"Peter Forney, a pioneer of French Hugenot family, came to America early in the seventeenth century, and settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, taking a deed for lands from William Penn; his descendants lived on the original homestead near Brownstown, generation after generation." [1]
1754 Abraham Farney petitioned the Lancaster County Orphans' Court on December 3. "Upon petition of Abraham Farney, eldest son of Peter Farney, late of Lancaster County. Setting forth that at an Orphans Court held the 5th day of September 1749 Gabriel Carpenter, Rudy Ston, John Landus and Jacob Sensenig did report they had appraised the value of two hundred and eighty six acres with buildings thereon at £570. Seventy five acres of rough Ground granted by Patent to John Smith, the said Peter Farney's wife's father. The said petitioner as eldest son is willing and desirous to hold and enjoy the said Tracts and pay the respective Shares of the other heirs." [2]
1747 Peter Forney died in July in Earl Twp, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Peter Forney was buried at Forney Grave Yard, Brownstown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was born on December 14, 1698 in Wattenwil, Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland, Bern, Switzerland. [3]
Research Notes:
1763 Mary Forne [Forney], spinster daughter of Peter Forne, late of Earl Twp, deceased, married Jacob Carpenter on October 15. Sureties: Jacob Carpenter, Abraham Forne and Peter Forne of Earl Twp, yeomen. [4]
Mennonite card file. [5]
[1] E. Melvin Williams and H. M. J. Klein, ed., Lancaster County Pennsylvania, a History, Vol. 3 (Lewis Publishing, New York, 1924), 207.
[2] Sophie Selden Rogers, "Genealogical Gleanings from Orphans court Records of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania," Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 24 (1965), 15-38, 118-139, 193-223, at 200.
[3] Find A Grave Memorial at Ancestry.com, [AncestryRecord].
[4] Rita Mowrer, "Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Marriage Bonds, 1757-1793," Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 34 (1985), 50.
[5] Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, Genealogical Card File (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].