The LeFevre Bible


Posted on by Heather Tennies

The LeFevre Bible is one of the most requested items from our collections. The Bible belonged to the French Huguenot family of Isaac LeFevre. These images show the genealogy of Isaac LeFevre, the person to bring this Bible from France to present-day Lancaster County. He survived the massacre of his family and townspeople after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which until 1685 had protected the rights of the Calvinist Protestants. The young LeFevre smuggled the Bible as he made his escape with Marie Ferree and her family.

The LeFevre Bible is currently on display in the Lancaster in the ’60s exhibition at LancasterHistory and is not available for personal viewings.

Several pages contain genealogy of the family from the 1600s to the 1800s.

Birth dates of Isaac and his siblings, Old Testament page 104
Birth dates of Isaac LeFevre and his siblings, translated.
Birth dates of Isaac LeFevre and his siblings, translated
Birth dates of Isaac and Catharine LeFevre's children
Birth dates of Isaac and Catharine LeFevre’s children
Birth dates of Isaac and Catharine LeFevre's children, translated
Birth dates of Isaac and Catharine LeFevre’s children, translated

As the Bible was passed down through the family, information was recorded in English instead of French and the spelling of the surname changed from LeFevre to Lefever.

Samuel and Ledy LeFever and their children
Samuel and Ledy Lefever and their children
Joseph Lefever and his family
Joseph Lefever and his family. Joseph married three times: Salome (1785), Lydia (1796), and Catharine (1803). Interestingly, the family recorded the time of day each child was born.
John Lefever and Elizabeth McClung and their children
John Lefever and Elizabeth McClung and their children

Other important information was recorded in or pasted into the Bible. The first page contains a handwritten note that the “Title page was torn out by accident.” It is possible that the title page, which would have shown the printer’s name and seal, was torn out to protect the printer in the event the Bible was found by authorities. A second notation states that the book was printed in Geneva in 1608–this is written in French on random pages throughout the volume.

First page of Bible

One page, in French, has yet to be translated. However, we believe part of the page is the recipe for cough medicine that is pasted onto the back endpaper. If you are able to translate this page, please send us a copy!

Possibly a recipe written in French, not translated
Possibly a recipe written in French
Recipe for cough medicine
Recipe for cough medicine. It tastes a bit like a steak marinade. Descendants claim that it works.

Take a 1/2 pint of honey, 1/2 pint of wine vinigar, 2 Table spoons full of Ginger, & 3 worth of Alicompain [Elecampane or Wild Sunflower] Mix the above articles together, and put the composition in a Bottle, cork it tight Inclose the bottle with the stuff in a loaf of bread, put it in the oven & let it remain in 3 hours — — Take a Tea Spoon full in the morning & Noon & Eveng A Receipt for Curing a bad Cough & stoppage on the Breast

 

Letter from the estate of Elizabeth Lefever, 1935
Letter from the estate of Elizabeth Lefever, which transferred the Bible to the Lancaster County Historical Society in 1935

For more information about the family and the Bible, please see websites for the Pennsylvania LeFevres and the Our Ferree Family.

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