From: William K. Shope  <wkshope@tricountyi.net>
Subject: RE: Henry Shope

Nathaniel Shope's wife's maiden name was Gayman.  I don't know if the name you used in the transcription was what appears in Egle or if you have a typo.  I thought you might want to know in case you are interested in making a correction.   Also, you may be interesting in knowing that  Dr. David Shope's grandfather, Henry Shope's great- grandfather and Dr. Jacob Shope's great grandfather are the same original ancestor.  The information Egle published about the original ancestor was that he was the Andreas Schopp aboard the Halifax in 1754.  This appears in Dr. David Shope's transcription.   I don't know where Egle got his information, but it is wrong.  The person listed in the Halifax records is Andreas Shorpe who has no know connection with the family.

The original ancestor was Bernhardt Schop who  was born in Switzerland,  emigrated from Eichtersheim Germany in 1753 and  landed in Philadelphia  aboard the Neptune in September  of 1753.  Egle  stated that Dr. David  Shope's grandfather served in the French and  Indian War. I don't know if  this is true, but I have not been able to  account for Bernhardts  whereabouts from 1753 to 1762.  In 1763  Bernhardt appears in the Cocalico Tax  records under the name Bernard Shop.  He appears in all but one of the surviving  tax records in Cocalico township from 1763 through 1772.  In 1773 Bernhardt received a warrant from the Penn's for 150 acres in Lower Paxton Township.   His name appears on the warrant as Bernhard Shop.  He served in the battles of  White Plains and Manhattan in 1776 and continued in militia service until 1782.  In the archives records  for this period he is often listed with the same last name (Shup, Shupe, Soo and etc.) as the Shoop (Schupp) family.  His nicknames included Barnabas, Bernard, and Barney.  Bernhardt died in 1813.  His will is listed under the name Bernard Shope.  However, the name used with the will is Bernhart Shope.

A patent for the land received in 1814 shows about 181 acres of land.  The location can be seen in the 1875 on line map of Lower Paxton listed under his grandson, John A (Adam) Shope.  The map only shows 130 acres so some of the original farm must have been sold at some point.  The old family cemetery is located behind 1519 Embassy Street off of Locust Lane.  Adam Shope and Ester Parker (Parke) Shope, the father and mother, of Nathaniel Shope are buried in this cemetery.  Many of the tombstones have been lost, but the German inscribed 1838 tombstone for John A. Shope's daughter Elisabeth still stands.  This tombstone has John's name listed as Johanns Schop.  The last name when used by females was spelled Schopp.

Bernhardt couldn't read nor write English so documents in English requiring his signature were signed with a mark.  The name Shope was the name government officials started using about 1794 in tax records and on official documents.  A deed for the farm signed by Adam Shope and his wife Ester in 1819 was signed Adam Shop and Esther Shopp.  The "c" had been dropped, but no "e" was included.  However, Adam's brother Bernhart or Barnabus who was my gggg-grandfather signed his will in 1858 Barnabus Shope.  It appears that the English name Shope sounded enough like Schop that the local officials decided that was to be the family name so in time with Shope appearing on official records, the family ended up with Shope as a last name instead of the original surname Schop.

The original family was old German Baptists (Dunkard or Brethren), but a spat between Adam and Nathaniel over a baptism lead Nathaniel to the Mennonite Church where he became a Mennonite Bishop.  Consequently, there are a great many Shope's descended from Nathaniel  that were Mennonite.

Bill Shope (Schop)