HOME | CATEGORIES | TOC | SURNAME LIST

THE CAUSES OF THE EARLY "PALATINE" EMIGRATIONS
 

German peoples, variously estimated from two thousand to thirty-two thousand(1), arrived in London between May and November of 1709. A year earlier a small band of fifty had preceded them. As most of the latter and the greater part of the former group came from the Rhenish or Lower Palatinate, the name "Palatine" was applied indiscriminately to the rest of the immigrants, although they came from the neighboring territories as well.(2)
 

A contemporary pamphlet lists the home principalities as follows: the Palatinate, the districts of Darmstadt and Hanau, Franconia (including the area around the cities of Nuremburg, Baireuth and Wurzburg), the Archbishopric of Mayence, and the Archbishopric of Treves. The districts of Spires, Worms, Hesse-Darmstadt, Zweibrucken, Nassau, Alsace and Baden are also mentioned.(3) To this list Wiirtemberg must be added, since a number of Palatines are known to have emigrated thence, notably John Conrad Weiser. The area, from which the emigration poured, extended along both sides of the Rhine River and its tributaries, the Main and Neckar Rivers. It extended roughly from the junction of the Moselle and the Rhine south to Basle, Switzerland; and from Zweibrucken, alongside Lorraine, as far west along the Main as Baireuth, bordering the Upper (or Bavarian) Palatinate.(4) Many causes were given for the unprecedented size of the emigration. That most frequently mentioned was devastation by war. The end of the Thirty Years' War left the people of the Palatinate prostrate. True enough a remarkable recovery from this visitation was achieved, due to the fertility of the soil and the co-operation of the ruler, but prosperity was short-lived; in the latter part of the seventeenth century the Palatinate was repeatedly the stamping ground of Louis XIV's armies. Marshal Turenne thoroughly devastated the province in 1674. Moreover, protracted disputes among the neighboring princes, remaining from the religious wars of the early part of the century, gave rise to continuous warfare, in one instance between the Archbishop of Mayence assisted by the Duke of Lorraine, and the Elector Palatine.(5) In 1688-9 partly to vent his malice against Protestants, the Grand Monarch had the Palatinate laid waste again. The military necessities following William III's "conquest" of England probably made this step necessary. At any rate over two hundred years later the Heidelberg ruins left by this invasion were described as "the most interesting ruins in Europe."(6)
 

During the War of the Spanish Succession, Marshal Villars crossed the Rhine unexpectedly in May, 1707, terrorized southwestern Germany, plundering and requisitioning freely on the Palatinate, Wiirtemberg, Baden and the Swabian Circle.' In September of the same year, the French retired across the Rhine, having, in the words of an angry colonel in the English army, "over-run the lazy and sleepy Empire and not only maintained a great army in it all the year, but by contributions, sent money into France to help the King's other affairs.",, Not only was this invasion unnecessary from a military point of view but it was also a political blunder, a military blunder, for it united Germany against Louis. (9) But for the people living in the war zone, these invasions wiped out the fruits of many new and promising revivals, and discouraged further struggle for better living conditions. (10)
 

To the curse of devastation was added an unkind prank of nature, when at the end of 1708 a winter, cruel beyond the precedent of a century, set in to blight the region. As early as the beginning of October the cold was intense, and by November 1st, it was said, firewood would not burn in the open air! In January of 1709 wine and spirits froze into solid blocks of ice; birds on the wing fell dead; and, it is said, saliva congealed in its fall from the mouth to the ground.(11) Most of Western Europe was frozen tight. The Seine and all the other rivers were ice-bound and on the 8th of January, the Rhone, one of the most rapid rivers of Europe, was covered with ice. But what had never been seen before, the sea froze sufficiently all along the coasts to bear carts, even heavily laden. (12) Narcissus Luttrell, a famous English diarist of that day, wrote of the great violence of the frost in England and in foreign parts, where several men were frozen to death in many countries. The Arctic weather lasted well into the fourth month. Perhaps THE EARLY PALATINE EMIGRATION 5 the period of heaviest frost was from the 6th to the 2.Sth of January. Then snow fell until February 6th. 14 The fruit trees were killed and the vines were destroyed. The calamity of this unusually bitter weather fell heavily on the husbandman and vine-dressers, who in consequence made up more than half of the emigrants Of 1709. " Other influences almost as malign, though of a more chronic nature, were disturbing the inhabitants of the Rhine Valley. The splendor of Versailles had dazzled many petty rulers of Germany, who sought to emulate the gorgeous court life surrounding Louis XIV. The expenses of their lavish and arrogant living had to be met by heavy taxes on their subjects, often so exhausting as to leave the peasants themselves with- out bread. Naturally bitter feelings were aroused against the ruling class, who called themselves fathers of the people without exhibiting any traces of fatherly care for their wel- fare. The need for money to carry on war too made the taxes mount higher day by day. A letter from the Palatinate in i 68 i mentioned that "Thousands would gladly leave the Father- land if they had the means to do so," because of the French devastation and "besides this, we are now suffering the plague of high taxes.",, Conditions did not improve during the next twenty-five years apparently, for an unbiased report from the Palatines waiting in Holland for transportation to England stated they came flying "to shake of the burdens they ly under by the hardshipps of their Princes governments and the contributions they must pay to the Enemy. "(17) Therefore, oppressive feudal exactions by the petty rulers may be regarded as one of the underlying reasons for the emigration.(18)
 

