Name: Peter Bishop Sr
   Born: c1750s
  Place: possibly Virgnia, possibly Germany
   Died: after 1818
  Place: prob Wythe County, Virginia

The evidence below strongly infers that Peter was of German descent and that his last name was Anglicized from Bischoff. A chair he made is in the possession of descendants. Inscribed on the bottom of it are the initials JPB. From this we can reasonably conclude that his birth name was Johann Peter Bischoff, but it's yet to be proven.

In March 2019 Katherine Rowe of the Wythe County Genealogical and Historical Association wrote,

John and Peter Bishop were Germans who jointly took up 300 acres of land on Reed Creek in 1794, most likely coming here via Pennsylvania.... Robert Sayers, one of the larger landowners in the area, kept a detailed account book which survives and mentions both Peter Bishops. In 1804 he exchanged wool and other goods with Peter Sr. for weaving done. He exchanged hides for tanning done by Peter Jr.

As her source, Ms Rowe lists Early Adventurers of the Western Waters, Volume III, Part 2, by Mary B Kegley, pp. 589-592, 770.

The 1793 tax list for Wythe county lists the following Bishops:¹

Name Tithes Horses ----------------------------------- Bishop, John 1 3 Bishop, Phillip 1 1 Bishop, Peter 1 4

It's assumed that that John and Peter may have been brothers. This is likely the Phillip Bishop listed as a deceased heir on Peter's 1818 deed. It may be no coincidence that these three names appear on the 1790 census for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, below. If we accept these interpretations, we'd have this family:

From Master's thesis, Spenser David Slough, Germans on the Western Waters: Artisans, Material Culture, and Hybridity in Virginia's Backcountry, 1780-1830, (4 May 2015),

The Shaffer family of Shenandoah County, VA, headed by Daniel and Anne [Hudlow] Shaffer, arrived to Wythe's Ft. Chiswell area sometime before 1802. Daniel and Anne took up land adjoining that of fellow Germans David Simmerman, Daniel Sponsler, and Peter Bishop [Bischof]. By 1817/1818, however, the Shaffers moved to Wayne County, Indiana, leaving behind their 140 acre tract to the benefit of their son, Jacob who lived with neighbors and in-laws Peter and Margaret Bishop. In 1818, Peter and Margaret ceded their 440 acres of farmland to Shaffer on the condition that he and their daughter and Jacob's wife, Catherine care for them for the remainder of their lives (James C. Spraker, "The Shaffer Family," Wythe County Historical Review, 59 (January 2001): 6-12).

The deed, Peter and Margaret Bishop to Nathaniel D Harris and Jacob Shaffer, is found in Deed Book 7, pages 160 and 161. It's followed by the agreement between the Bishops and Harris and Shaffer on pages 161 through 163. Both documents are dated 11 April 1818. Peter's heirs, listed in the agreement, are

• heirs of Phillip Bishop deceased
• Peter Bishop Jr
• John Robert Penner (son of Peter Penner deceased)
• Betsy Haymore
• Cynthia Childress (who Bishop raised from infancy)
• Polly Montgomery
• John Reed

Here's a partial transcription:

This Indenture made the Eleventh day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & Eighteen between Peter Bishop and Margaret his wife on the one part and Nathaniel D Harris and Jacob Shaffer on the other part all of the County of Wythe and State of Virginia Witnesseth that whereas a certain covenant has this day been entered into between the parties to be performed on the part of the said Harris and Shaffer the said Peter Bishop and his wife for and in consideration of the performances therein contained do give grant bargain sell and convey unto the said Harris and Shaffer the certain tracts or parcels of land lying and being in the County of Wythe on the waters of Reed Creek and adjoining each other be first containing one hundred and fifty acres being part of a tract of land containing three hundred acres granted to the said Peter Bishop and John Bishop by patent bearing the date of the 10th day of April 1798 the other mostly of which has been conveyed to Abraham Cooter the whole of which survey is bounded as follows to wit — Beginning at a white oak and locust near a corner of John Montgomery's land to a chesnut and chesnut oak on the North side of the Ach Mountain S. 745 W. 325 poles along said mountain to a pine tree S. 192 W. 66 poles to a red oak near the road leading through McDonalds gap N. 79[?] 106 poles to a double and single chesnut S. 15 W. 11 poles to a chesnut oak by Small Spring, N. 68 & W 14 poles to two chesnut saplings on a stony point N. 4 W. 166 poles to two white oaks corner to Philip Fry's land and with a line thereof N. 768 E. 210 poles to two black oaks in a line of Peter Bishops land as with the same S. 5[?] W. 52 poles to a pine and two white oak saplings S. 60 & E. 84 poles to two red oaks near the fo ot of the mountain E. 134 poles to a black oak and N. 31 E. 138 poles to the Beginning. —

