 1889, Lillian E. STILLWELL, b. 1864, dau. of Rev. —— STILLWELL.

1. Lillian, b. 20th May, 1890.
2. Charles, b. 7th December, 1893.
3. Miriam, b. 4th December, 1891; m. 1915, Rev. Clifton Alden DOUGLAS, a missionary to Colombia, South America.

II. John Singer, Banker of Philadelphia; b. 29th April, 1833; d. 10th January 1882; served in the Civil War as Lieutenant; m. 22d November, 1860 Mary MICHENER.

1. Sarah Emma, b. 21st December, 1882; m. Traff HAVERSTICK, son of, Rev. Alexander HAVERSTICK.

III. Allen, Electrical Engineer, b. 14th January, 1870; Graduate University of Pennsylvania.

IV. Alfred, b. 13th February, 1840; d. 2d April, 1852.

V. Samuel, d. in infancy.

VI. Samuel M., of San Francisco, b. 2d March, 1836; d. 1908.

VII. Rev. Edward Payson, b. 12th September, 1837; d. 26th October, 1873, and is buried at Yokohoma, Japan; Graduate University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton Theological Seminary; with his brother-in-law Rev. S. MATEER established a school in Tung Chow, which has since become a University with fifty-five professors and several hundred students; also built a Presbyterian Church at Tung Chow which is in a flourishing condition; m. at Tung Chow, China, Margaret BROWN, d. 17th February, 1882, a missionary.

VIII. WILLIAM MUSSER, M.D., b. 20th November, 1842, of whom later.

DR. WILLIAM MUSSER CAPP, of Philadelphia; b. 20th November, 1842; a graduate of Jefferson College of Medicine in Philadelphia; m. 4th March, 1868, Ida Estelle STITT, b. 29th November, 1845, dau. of Seth Bunker STITT of Philadelphia and Sarah Wilkinson WALL.

I. Estelle, m. 3d November, 1902, Frederick JOST, of New York, b. 1870; d. 1908, a graduate of the University of Berlin, Prussia, son of Frederick W. JOST, and a descendant of Anika JANS and Peter STUYVESANT, who m. —— KIP.

1. Gordon JOST, b. 1st October, 1903.

II. William Edgar, b. 19th August, 1872; d. 30th September, 1891, while a Junior at the University of Pennsylvania.

III. Louise Thayer, b. 10th September, 1879; d. 18th September, 1879.

IV. SETH BUNKER, b. 23d May, 1875, the subject of this memoir.

Arms.–Noir, three supurs or.
Crest.–A winged spur or.
Motto.–Nunquam non paratus.
Residence.–Devon, Pennsylvania.
Clubs.–Merion Cricket Club (Proprietary Member), Bay Head Yacht Club, The American Kennel Club.
Societies.–Mayflower Descendants, Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, Sons of the American Revolution, Baronial Order of Runnemede, 32d degree Mason.

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