Another cause suggested, and in general accepted in eighteenth century England, was religious persecution. Certainly religious conditions were of large importance in the early eighteenth century. To ingratiate themselves with benevolently inclined people, emigrants found it convenient to plead religious persecution. Friends of the immigration in England justified their help on religious grounds, while others fiercely attacked the authenticity of the rumored persecutions. The disagreement on this point has been perpetuated by descendants of that German stock, who are reluctant to forego a lustrous prestige equal to that of the Pilgrim Fathers.
 

What was the religious condition of the Germanies in 1709? Cuius regia, eius religion established at the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and modified by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), was still functioning. It recognized three churches: Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist, and provided that the religion of the ruler should be the religion of the people. Under such conditions religious persecution might well exist. The belief that religious persecution was a cause is strengthened at first sight by the fact that the Elector of the Palatinate in 1709 was John William, Duke of Newburg, a Catholic.(19) There are no formal charges of persecution, however, about 1709. (20) Of course, this might be due to the inexpediency of criticizing the Elector Palatine, an English ally in the War of the Spanish Succession then being waged. But by the same token, the Elector should have found it poor policy to affront his Protestant ally (England), by mistreatment of his own Protestant subjects.(21) John William had reigned since 1690. While there are reports of persecution in 1699, (22) were religious intolerance at that time the sole cause of the emigration, it should have driven away these German emigrants before 1709.
 

The disagreement on this point in the past, warrants a close examination of the religious composition of those immigrant groups in London. Of the first forty-one Germans of the 1708 immigration, fifteer. were Lutherans and twenty- six Calvinists (or Reformed). 23 The fourteen others who joined the group in London were also Protestants. In their petition to the Queen this group, all Protestant, made no mention of religious persecution. They spoke though, of the French ravages in 1707 in the Rhine and Neckar Valleys. 2, For the 1709 immigration, four lists compiled in London exist of those who arrived from May 3rd to June 16th. Unfortunately no lists seem to have been made in London after that date, but for the 6500 Palatines then present these lists are informative and reliable. They were made by two German clergymen at the English court, John Tribbeko, chaplain to the late royal consort, Prince George of Denmark, and George Andrew Ruperti, minister of St. Mary's German Lutheran Church in Savoy. The 1770 families were distributed as follows: Lutherans, 550; Reformed, 693; Catholics, 512.; Baptists, 12.; Mennonites, 3. Almost one-third of the Palatines in London on June 16, 1709, were of the Catholic faith. (25)

Religious persecution by the Catholic Elector might drive out Protestants, but certainly not Catholics. It might still be held that the Protestants had fled from Catholic rulers and the Catholics from Protestant princes. Yet, on August 2, 1709, an English gentleman, Roger Kenyon, wrote to his sister-in-law that he had visited the Palatines on Blackheath, a commons seven miles southeast of London. He added that they "came over not on account of religious persecution, for most of them were under Protestant princes..."(26) The real religious difficulties in Germany were those created by the clash of the various sects. Anton Wilhelm Bohme, pastor of the German Court Chapel of St. James and an influential friend of the Palatines at court, so advised a correspondent in Germany on May 26, 1710. Bohme mentions the desire of many people to seek a non-sectarian Christianity in Pennsylvania. The question which Bbhme answered was whether it was deemed advisable that people, who on account of their conscience could no longer subscribe to any sect and therefore were tolerated almost nowhere, should carry out their desire to emigrate although they had no real certainty of God's will. In a fatherly fashion, Bohme advised them to examine their own conscience for the inner or motivating cause of such an important journey. Significantly, he wrote that many a man, after he had acquired flourishing acres in America, forgot the religious motivation of his pilgrimage. Such people degenerated so far that they were more concerned with the cultivation of their lands than of their souls. Bohme added that they stood as so many monuments, warning others not to allow greed to move them.(27)
 