[more]

Peter Bishop
Margaret Bishop

Peter's relationship to the Harrises and Shaffers isn't noted. However, it's known that Shaffer married Peter's daughter, Catherine, and Nathaniel Harris's wife was Margaret Bishop (see this biography of their son). The agreement is fully transcribed below.

Note especially that above Peter Bishop's "signature" (for it's not his), is written "(name in dutch)." I'm not sure just what that means, but it's a further indication that his was one of the many Pennsylvania Germans living in the area.

Bishop & Wife, Agreement with Harris & Shaffer

Delivered
N D Harris
12 July 1830

Articles of Agreement made the Eleventh day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen Between Peter Bishop and Margaret his wife on the one part and Nathaniel D Harris and Jacob Shaffer of the other part, all of the County of Wythe and the State of Virginia Witnesseth that for and in consideration of the performance of the covenants hereafter mentioned the said Bishop and wife have by their certain indenture of Bargain and sale dated this day given granted bargained and conveyed to the said Harris & Shaffer B[---?] tracts of land lying in the County of Wythe containing together 440 acres more particularly described in said deed, also the c[---?] of an entry of [blank] acres and the said Bishop further gives and grants unto the said Peter and Margaret, and whereas this said Peter Bishop hath a claim to one thousand acres of land purchased from Zachariah Cox & [blank] Marchin situate on Bear Creek on Tennessee River which if obtained and the title cleared out, I wish the proceeds of the sale thereof equally divided among all my children except that whoever takes upon himself either the said Harris or Shaffer to clear out the title of said land shall be paid for his time and expenses incurred thereby and shall be moreover improved to sell and convey the same to the purchaser or purchasers. And the said Nathaniel D Harris and Jacob Shaffer in their part for and in consideration of the foregoing gift, and covenants fo agree to and with the consent of the said Peter and Margaret that the said Harris is to have possession of the lands lying in the County of Wythe during the life of the said Bishop & wife and the said Harris to maintain and support them in their old age decently and comfortably in diet and clothing so long as they live, and if the said Harris or his heirs should fail to support them as before [stated?] then the said Shaffer is to take possession of the said property and perform the same covenants that said Harris was bound to perform and if he shall fail as aforesaid then the said Harris and Shaffer forfeit all benefits to these covenants except so far as they or either of them may have advanced money towards the payment of the debts of the said Bishop with the legal interest that may [-----] on such payments and the said Harris or Shaffer (as the case may be) is hereby bound to support one house and two heads of cattle during the life of the said Peter and Margaret and to pay all legal and just debts that may be brought against him to the said Bishop and the said Harris & Shaffer are to pay the following sums of money in the manner hereafter mentioned to wit: to the heirs of Philip Bishop dec'd within six months after the decease of the last survivor (either Peter of Margaret) Fifty dollars in current money —

To John Robert Penner son and heir of Peter Penner dec'd with twelve months after the death of the last survivor Forty dollars current money.

To Peter Bishop Jr of his heirs within eighteen months after the death of the last survivor Fifty dollars current money.

To Betsy Haymore or her heirs within two years after the death of the last survivor Fifty dollars current money.

To Cynthia Childress whom the said Bishop hath raised from her infancy Fifty dollars current money within two years and a half after the death of last survivor.

