Corzilius Name Origins, and their association with Pottery in early America
[compilation from email communications with Karl-Erich Anhaeuser, Germany, Fall 2024]

It is noticeable that you have been given a lot of incorrect information by German descendants, for example about the origin of the name and the origin of the early bearers of the name. Only in one case was there a reference to the town of Raeren, which is now in Belgium. I investigated this topic once, with this result from the perspective of German name research;

As early as the Middle Ages, the name Corsil appeared in Low Germany in the Jlich region near Aachen and in Maastricht in the Netherlands. At the end of the Middle Ages the name was Latinized.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the time of the humanists, there was a fad in naming. Names from antiquity were used and other names were Latinized to give them the appearance of antiquity. This is how the personal name Corcilius emerged from Corsil and became the baptismal name. In popular language, however, if the first syllable Cor- was omitted, the nickname became Zilles. These names, whether written or spoken, also seem to have been very common in Flemish Brabant several centuries ago, including among the pottery families in the Raeren area.

Among the migrant potters who came to the Kannenbacher Land ('Jug bakers' / 'Potter's Land' -- basically the large clay deposit in and around Westerwald in Germany) at the end of the 16th century, we also find some from Raeren. This included Servatius (Zerfass) Corcilius the Elder, who at that time already bore the nickname Corcilius in the sense of a modern family name; and could be considered the ancestor of almost all Westerwald and probably all American bearers of the name Corzilius and its variants. The potter Zilles Klein also came with him, which is probably correctly understood as Klein Zilles (young Zilles).

Servatius Carsilius / Servatius Carcilius was a master potter and lived with his family in Neudorf near Raeren, moving to Grenzhausen (Germany) between 1603 and 1607. He had 5 or 6 sons with these names: Servatius the Younger, Johannes, Tillman, Balthasar, Melchior and probably Martin. After 1615 Servatius the Elder moved with part of his family to Ransbach. The two sons Johannes and Tillmann stayed in Grenzhausen and started families there. Servatius the Younger came back to Grenzhausen from Ransbach in 1618 and got married there. The other three sons Balthasar, Melchior and Martin remained in Ransbach and got married there.

[Note: A portrait of Servatius the Younger's son, Servatius and his wife Elisabeth can be found on the photos page. In the background you will see the Corcilius shield, a heart pierced with 2 lances, surrounded by possibly flames]

The name Corcilius only appeared in Grenzhausen in the Westerwald region of Germany after 1600 and the spelling changes appeared to be a result of the Westerwald dialect.

Peter Corcilius or Petrus was a son of Balthasar or Melchior and was probably around born in Ransbach in 1625/30. Peter moved to Mogendorf around 1655 and married a Catharina there. How many children they had is not exactly known. In addition to his son Georg Corcilius, they had several daughters. One daughter was Ludovica or Lucia, whom Johann Peter Oberbach / Oberbaugh married in 1703. Peter Corcilius died on December 26, 1695.

The potters in the Westerwald were then and later called Eulner (Rheinish word for potter).

The potter Georg Corcilius most likely left his home village of Mogendorf in 1722 and emigrated with his family to the British province of New York and settled in New York City. There is no reliable source for the year of emigration, but several points suggest that they left the village in 1722, traveled across the Rhine to Rotterdam, boarded a ship there with many other people willing to emigrate, which stopped with a layover in England in the fall. They arrived in New York Harbor in the winter of 1722.

This year, a large number of people from Neuwied were released from serfdom and were given permission to emigrate in the spring, as can be seen from their specifications. The Crafft ticket can be seen torn in Americam. In addition, in the January 1, 1723 issue of the American magazine American Weekly Mercury you can read, loosely translated: "The snow also brought a sailing ship from Holland, which arrived in the harbor of New York, manned by Palatines". The name Corcilius does not appear on this specification, which may have been for this reason:

It can be assumed that this group of people wanting to emigrate was also joined by other people from Neuwiedisch who did not have a ticket and therefore emigrated illegally from the perspective of the time. Understandable, because legally the tithe of the property and a manumissio fee for the release from serfdom had to be paid to the rulers in Neuwied.

Georg arrived in New York with all of his children except the eldest daughter Anna Catharina, who was already married and came with her family in 1726. Johann Wilhelm Crollius also arrived with Georg with some certainty and married Georg's daughter Anna Veronica in New York City about a year later in January 1724. A connection between Crollius and Georg in Germany has not yet been established due to a lack of source material, but it is likely. But if the two only met on the ship, then Crollius would have learned the craft of pottery from Georg Corcilius in New York.

Georg Corcilius died in New York City in January 1727. He will have been the first potter there. It can be assumed that Crollius continued the pottery business as his son-in-law and later - after 1735 - joined forces with Johannes Remmie to form a company. Remmie (or Remy) was also married to a Corcilius, a daughter of Herbert Corcilius from Hohr-Grenzhausen.

 

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