More on the German Palatines in America

Yesterday, I posted an entry about the German Palatine settlement in North Carolina in 1710. Although Tim McGraw's ancestor, Jost Hite, was an early settler in Virginia, he was not part of the North Carolina settlers mentioned yesterday. He like my ancestors were part of the 3,000 or so Palatines sent to New York in January, 1710.

In the fall of 1708, Rev. Joshua Kocherthal and 53 German Palatines sailed on the English ship Globe with newly appointed governor of the Province of New York, John Lovelace. The Lutheran minister had appealed to Queen Anne to send him and his followers to America and provide a grant of land to which she agreed.

The group arrived at the site of the land grant on January 1, 1709. It was located at the confluence of the Quassaick Creek and the Hudson River and was named Neuburg. The current name of the area is Newburgh in Orange County, New York. Later that year, Rev. Kocherthal returned to London to seek additional aid from Queen Anne.

To his surprise, he found thousands of Palatine refugees. Although, Rev. Kocherthal was successful in obtaining additional aid from the queen for the people he left in Newburgh, he was not nearly as successful in securing the same for the 3,000 refugees that were sent to New York on 1710.

There was the promise of land grants but the terms were not nearly so generous. Before any land grant was given, the refugee had to pay back the cost of his/her passage to New York. Thus, those who had survived the voyage became indentured servants. This included children.

Of the 3,000 who left England, 470 died at sea and 250 more died while quarantined on Nutters Island in New York City. Governor Lovelace had also died and his replacement was General Robert Hunter.

Governor Hunter was not as kind to this group of German Palatines as his predecessor was to the families that arrived with Rev. Kocherthal in 1708.

To be continued...

Source:
Lou D. MacWethy. The Book of Names Especially Relating to the Early Palatines and the First Settlers in the Mohawk Valley. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007.

Sanford H. Cobb. The Story of the Palatines An Episode in Colonial History. New York & London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897.

I. Daniel Rupp. A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and Other Immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776. Philadelphia: Leary, Stuart & Co., 1898.