To Polly Montgomery or her heirs ten dollars within three years after the death of the last survivors and to John Read or his heirs one dollar within 3 years of the death of last survivor.

And after the said Nathaniel D Harris and Jacob Shaffer or their heirs shall have the benefit of all debts that are due [unto?] said Bishop from John Read.

And after the said Nathaniel D Harris and Jacob Shaffer or their heirs shall have fully complied with all the covenant contained in the forgoing article of agreement then the land lying in the County of Wythe and all the personal Estate are to be equally divided between the said Harris and Shaffer provided each of then shall have paid an equal proportion of the debts and gifts above set forth to be enjoyed by them and their heirs forever. —

For the true performance of the foregoing covenants the parties bind themselves jointly and severally each to the other firmly by these presents in witness whereof we have hereunto set out hands and seals the day and year above written.

Teste.      his      )     (name in dutch)   [Seal]
       Ruben X Hill  )      Peter Bishop     
           mark      )
                                 her
                          Margaret X Bishop    [Seal]

                          Nathaniel D Harris   [Seal]

                          Jacob Shaffer     [Seal]

At a Court held for the County of Wythe at the Courthouse on Tuesday the 14th of April 1818 —

This Article of Agreement between Peter Bishop and Margaret his wife, Nathaniel D Harris & Jacob Shaffer was acknowledged in Court by the said Peter, Nathaniel & Jacob as their act of Deed and — to be recorded

Teste.
R Crockett CC

Peter Bishop's Reconstructed Family

For information about his patrilineal descendants, see Patrilineal Descendants of Peter Bishop.

Phillip Bishop		Given he was on the 1793 tax list, he was probably the eldest son. But it's also possible he was a brother. He died by 1818. It is not known whether he had children, only that he had unnamed heirs.
Mary Bishop	c1776-1830+	She married first Peter Penner (-c1798), 12 Feb 1792 (or 1796). Another webpage says the marriage was 1786. Obviously, I need to see the original record. They had son Peter Penner, Jr three months before the father's death. Mary married secondly Robert Montgomery, 25 August 1815. The marriage record says "Polly" was the daughter of Peter Bishop. This may be the Robert Montgomery family found on the 1820 census for Wythe: 1 male 10-15, 1 male 45+, 1 female 10-15, 1 female 26-44. That makes Mary born no earlier than 1776. Robert Montgomery and wife are found on the 1830 census, same place. Respectively, they are 60-70 and 50-60. If this is our Mary, that would put her age in the 1770s, which fits with all we know so far.
Elizabeth Bishop		Married Robert Hadley, 24 July 1796
Catherine Bishop	1779-1881	According to her obituary, Catherine was born 5 May, 1779 in Montgomery County Virginia (now Wythe). She married Jacob Shaffer, 10 April 1804. The marriage record, at least as transcribed at FamilySearch, says "Caly [Caty] Bishop to Jacob Shaver." The 1880 census lists her as 101 years old and in good health. She and both parents are listed as being born in Virginia. There's a 12 May 1818 marriage for Cynthia Childress, daughter of Caty Bishop, to Jacob Hoback. The findagrave.com entry for Cynthia says that she was born in Wythe on 5 Apr 1800, and died in Floyd County, Virginia on 8 May 1891. This would be the Cynthia Childress who Peter raised from childhood.
Peter Bishop	1780-1850+	Married Elizabeth Myers, 11 May 1807. The marriage record says that "Betsy Mires" was the daughter of Christopher Myers.
Margaret Bishop	1789-1861	Married Nathaniel D Harris, 27 March 1813 in Patrick County, Virginia. The Harrises moved to Adams County, Illinois in 1830. Her birth year is estimated from the 1850 and 1860 census records in Adams County. He died there in 1869.

I received a copy of this birthday notice for Peter's daughter, Catherine, from her descendant, James Spraker, in August 2019:

Southwest Virginia Enterprise, 7 May 1879

A Centenarian.