Although Bohme strongly doubted the religious urge for the new world, he also mentioned disagreement with, and persecutions by, the authorities incited by religious zealots and orthodox Churchmen. These, he held, should be suffered for the sake of truth and the glorious blessing promised by the Lord. The persecutions must not have been severe, for Bohme confessed that he could not see how a Christian could, on account of the oppression suffered up to then, leave his fatherland." The German divine dwelt at great length upon the dangerous temptations of religious squabbles.
 

The theory, that religious persecution was a most impor- tant cause for these emigrations, has been impaired by Bohme's letter. In his argument, he declared that only a very few of these people, when they came to England, had provided themselves with a prayer-book or similar religious work. Fewer still had a New Testament or Bible, and they would have remained without any were it not for the Queen's generosity.(29) This fact lends support to other evidence. The Catholic Elector Palatine John William had issued on November 21, 1705, a declaration promising liberty of consciences In 1707 a disinterested person testified to the sincere execution of the declarations, On the 27th of June, 1709, the Council of the Protestant Consistory in the Palatinate issued a statement denying the pretences of emigrants that they were persecuted.(32) Indeed, a colonial report of the Evangelical Lutheran Con- gregation in Pennsylvania made this statement, "Some may think that it is unreasonable to care for these people, as the most of them went into this distant part of the globe from their own irregular impulse, and without necessity or calling, because it no longer suited them to comply with good order in their native lands."(33) The plea was made then not to make the children born in America suffer for the error of their parents.
 

Indeed a dispatch from Holland in June, 1709, reported that the Palatines, Protestants and Catholics, "seem to agree all very well, being several of them mixed together husbands and wives of different religion or united by parentage." Further, they were "flying not so much for religion" as for other reasons .(34) Considering these facts it must be concluded that religious persecution was not an important cause for the 1708-9 Palatine emigrations. Religious disputes and squabbles may have contributed in a minor way. Due to the special conditions existing along the Rhine and in England, it was advantageous to pose as "poor German Protestants" persecuted for their faith. This will be discussed in greater detail below.
 

To devastation by war, oppression by petty princes imitating the "Sun Monarch," the destructive winter of 1708-9, and religious bickerings, may be added a desire for adventure so usual in the youth of any land. These causes created a dissatisfaction with their present lot, which only irritated another potent cause, that of land hunger. A number of Palatines in New York were overheard to remark, "We came to America to establish our families-to secure lands for our children on which they will be able to support themselves after we die." (35) But all these causes themselves would pe;haps have been in- sufficient to call forth such a great emigration of large families with young children on their hands. How did the attraction of the foreign shore come to them?
 
 

To those Germans dissatisfied with their lot, effected by the conditions outlined above, came the enticing advertising of English proprietors of the colonies in America. Pamphlets extolling the climate and life in the New World were disseminated throughout the Rhine Valley. Agents for the proprietors entered into negotiations with interested parties. Adventurers like Francois Louis Michel and George Ritter engaged to bring companies of colonists.(36) Correspondence was carried on between proprietors and prospective settlers. All these activities were in the interests of Carolina or Pennsylvania.
 

One of the Germans, Ulrich Simmendinger by name, migrated with these groups to New York;" and having lost his two children in England, he and his wife, Anna Margaretta, returned to their fatherland about 1717. Shortly thereafter he published a little booklet," giving an account of his experi- ences and containing a list of those people he had left behind in New York. For this reason it is valuable in the study of that emigration. Simmendinger says that assuredly his friends would not think he made this hazardous trip for excitement and adventure, particularly with his wife and children. His resolution was made under the paternal necessity of providing for his own wife and children. He says nothing of religious persecution. Simmendinger apparently emigrated then with the intention of enjoying a better competence because of aid expected from the British Queen(39) He further states that in the year 1709, in response to the genuinely golden promises written by the Englishmen, many other families from the Palatinate also set forth to England in order to go from there to Pennsylvania. (40)
 

