Hans Burgy

  Noted events in his life were:

• Persecution, 1691 to 1695. Meanwhile, the persecution of Mennonites continued. Fresh mandates were issued in 1691 and 1693. The Bernese government was determined on nothing less than the ellimination of Anabaptism once and for all. Severe measures were taken to assure the removal of Anabaptism including threats of the galleys, branding and other horros.

A mandate of 1695 added that people who were too old to be banished should be imprisoned for life. Switzerland had two issues of conflict with Anabaptists whom at this point were either Amish or Mennonite. The greatest grief to Switzerland was the fact that the Amish and the Mennonites would not take up arms to protect Switzerland. Secondly, our ministers performed marriage ceremonies, which conflicted with government policy stating that only the state church could perform the sacraments. Finally, the fact that the Mennonites and Amish were dominant in some areas of Switzerland was a serious concern

• Persecuted, 17 May 1699. The Swiss government, after almost two centuries of struggle, came to the conclusion that the best option for dealing with Mennonites was to deport them. The senate addressed a letter to the president and directors of the East India Company in Amsterdam informing them of their plan to send the Bernese Mennonites to an East Indian island so that they could not return. Apparently, the East India Company did not reply. Meanwhile, the Bernese prisons were bulging with Mennonites. A brother from Mannheim managed to slip into a Bernese prison and sent a catalog of the prisoner's names to Amsterdam.

• Persecuted: persecuted, 1702. In 1702, there was a drive by the Swiss government to search and seize Mennonites (Tauferjagd) in the Emmental, which failed through the warnings of the populace. The people blew horns, shouted, and devised signals to warn of the coming posse.

Mennonite brethren in Holland encouraged the migration of Swiss Mennonites to Alsace, France. A letter was sent to the Mennonite congregation in Bern urging us to leave. The brethren in Holland provided the funds for families to migrate

• Persecuted, 1709. Nicholas Moser, a member of a Mennonite congregation, wrote a letter in 1709 to Holland reporting the treatment of the Bernese Mennonites. Children were forced to deliver over their parents, and likewise the parents were forced to deliver over their children. A man who hid his Mennonite wife was fined 300 pounds and another who hid his son was fined 500 pounds. This money went to the "Anabaptists treasury" (Taufer-Kammer).

• exiled: had a father-in-law, Hans Buerki who was exiled, 1710. My Father-in-law, Hans Buerki was exiled from Bern, Switzerland.

• Assisted, 1711. In 1711, Hans Runckel on behalf of the Mennonite Brethren in the Netherlands worked to help Mennonites and Amish flee from Switzerland. Runckels greatest struggle was finding Anabaptist who weren't in prison. The Mennonites who were not in prison were in hiding and those who were in prison were reluctant to disclose who their members were. Runckel had to convince them that he was in Switzerland to help them.

• Mandated, 22 Jun 1711. On June 22, 1711, there was a mandate issued by Bern that the wives, husbands, and children of Anabaptists who belonged to the Reformed church and who were going to Holland with the Anabaptists would lose their Swiss citizenship.

• Immigration, 13 Jul 1711. July 13, 1711 was the date set for the migration from Switzerland to the Netherlands. The ships were ready to sail, but those immigrating were not. We had no confidence in the promises of the government. We were suspicious that our teachers and leaders would not be included in the amnesty. We were also concerned whether our children could be taken along or whether the government would try to keep our children to raise them up in the State church. A great deal of time was needed to sell our property and to separate our belongings from those who would stay and those who would go.


On July 13th everything was in order and the Mennonites and Amish embarked in Neunberg and in Berne. The ships joined one another at Wangen and continued on to Lafenburg. On the 16th of July, all the passengers arrived safely in Basel. .