Mrs Catherine Shaffer, [whose maiden name was Bishop,] relic of Jacob Shaffer, dec'd, and mother of Messrs. James, Jacob, and Joseph Shaffer, of this county, celebrated her 100th birth-day on Monday. A sermon commemorative of the event was preached to a large congregation at Siloam Church, three miles distant from her residence, by her grand-son, reb. Preston mays. Mrs. shaffer was born within less than a mile of where she now lives [7 miles east of Wytheville, on the N. C, road] on the 5th May, 1779. she has 12 living children, 7 of whom reside in this county and 5 in the West, 47 grand-children in this county and a large number in the West, numerous great-grand-children and several gr. gr. grand children. The old lady attended the preaching last Monday, and seemed to enjoy the sermon. A gentleman who was present represents her as in good health — looking better than he had seen her for several years. She is probably the oldest person in Southwest Virginia.

Here's a remarkable passage from "Bailey file."³ The author of the notes is not mentioned.

If Zachariah was the son of James Bailey as the court record states.... Could Elizabeth Hadley have been his mother? Who was Elizabeth Hadley? A mention of another court recorded states that Elizabeth Bishop brought a suit against Robert Hadley for marring [marrying] her when he already had a wife August 20 1796. Peter Bishop, Valentine Kegley, and Philip Phry appeared as witnesses. Maybe if Elizabeth was Zachariah's mother she was unmarried at the time he was born, then married Robert Hadley in desperation. Zachariah was born October 10, 1794 and died April 7, 1884 in McDowell Co WV. James Bailey was believed to be married to Margaret Stinson at the time, so why did he bind his son, Henry to Elizabeth Hadley, if not that she was the childs mother?

This not only mentions Peter Bishop, but the name Valentine (Kegley) is introduced. Phry is of interest also because there was a (Johann) Valentine Fry (1786-1833) in Wythe, a son of Johann Valentine Frey. The Kegleys and Freys of Wythe County look to have been Pennsylvania German.

Mary Bishop and her first husband Peter Penner is mentioned in a discussion about the Penner family.⁴

Here is some information I have learned the past week on John R. Penner in Wythe County Virginia. He is the son of Peter Penner and Mary Bishop. John R. filed a suit against some Bishop heirs for his part. I wasn't able to look in the box that these are located in but it is mentioned in a Book written by Mary Kegley on the Families of Wythe and Montgomery Counties and listed the sources from the courthouse that she got the information from. The Peter Penner father of John R. is the Peter Penner Jr. and he married Mary Bishop February 12 1786. Mary Penner and Peter Bishop administered the estate of Peter Penner May 8 1798 and Mary was appointed guardian of her son John R. Penner. His mother [married] Mary 3 more times after the death of Peter Penner and in one deposition it stated John R. was 3 months old when his father died.

Other Public Records

1810 > VIRGINIA > WYTHE > NO TWP LISTED Series: M252 Roll: 71 Page: 528 Peter Bishop 11111 01101

Interestingly, there is no male of sufficient age in the following entry to qualify as the head of household.

1810 > VIRGINIA > WYTHE > NO TWP LISTED Series: M252 Roll: 71 Page: 529 Peter Bishop Junr 11000 10200

There is one other Bishop listed for Wythe county for that year:

1810 > VIRGINIA > WYTHE > NO TWP LISTED Series: M252 Roll: 71 Page: 531 Augustine Bishop 00010 00000

An uncited lineage on the net provides a long Virginia lineage for an Augustine Bishop, as follows. There is absolutely no evidence that links him to Peter and I don't believe this is a fruitful line of pursuit since it appears far more likely that Peter Bishop was of a German family. Still it's worth noting for now.