In regard to the "golden promises," it is worth noticing that a British parliamentary committee investigating the causes of the immigration reported: "And upon the examination of several of them [the Palatines] what were the motives which induced them to leave their native country, it appears to the committee that there were books and papers dispersed in the Palatinate with the Queen's picture before the book and the Title Pages in Letters of Gold (which from thence was called the Golden Book), to encourage them to come to England in order to be sent to Carolina or other of her Majesty's Plantations to be settled there. The book is chiefly a recommendation of that country.(41)
 

This work thus referred to might have been written by Kocherthal, as his book first appeared in 1706.(42)
 

The Reverend Joshua Kocherthal(43) described as a German evangelical minister, had not been to America at the time he published his book, but he had been in England to make inquiries about the colonies.(44) Did Kocherthal come to some agreement with important members of the ministry? Was he their agent or was he simply in the service of the proprietors of Carolina? No definite promises are made in his book but several passages, coupled with the Qaeen's picture and the glided title-page, might give the impression to the poor people into whose hands the book would come, that they might expect help from her, both in crossing the channel and after their arrival in England, in going to the colonies. One passage read, "Whereupon finally the proposal was made that the Queen be presented with a supplication to whether she herself would not grant the ships ... But these proposals are too extensive to describe here, and yet it is hoped that through them the effort will not be in vain, although in this matter no one can promise anything certain . . . ."(45), That its effect was great can be judged by its circulation. This handbook for Germans was so much in demand in the year 1709, that at least three more editions were printed.(46) In fact, the book continued to have such an effect, even after Kocherthal had gone to New York in 1708, that Reverend Anton Wilhelm Bohme, a friend of the Palatines at court and previously referred to, felt called upon to contribute several letters for a pamphlet under the title, Das verlangte nicht erlangte Canaan ("The desired, not acquired Canaan"), directed specifically against Kocherthal's roseate description of Carolina.(47)
 

An interesting collection of manuscripts now preserved in the Library of Congress throws light on the problem presented by Kocherthal's veiled promises. This collection, known as the Archdale Papers, contains correspondence of John Archdale, one of the proprietors of Carolina. As early as 1705, Archdale was arranging for a settlement in Carolina by what was called the High German Company of Thuringia. Polycarpus Michael Pricherbach, the German correspondent, writing from Langensalza in Thuringia, mentioned reading Richard Blome's English America, a description of the English possessions in the western hemisphere. This had been translated into German and published in Leipzig in 1697. Four deputies were sent over to London with the intention of visiting some english province in America. They met and talked with a Mr. Telner, who it seems represented the proprietors of Carolina. They then returned to Germany.(48) The plans probably miscarried as nothing was heard of the venture later.
 

However, two proposals, made by the High German Company of Thuringia, suggested to the proprietors of Caroina the kind of advertising to use with the greatest appeal in the Gertnanies. On September 2., 1705, the German Company asked the Carolina proprietors to announce "that all such as shall address themselves to them, After the first Transport (Seing it is needless at the first shiping over) and are not able to pay any monie for their passage, should be transported free by your Lordps without any payment as far as Carolina." This was to be repaid finally by years of service for the com- pany in Carolina.
 

The second proposal was an inducement to be carried out only after the first transport had safely arrived in Carolina, "for what I am now going to say could not possibly be ventured sooner. There should be published by us and in our names, a short plain description of the good situation and Conveniences of the Country, with the advantageous Conditions granted to us by the proprietors, there should also circumstancially be sett forth the great eveready proffetts that might be Expected from there, and subjoyned 'thereunto Expecially this clause, that a Poor Man hath only need to provide himself to come to London and then to pay nothing for his transport thence to Carolina because upon his address to the Lords Proprietors they would maintain and transport him to Carolina whereby nothing which might recomend and make this country should be past by or omitted. Such printed and published description to be authorized by a short preffase by the Lords Proprietors, would then by good friends, left behind be everywhere made known and there being now to God no doubt but that in these hard times in Germany....,"(49) colonization would be quickened.
 

In 1706 Kocherthal was not so particular as to require that he be settled in America first. He obliged the proprietors with his Aussfuhrlich und umstandlicher Bericht von der berumten Landschafft Carolina. . . . The Queen was substituted for the Lords Proprietors as the kindly benefactor and veiled promises were made. The fulfillment of the Thuringian suggestion is apparent. What is not so evident, is Kocherthal's remuneration. Kocherthal never even visited Carolina, much less settled there. On his arrival in England in 1708, he appealed to the Queen for aid in accordance with his pamphlet's hints. It would seem that the author was sincere in writing of the Queen's help, which was anticipated, as quoted above. Kocherthal was well received by the English government but was sent to New York. This will be related below.
 