Muller 302
Muller, chapter 15, page 252 - Historic Background and annals of the Swiss and German Immigrant
*1738 and 1745: Hans Burky is recorded as living in Peri La Hutt, Palatinate.
Historic Background and annals of the Swiss and German Immigrant

• Immigration, Bef 1717. Rev. Hans B. Burkholder, Benedict Brechbuhl, Melchoir Zahler, Hans Rupp, and Peter Donens met with the Elders at Mannheim in regards to immigrating to Pennsylvania. They had heard of Pennsylvania from William Penn who had traveled to the Palatinate to extol the virtues of his colony. It was decided from the meeting with the elders to call upon the Mennonite brethren in the Netherlands for help in carrying out the project of going to Pennsylvania. Following the receipt of a letter from the Netherlands lending support, Hans Burkholder and others visited the Mennonite congregations in the Palatinate to urge us to immigrate

• Son Immigrates to Pennsylvania, 1717. Our son Hans Ulrich immigrated to Pennsylvania with Christian Gaumann and Dillman Kolb.

• Misc: notes of interest. ¹⁴⁸ 1.From original source: "The Anabaptists teacher Daniel Grimm had been arrested at Langnau with Hans Burki and was to have been transported to America the previous year. Upon Hans Burki's liberation in Holland, he became one of the three trustees or men of confidence of the Mennonites in the Netherlands even though he had violated his pledge and returned to Switzerland. Hans Burki caused great difficulties for the immigration process. On July 9, 1711, Hans armed himself and all of his children as well as Uli Gerber his hired man, ten sons of three other Mennonites, Peter and Daniel Grim and Christian Neuenschwender with pitch forks, sticks and clubs. They armed themselves to make a stubborn resistance to being thrown out of Switzerland or being arrested. Upon this opposition to the authorities, proceedings to punish them were instituted. Burki and Grimm particularly angered the government of Switzerland because they endeavored to convince other Anabaptists or Mennonites to not immigrate to Holland.

2.On July 17, 1711, two Mennonites Hans Burki and Samuel Reber were released from imprisonment and brought by the government of Ber to Basel and put upon the ships. These men had been condemened to servere punishment because they sneaked or stole back into Switzerland. Through the efforts of Runckel they were allowed to board the ships at the last moment.

3.History would support the thought that Hans and Maria Burgy fled Switzerland with their son and other children in 1711 during the great Exodus. This viewpoint can be supported by the following facts:

a)Mennonites were fleeing Switzerland in droves, because a mandate had been announced in the State Churches issuing awards to those who would turn in their Anabaptists (Mennonite and Amish) neighbors.

b)The family was in serious trouble with the law for defending themselves with pitchforks, clubs and other tools against the state authorities.

c)They feared that the state would take their children from them and that there wasn't a good future for their children in Switzerland.

d)They knew that they would loose all their valuables to the state if they didn't take this opportunity to leave.

e)Hans Runckel had been working with the Bern Anabaptists to provide a legal way of escape and had provided four ships on which to sail.

f)Runckel was working to get Hans Buerki, (Maria's father) released from prison and onto one of the awaiting ships.

g)"Ernest Muller in his book (page 248) states that on February 22, 1745 in Perry, which is in the Palatinate, Germany near the French border, were found fifteen Swiss families who had migrated from Switzerland. The migrants living in Perry were Michael and John Sleger from Rothenbach, Michael Longenecker from Trub, John Burkholder, John Henry Turner, Jacob Marti, Peter Beck, Ulrich Lerch, John Gauler of Sumiswald, Michael Burky of Diesbach, Barbra Hertig, Michael Witmer of Lauperville, John Burky of Biglen, Christian Burkholder of Langnau, Peter Burkhart and Witley Grenhenuhl of Trauschenwald, Ulrich Burkholder of Luerswyl, Joseph Wenger of Amsoldinger.

Hans married Maria Burki, daughter of Hans Burki and Barbara Langenegger, about 1699 ⁷⁹.^,142 (Maria Burki was born on 1 Apr 1681 in Langnau Im Emmental, Canton Of Berne, Switzerland ^78,79,143 and died about 1745 ¹⁴⁹.)