John Bishop (1595-1662) m Elizabeth Booker
John Bishop (1638-1722) m Sarah Lawrence
John Bishop (1670-1716) m Sarah Harmon
John Bishop (1690-1713) m Mary Moss
Harmon Bishop (-1790) m Amey Avoris
Augustine Bishop (-) m Mary M Bride

These entries are found at http://files.usgwarchives.org/va/misc/vagrant.txt:

Bishop, Peter & John Apr. 10, 1798 Wythe County 300 Reed Creek, adj. Peter Bishop & John Montgomery Bishop, Peter, Sr. Sep. 1, 1809 Wythe County 120 Reed Creek, adj. his own & John Bishop's land

And because Wythe County was formed out of Montgomery County in 1790, this entry may also be of interest:

Bishop, John & Dec. 11, 1793 Montgomery County 144 Little River/New River

No Bishops are found on the 1820 census for Wythe county. There are no census records in Wythe County for Jacob Shaffer's family in 1820 and 1830, although a Jacob Shaffer does appear in Preston county for those years. It's clear from the 1840 census (not surprisingly) that Peter and Margaret Bishop were not living with the Shaffers. Surely they had died by that time.

Jacob Shaffer (Pendleton County, 1840): 00020011 - 001200

A google search finds only two mentions of the name Peter Bishop for the county.

Catherine Bishop (1786-1881), the daughter of Peter Bishop and Margaret Bischof, married Jacob Shaffer in Wythe county 24 Dec 1802.²

A Peter Bishop administered the estate of Peter Penner 8 May 1798. Peter Penner had married Mary Bishop. We can assume, then, that there may have been familial link between Mary and Peter Bishop. [link]

Catherine Shaffer is found on the 1880 census for Black Lick, Wythe county, Virginia with her son Joseph Shaffer, 55. She's listed as 101 years old, born in Virginia, and both parents born in Virginia.

Bishops in Pennsylvania

We see from the above that Peter was of German descent, particularly considering that the entry above his name in the 1818 document, as noted above, states "name in dutch." That can't be ignored. And since we've yet to find him in Virginia before 1793, we should look to Pennsylvania. However, it's possible his family never made a stop in Pennsylvania. If he was, indeed, born in Virginia, it's likely his parents immigrated from Germany.

1790 > PENNSYLVANIA > DAUPHIN > REMAINDER OF CO Series: M637 Roll: 8 Page: 180 Peter Bishop 1 1 2 1790 > PENNSYLVANIA > LANCASTER > MT JOY TWP Series: M637 Roll: 8 Page: 223 William Bishop 3 0 3 John Bishop 1 4 4 Godlieb Bishop 1 1 4 Peter Bishop 1 2 3 Philip Bishop 2 1 6 1790 > PENNSYLVANIA > YORK > BERWICK, CUMBERLAN Series: M637 Roll: 9 Page: 461 Peter Bishop 1 2 5

It's interesting that the Lancaster census shows John, Peter, and Philip and that all three names appear on the 1793 tax list for Wythe County, Virginia. According to a wikitree page, this is the family of Wilhelm Bischoff and his wife Anna Steinman. Wilhelm was born in Germany 9 Mar 1719 and died at Mt Joy in 1783. His will (Book X, volume 2, p. 45, Lancaster County) includes the following interesting provision,

If Philip and Godlys [Godlieb] should incline to change their Religion on account of their wives who are not baptised, then the other Brothers shall drive them out and they shall have but ten pounds for their share and no more and if one or the other of my said children should renounce the Evangelical Confession of Faith, such child shall be entirely excluded and shall have nothing.

Other lineages state that his son Peter died in Pennsylvania in 1815. This might not be the correct track to follow.

Two Peter Bishops are found on the 1800 census for Pennsylvania. The Peter of Lancaster might well have been Wilhelm's son.

1800 > PENNSYLVANIA > DAUPHIN > LOWER PAXTON TWP Series: M32 Roll: 40 Page: 192 Peter Bishop 10010 20100 1800 > PENNSYLVANIA > LANCASTER > MT JOY Series: M32 Roll: 39 Page: 19 Peter Bishop 11010 00010

In short, so far, I see no evidence of our Bishops in Philadelphia. If they were there at all, they might have landed there and soon moved on.

1. http://www.newrivernotes.com/va/wyth1793.htm

2. Jacob Sheffer was born 9 Sep 1783, Virginia, died 11 Apr 1874. Parents were Daniel Sheffer and Ann Hudlow.

3. http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~appalachian/genealogy/Library/BAILEY.htm.

4. https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/penner/193/.