Similar advertising concerning Pennsylvania was also producing air castles for disheartened Germans. William Penn, who later founded Pennsylvania, made several visits to the Rhine country, one in 1677."(50) Penn discussed religious matters with many Lutherans and Calvinists of the Rhine Valley. The royal charter for Pennsylvania was granted in 1681. Shortly thereafter appeared in London a brief description of the new province: Some account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America.(51) Penn offered to sell one hundred acres of land for two English pounds and a low rental. He combined humanitarianism with business, for he advertised popular government, universal suffrage, and equal rights to all regardless of race or religious belief. Murder and treason were the only capital crimes; and reformation, not retaliation, was the object of punishment for their offenses. This book appeared in translation in Amsterdam the same year and its distribution in the upper Rhine country probably affected favorably the movement of Germans to Pennsylvania.(52)
 

Pennsylvania was the best advertised province and it was mainly due to the liberal use of printer's ink. No professional promoter or land speculator of the present day could have devised any scheme, which would have proved a greater success than the means taken by William Penn and his counsellor, Benjamin Furley, to advertise his province(53) Various books were published for German consumption for over twenty, years previous to the emigration of 1709-11 Among them, Pastorious' Umstandige geographische Beschreibung (detailed geographical description) of 1700 and Daniel Falckner's Curieuse Nachricht von Pennsylvania (curious news from Pennsylvania) of 1702 were combined into a single work in 1704 by the Frankfort Company, for whom Falckner became attorney along with Benjamin Furley.(55 )
 

One writer tells us that English agents were sent throughout the Palatinate to induce immigration, much in the same way as did our western railroad companies of a later date. These companies, having received large bounties in land from the government, sent agents throughout Europe to influence emigration so that their land grants might be settled and revenue-producing.(56) These early land agents, "Neulander,"(57) or whatever they may be called, must have used to full advantage the reputation Penn and his colony had acquired in the Rhineland.(58) Simmendinger, quoted above, gave his expected destination as Pennsylvania. Luttrell reported foreign news on April 28th and May 12, 1709, of Palatines coming to England bound for Pennsylvania.(59) Penn's advertising was productive of good results at last.
 

Before the kind of help extended to the emigrants and the means employed by the British government can be understood, it is necessary that the position of England as the protector of the Protestant cause in Europe be understood. William of Orange with his wife Mary had taken the English throne from his father-in-law, James II, in 1688 to secure intervention by England and support for the Protestant cause on the continent against the encroachments of Catholic France.(60) As Louis XIV aged, he grew more intolerant. Counsels of moderation even by the influential Madame de Maintenon were unavailing. In 1685 the Edict of Nantes, granting religious toleration to French Protestants, was revoked and persecution followed.(61) Many Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called, fled to England, Germany and the New World.(62) When William declared war on France in 1689, he published a "Proclamation for the encouraging French Protestants to transport themselves into this Kingdom, " promising that they would not only have his royal protection but that he would also "so aid and assist them in their several trades and ways of livelihood, as that their being in this realm might be comfortable and easy to them.""(63)
 

Queen Anne on her accession in 1702. continued, under the guidance of the Marlboroughs and their relatives, those policies on which was predicated her right to the throne.(64) The Second Hundred Years' War entered its second phase, the War of the Spanish Succession. In diplomatic discussions the English sought to secure religious and civil rights for the Protestants on the continent. They even considered proposing in the negotiations for peace at Geertruidenberg in 1708 that the change in a ruler's religion should not "influence the worship or revenues of his subject (wch is the most reasonable thing in the most), most of the evill effects proceeding from such a change of religion will be avoyded."(65) In other ways help was extended to foreign Protestants, such as those of Bergen and Courland, for example. At their petition collections were taken up in England under government auspices for funds for building of churches."' When on June 12, 1709, a French Protestant petitioned Queen Anne in behalf of "a million persecuted Protestants, .. she assured her petitioner, " she had already given her ministers abroad instructions concerning the same and will doe for them what else lies in her power.",'(67) There are other indications of a similar nature, which show that the Protestants looked to the English Queen to take care of their interests.(68)
 

