Palatinate Emigration of 1708/09

Related

Palatinate

Knittel, 1937. Internet Archives

Knittle, 1937. Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration Available Feb 2012 on ThreeRivers

Transcript:First Party of Palatinates in London, 1709

Wikipedia:Palatinate

Temporary Notes

From Diana Gail Mathiesson, 2 Feb 2012, Genealogy DNA at Rootsweb, mailling list:

The migration is discussed rather fully in a book entitled "Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration: a British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores" by Walter Allen Knittle (1937, Dorrance & Co., Philadelphia; republished 1965 by Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore). ...Their passage to the New World and initial subsistence there were subsidized to manufacture naval stores (pitch, tar, turpentine, etc.), much needed by English shipbuilders and the English Navy. The Germans were enticed to come to London by local advertisements (in German in Germany) extolling the colonies, and London was a mere stopover. It was never their intention, nor was it the crown's intention, for them to settle permanently in England. Some came to London in 1708, but most came in 1709. In 1710, the majority were sent to New York, while smaller numbers went to Ireland or North Carolina. I've read that it was the single largest wave of immigration to settle the colonies, though I don't know if that's actually true. It certainly dwarfed the immigration to New England in the prior century.

Yes, they were badly treated (poorly fed and housed), but they were not enslaved. When the northern pines simply failed to produce the needed goods (wrong species of pine tree), the business venture failed, and they simply abandoned the encampments and began life as settled farmers.

Failure

From Knittle, 1937:

Governor Hunter could not believe that the project would be allowed to fail for lack of financial support from England, but his discouragement increased with the passing months. The Palatines, who had never received the full subsistence for which they were charged, petitioned the governor for more supplies. Eight days later the blow fell. Although the pine trees had received their last preparation, staves prepared for barrels, the magazine almost finished, and a road nearly completed between it and the pine forest, the enterprise was halted. On September 6, 1712, Hunter gave orders to Cast to inform the Palatines that they would have to subsist themselves until further, orders, his credit being exhausted. They were to hire themselves out if they could. They might go anywhere in New York or New Jersey, both under the jurisdiction of Hunter, but they had to secure a ticket of leave and register their destination. If they attempted to leave without these formalities, Cast was ordered to raise the hue and cry for them and imprison themuntil further orders. The purpose of these conditions was to keep the Palatines in readiness upon the first public notice to return to work, as specified in the covenant. This notice reached the Palatines about the middle of the month. The last day of the government subsistence for most of the Palatines was September 12th. The Palatines were taken by surprise and experienced some anxiety as to their ability to survive the winter.

Many of the Palatines scattered about the neighborhood of the settlements, seeking employment to provide themselves and their families with food during winter. Some remained in the settlements where they had been placed by Hunter. During that winter without government aid their suffering was particularly pitiful. Their minister Reverend Haeger wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel on July 6, 1713, that "they boil grass and the children eat the leaves of the trees. I have seen old men and women cry that it should almost have moved a stone. [Several] have for a whole week together had nothing but Welsh turnips which they did only scrape and eat without an salt or fat and bread." Haeger had given what little he had so that he was in no better condition. Worse yet there was no hope of any alteration in their condition. Within the next five years many Palatines moved elsewhere. Several went to Pennsylvania, others to New Jersey, settling at Hackensack, still others pushed a few miles south to Rhineback, New York, and some returned to New York City, while quite a few established themselves on Livingston Manor itself. The last group had to accept Robert Livingston's terms and they were soon heavily in his debt.

Schoharie Removal

From Knittle, 1937

The more restless among them who resented their condition of serfdom, immeditely bethought themselves of the legendary Schoharie when they were thrown on their own resources. On October 31, 1712, Hunter wrote to the Board of Trade relating that "some hundreds of them took a resolution of possessing the land of Schoharee and are accordingly march'd thither have[ing] been busy in cutting a road from Schenectady to that place. . . . " The governor was far from pleased at this removal without negotiation but was in a poor position to interfere, "it being impossible for me to prevent this;" in other words, Hunter thought of preventing it but of course saw no logical way to do so, since he could no longer subsist them.

It also appears that Hunter bore a real animus against the troublesome Palatines, especially those who had settled in Schoharie between September 12th and October 31, 1712, some forty or fifty families. In March, 1713, he remarked in a letter to Livingston, "Since nothing can restrain the madness of that people [the Palatines], I'm afraid I must apply an extraordinary severity." On May 11, 1713, he wrote to the Board of Trade that he had used "all means imaginable to keep the Palatines together. . . .but many are gone of their own heads to settle at Scoharee and the frontier." Two months later he wrote concerning the deprivation of "those who run to Scohare." The governor had been bothered so much by the Palatines, attracted by the storied claims of the Schoharie Valley, that he had become irritable on the subject.

The Palatines who intended to settle in Schoharie Valley first sent a number of deputies to make arrangements with the Indians there. The Indians were easily persuaded to sell the land to the deputies. The fact is that they parted with their claims to the same land son three separate occasions, once when Nicholas Bayard had purchased it about 1695, again by gift to Governor Hunter for the government ... and now to the deputies for the Palatines. The land-title difficulties which the Germans encountered were partly due to such uncertain memory of the savages, who were not averse to selling their claims as often as they could get an offer.