Anthony Sell was probably born about 1712, most likely in Germantown, Pa. His parents were Mennonite Hendrick Sellen and probably his third wife, Margaret. The Philadelphia County land warrants show an "Anthony Sellers" was warranted 100 acres in New Goshenhoppen on 5 Feb. 1733; and an "Anthony Sell" was warranted 150 acres in New Goshenhoppen on 2 Oct. 1734. The first warrant was "not returned"; and the second was "vacated". This Anthony, son of Hendrick Sellen, is the only Anthony we know of, who could have been old enough to be an adult by 1733. Both of these warrants indicate this person did not settle these claims.
Anthony Sell was in Coventry, Chester Co., PA by 9 May 1748 where he purchased 150 acres on the Schuykill River from a Nicholas Carber; and Anthony and wife Katherine Sell sold this same 150 acres to a Mr. Wanger on 21 August 1750.
Three months previous, on 20 May 1750, "Anthony Sell, farmer, of Little Conewango" requested that title to 200 acres of land in "Diggs Choice", paid for by "his deceased father, Henry Sell" be transferred to his name. This land was in Heidelberg Twp., near the present town of Hanover, York Co., PA. This indenture was recorded on 7 June 1751 in Frederick County, Maryland. According to Frederick County, MD land records Liber B, p.394, dated 21 May 1751 ...John Digges to Anthony Sell, 200 acres in Digges Choice, Conewago [now Adams County, PA], "for consideration of 40 Pounds gold paid by Henry Sell deceased father to the said Anthony."
York County, PA Deeds Book F, page 19, 8 June 1771: Anthony Sell sold the 200 acre plantation in Digges Choice to Henry Hergleroadt for 1,500 Pounds. Anthony also sold many other acres in York and Frederick County, and moved to Huntingdon Co, PA in 1774.
So by 1750 Anthony and family had moved from Chester County to York County. In 1762 "Anthony Sill of Mount Joy Township" is listed as an inhabitant. This area was then part of York County, and after 1800 was part of Adams County. In 1771 "Anthony and Catherina Sell of Mount Joy Township, York County" sold all 200 acres in Heidelberg Twp., York County in "Diggs Choice" to a Henry Hergleroat for 1500 # Pennsylvania money. Anthony signed his name, Catherine signed by mark.
By 1774 "Anthony and Catherine Sell" had sold all their remaining York County land and had moved their family to what was then an Indian Village called "Standing Stone" in then Barree Twp., Bedford County. In 1788 this area became Huntingdon Twp., of Huntingdon County. "Anthony Sills" is on the Barree Township tax rolls there in 1773, 1775, 1776, and 1779. "Anthony Sells" is on the Huntingdon Township tax rolls in 1782, 1783, 1784, and 1788. In the newly created (in 1788) Huntingdon County, Anthony Sell and his several sons became quite prominent in civic affairs, and are mentioned in most of the History Books of that area. On the 1790 Census "Anthony Sill" is listed in Huntingdon County.
On 7 January 1792 "Anthony Sell of Huntingdon town, husbandman" wrote his will, and it was probated on 2 March 1792 and is on file at the Huntingdon County Courthouse, in Volume 1, page 24 of their probate books. This will makes it quite clear who his surviving children were. His sons are listed as "John, Solomon, Anthony, Lodowick, and Abraham", in that order. His daughters are "Sophia, wife of Frederick Ashbaugh" and "deceased daughter Esther, wife of Conrad Bumbaugh" who's only son, Abraham Bumbough is named as heir in Esther's place. Son Solomon Sell and friend William Barrick are named as executors. Back in 1782 this same son, Solomon Sell, was given Power of Attorney by Anthony Sell to sell his lands in Frederick County, Maryland. Either Solomon was deemed by his father to have the best business sense in the family, OR he was the eldest son.
Solomon Sell(s)' eldest known child, Henry, was born in 1760. We have not found a marriage record for him as yet, nor do we know the name of his first wife. Anthony Sell(s) Jr. was married 19 April 1759 at Christ Lutheran Church, at York, York County, Pa., to Mary Noel, daughter of Peter and Margaret Noell. Their first child, John, was also born in 1760.
Which of these two sons was the eldest is a toss up, but since Solomon was given power of attorney and named executor, we theorize that he was the eldest. We believe that John was the third son, and is listed first in his father's will only because he lived closest to his parents in 1792.
We also do not know when Anthony and Catherine married, or what her maiden surname was. Most likely they were Mennonites in Germantown at the time of their marriage, and no records exist for them there. Their children were probably not baptized, because the Mennonites did not practice infant baptism. So we have simply had to guess when and where their children were born, based on their marriage dates or birth dates of their children and where Anthony and Catherine were living at that time, as indicated from the land and tax records above. Most likely, all of their 7 surviving children were born between 1739 and 1758 in Philadelphia, Chester or York Counties of Pa.
In the early 1930's, Eva Sells Jeager, a descendant of Ludwick Sells, who had moved to Franklin County, Ohio about 1800, decided she wanted to join the DAR. She did not know about the Anthony Sell probate records in Huntingdon County, so she chose a Rev. War ancestor she liked and invented a fake Bible Record and submitted all of these to the DAR. Unfortunately the DAR did not have any way to check her work, and so their records show all of Anthony and Catherine Sell's children as children of a John and Sarah Haak Sell (who lived in Berks County, PA at that time). And these records show her ancestor, Ludwick, as the eldest son. He was really at best the fourth son.
Subsequent searchers have copied Eva Jeager's false records into the Ancestral File, and many other magazines and history books. In the 1950's Dr. Ray Sells Morrish, a descendant of the youngest son, Abraham Sell, who married Mary Wilson and moved to Ontario, Canada did some real and accurate research and discovered the probate records of Anthony Sell at Huntingdon. In the 1960's another excellent researcher, Louis Duermyer, a descendant of Sophia Sells Ashbaugh, collected many of the Bedford County deeds, tax and land records we have on this family. And in the 1970's and 1980's Richard Henry Sell found the York County deeds, filed in Maryland, that prove Anthony's parentage, and where he was living before he moved to now Huntingdon County, Pa.
Descendants of this couple now number in the thousands, and include the "Sells Brothers Circus" founders; Gunsmiths in Ohio; early politicians in Iowa and other Western States; and many many Civil War Soldiers.
Pioneered to Pennsylvania, with Palatines imported on board the ship, the Winter Galley, Edward Paynter, Commander, arrived Sep 5, 1738, from Rotterdam, but last from Deal.
Number of records in Huntingdon Co. between 1765 and 1795 of him as Johann Heinrich Ashbaugh and Eschbach and as Henry Ashbaugh and Ashbach.
His will was filed in Huntingdon, PA on April 2, 1761 and probated on March 11, 1789 and mentions his wife Mary Elizabeth.
Moved from York Co., when very mature, about 1774.
The ancestral name of Ashbaugh was Eschenbach, the family name of Wolfran von Eschenbach who lived in or near the town of Eschenbach near the Austrian border of what was West Germany. The family name means "a bach or brook running through a grove of ash trees". The name Eschenbach was shortened to Eschbach by Johann Heinrich Eschbach when he emigrated to America, landing at the Port of Philadelphia in 1738. The name Eschbach was later anglicized to Ashbaugh. Known to outsiders as "Pennsylvania Dutch", which is derived from Deutschland (Germany), the Ashbaughs moved west to Armstrong County, Butler County, Clarion County and elsewhere.
Came to America via Holland, with brother John