At this time Queen Anne was especially susceptible to Protestant appeals. Queen Anne's consort, Prince George of Denmark, died on October 2.8, 1708, "to the unspeakable grief of the Queen.",(69) Prince George was of German Stock,(70) a Lutheran, and had brought many of his countrymen and co-religionists to London. The Royal Chapel in St. James Palace (Lutheran) established in 1700, owed its existence to him.(71) The funeral sermon which the Reverend John Tribbeko preached in the Royal Chapel on November 21st emphasized the Prince's interest in the Protestant cause." It probably softened the Queen's grief to act as the gracious benefactress of the oppressed co-religionists of her departed husband.(73) At any rate she took a great deal of interest in relieving the Palatines in 1709.
 

A more important question is how far the English Ministry was aware of the advertising activities and how far it countenanced them. The English policies were predicated on the postulates of mercantilism accepted by seventeenth century Europe.(74) These mercantilist doctrines attached a high value to a dense population, as an element of national strength. It was even argued that colonies would weaken the parent country by lessening the population." In this view of migration, England would benefit by, and the Rhine countries would lose, and perhaps oppose, the movement of peoples. It was said to be "a Fundamental Maxim in Sound Politicks, that the Greatness, Wealth, and Strength of a Country, consist in the Number of its Inhabitants."(76) The preamble of an English law of 1709 observed that "the increase of people is a means of advancing the wealth and strength of a nation.(77) The States General of Holland echoed "that the Grandeur and Prosperity of a Country does in general consist in a Multitude of Inhabitants."(78) The Monthly Mercury, a contemporary English publication, discussing Holland's new law, remarked that "The States [were] sensible of the Truth of the Maxim that thenumberof Inhabitants is thestrengthof a nation... . "(79)
 

In pursuance of such aims, the English Parliament was bombarded with propaganda favorable to the naturalization of foreign Protestants. Under the heading "Some weighty considerations for Parliament," Archdale, the Carolina proprietor referred to before, wrote that 2.,000 white people in Carolina were worth 100,000 at home. He argued that this was due to their use of English goods and the products they exchanged so favorably for England." He went on,"' the body of Europe is under a general fermentation . . . which will more and more persecute an uneasy body of Protestants . . . [who] opprest with taxes, drained of their wealth and lyeing in the jealous sight of popery, are growne so uneasy, as to be willing to transplant themselves under the English Govern- ment." A petition from'a Pennsylvania German asked for a naturalization act for German Protestants, who although inclined to emigrate were under great difficulties from lack of it.(81)
 

William Penn was the author of a general naturalization bill for the colonies. In urging its approval to a member of the House of Lords, he pointed out "the interest of England to improve and thicken her colonys with people not her own."(82) But early in January, 1709, Penn wrote to James Logan in Pennsylvania, " Tho' we have here a bill for Naturalization in the House, and I think I never writ so correctly, as I did to some members of Parliament, as well and discoursed them on that subject.... it moves but slowly ...... "(83)
 

Finally, giving way to the pressure, Parliament moved to encourage immigration and on February 5th, leave was given in the House of Commons to bring in a bill for naturalizing foreign Protestants. On the 2.8th the bill passed its first test vote on a motion to continue the old provision of the law, which lost 101 to 198. The bill was passed on March 7th by a vote of 203 to 77, but over the protests and opposition of the City of London, whose authorities wanted a clause inserted protecting their own rights to the duties paid by aliens.(84) On the 15th the bill was agreed to by the Lords 65 to 20. Royal assent made it a law on March 23rd.(85) This was the first general naturalization law in England. It provided that the naturalized had to take the oath of allegiance, and partake of the sacrament according to the Anglican ritual before witnesses, who signed a certificate to that effect. In addition, all the children of naturalized parents were to be considered natural-born subjects."'(86) The greatest benefit secured by the act was the right to purchase and hold land, which might be transmitted to one's children. Those naturalized were also permitted to take part in trade and commerce, usually forbidden to foreigners."(87)
 

Palatine or German immigrants were not particularly mentioned it appears. But Macpherson states, "This law was said to have been made with a particular view to the Protestant Palatines brought this year into England." (88) Certain it is that by the time the act was passed, the first wave of the emigration was already well on its way down the Rhine.(89) Still the news of the bill's consideration by the English Parliament may have reached prospective immigrants. That this act was a preparation for their coming, or even an added attraction for the immigration itself is highly probable. It would seem then, that the parties who urged and were successful in securing the passage of the naturalization law, were intimately connected with colonial projects in America. Men, such as Archdale and Penn, stimulated through agents and advertising a movement of people, who assured themselves that the British government had engaged to provide for them.
 

