Barbara Latshaw

  Noted events in her life were:

• Surname History. The surname Latshaw is a Mennonite family name derived from Lötscher from Latterbach near Erlenbach in the Simmental, canton of Bern, Switzerland. The first member of this family known to have been an Anabaptist was Hans Lötscher, who was born in Latterbach in 1601. He wrote a hymn of 41 stanzas entitled “Ein sch”n new geistlich Lied.” In 1633, he married Anna Kammerer from Latterbach. The three oldest of their five children, Hans, Melchior, and Anna, were brought before the Tauferkommission in Bern because of their Anabaptist beliefs. They remained true to their faith and were imprisoned. The brothers Hans and Melchior escaped in 1667 but were soon returned to prison. After four years in prison at Bern they were sentenced to galley service with four other Anabaptists in 1671 to 1673. They returned to claim their inheritance from their father, who had died while they were away, but were refused it. In 1667, while imprisoned at Bern, Hans Lötscher wrote a letter, in which he lists some 40 persons who met death in Bern because of their Anabaptist faith. Abraham Lötscher, youngest brother of Hans and Melchior, immigrated to Holland in 1711, where the name soon became Leutscher. A number of his descendants have been Mennonite leaders in that country. The family name takes the form Latscha and Latschar in the Palatinate and in North America. About 1714 Hans Heinrich Lötscher emigrated from the Simmental to Alsace, and later to the Palatinate, Germany, where he settled near Katzweiler. His children settled in various Palatinate Mennonite communities. One son, Johannes Franz, immigrated to Pennsylvania.

Barbara married Jacob Shelly, son of Abraham Shelly and Elizabeth Unknown, about 1760 in Milford Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. (Jacob Shelly was born about 1740 in Milford Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, died on 2 Nov 1812 in Lower Milford Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania and was buried in 1812 in West Swamp Mennonite Church, Buck County, Pennsylvania ⁷⁷⁵.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Divorced: Divorced, Bef 1775.