Isaac Jacob Van Bibber was instrumental in the settlement of
Germantown, PA. in 1683. He appears to have come to the settlement
about 1684 and his father and brother Matthias came about three years
later.
The Van Bibber family that was the first to settle in the New World
was the family of Isaacs Jacob Van Bibber who came to Philadelphia in
1687. He came to America to prepare the way for his parents and the
rest of the family that would soon follow. The Van Bibbers were
residents of Krefeld (now Germany) and had been persecuted in Europe
because they were followers of Menno Simons. Other Mennonites from
Krefeld had come to Philadelphia in 1684 at the invitation of William
Penn including Herman op den Graff, who was the husband of two of the
sisters of Isaacs Jacob. Isaacs Jacob Van Bibber moved to Germantown
(now a suburb of Philadelphia) and was engaged in commerce.
It was not long before the rest of the family immigrated to Germantown
and resided there and in Philadelphia until moving to Cecil County
Maryland. While in Germantown the family got involved in a religious
dispute and perhaps that is what caused the migration to Maryland.