On the other hand the British authorities do not seem to have prepared for such a large immigration. In fact, the records of the Board of Trade and Privy Council may be searched in vain for evidence that the Palat 'ine immigration was planned or at least expected and prepared for, other than by the general naturalization act just referred to. But this much is clear, the English government under Anne was embarking upon a mercantilist policy of colonial development, in which its population both at home and in the colonies was to be enlarged by stimulating and even subsidizing immi- gration from foreign shores.
 

Precedents existed for governmental controlled immigration for English dominions. In 1679, Charles II sent two loads of French Huguenots to South Carolina, in order to introduce the cultivation of grapes, olives and the silkworm. (90) In 1694, Baron de Luttichaw petitioned for permission to import 200 Protestant families, some 1,000 persons, from the Germanies to his land in Ireland.(91) In 1697, King William offered a grant of 500 pounds to some Jamaica merchants to transplant men to Jamaica.(91) In 1706, Governor Dudley of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, proposed that a colony of Scots be settled in Nova Scotia." In the same year, Colonel Parke, governor of the Leeward Islands asked for .. 10,000 Scotch with otemeal enough to keep them for 3 or 4 months" to lead against [French] Martinique. He proposed to settle them there, if successful.(94) But reception of the Huguenots in England in Elizabeth's reign seemed to be the most applicable precedent, and it was strongly cited for that purpose." With the ambitious design of James II to unite all the colonies under one government, the'resources of Parlia- ment and the Crown were used to foster immigration.
>

In the reign of Queen Anne this idea took practical shape. Considerable sums of money were expended to assist Protestant refugees in making their way to England and the English colonies. For example, early in 1706 Secretary of State Hedges informed Governor Granville of Barbados concerning one Francisco Pavia and his family from Cadiz, whom "H. M. has not only bestowed her royal bounty upon . . . to transport them thither, but also recommended them to you, that you will give them all fitting countenance and assistance. " (96) In the same year the Board of Trade at the behest of Secretary of State Hedges considered a proposal by Franqois Louis Michel and George Ritter to settle some "4 or 500 Swiss Protestants . . . on some uninhabited lands in Pennsylvania or on the frontier of Virginia." The last stipulation called for transportation with their effects from Rotterdam at Her Majesty's expense. The Board of Trade approved the proposal, and made practical suggestions for carrying it out. Indeed, the Board did not even find fault with the suggestion that the government should pay the cost of transportation, which it estimated would be eight pounds per head.,' This proposal was carried out under private auspices with a handsome subsidy. These efforts were due largely to political and commercial motives, and partly to the genuine interest which England took in championing the Protestant cause in Europe.(98)
 

Still such a program of colonial development" had to be pursued with caution to avoid diplomatic intervention. Not all governments were ready to rid themselves of an 'undesirable religious sect by arranging deportation to British America as the Swiss canton of Bern did in 1710.(100) Indeed, as a rule, princes were not disposed to permit their subjects to be enticed from their obligations to thern.(101) For this reason open invitations apparently were not issued. It can be concluded that the large German emigration of the second decade of the eighteenth century was due in a general way to these causes: (a) war devastation, (b) heavy taxation, (c) an extraordinary severe winter, (d) religious quarrels, but not persecutions, (e) land hunger on the part of the elderly and desire for adventure on the part of the young, (f) liberal advertising by colonial proprietors, and finally (g) the benevolent and active cooperation of the British government.(102) The background and causes of the Palatine emigration have been described, but the manner in which the British government participated in the actual movement has still to be pointed out. In particular, how did the emigration gather momentum? This will be dis- cwsed in Chapter 111. Chapter 11 will describe the small 1708 immigration, which blazed the trail. --------------------------------------------

Return to Welcome Page

Disclaimer:  The purpose of this Web Page is to share information for the purpose of research.  I have not proved documentation of all genealogy material, nor have I kept source notes as I should.  But I had lots of fun and met some great people along the way..

If you find any mistakes please contact the Web Page creator, Trisha Carden   , and I shall try to correct them.

Site copyright 1999, 2000, 2001 Trish S. Carden (Please feel free to use this information but if you do please put a link back to this page)