As a taste of some of the many interesting resources available at the Montgomery County Pennypacker Mills website, here’s a summary of an article from the website about the meaning of the name “Pannebakker”. 

"Pannebakker" is a Dutch name that means "maker of tiles". A "panne" is a clay tile and the "bakker" is the person who shapes the tile and fires it in a kiln.

In 1463, Holland disallowed thatch or straw as a roofing material. Because the family made clay roof tiles at the time, they became known by the name "Pannebakker". After the Hundred Years’ War, the family moved from Holland to the areas around Worms, Germany and began to spell the name Pfannebecker. When two of the Pfannebeckers moved to colonial America, irregularities in spelling and differences in pronunciation ultimately led to the 50+ different variations of the name that their descendants use today, including Pennypacker and Pennebaker.

Samuel W. Pennypacker had a strong interest in genealogy and travelled to Holland twice to research his family history - once in 1890 and again in 1897, when he took his daughters along. He found the family coat of arms in a church window in Gorcum, known today as Gorinchem. The crest consists of three roof tiles on a shield. You can see this coat of arms on the top left of this web page!

Governor Pennypacker used an image of a single roof tile in his bookplate, and also put tiles on either side of the front and side doorways at his summer home at Pennypacker Mills. In 1906 he even had the summer kitchen roofed with tiles that he purchased as antiques from a local farmer. Because the tiles were fireproof, this was a common historical use for such tiles. In Pennsylvania, local farmers were often potters because they could make pottery in the winter and there was an abundant clay supply from local streambeds.

Unlike modern shingles, "panne" tiles are not glued or nailed into place. Rather, they have clay tabs on their backs that rest on slats that run horizontally across the roof rafters. If one tile breaks, the vertical row can easily be removed to access the broken tile and then easily replaced once a new tile is put in place. 

The clay roof tiles are also well-designed to manage water. They are made with ridges that direct the rainwater down to the bottom center of each tile, where it then falls onto the tile below.