The story of the Palatines. An episode in colonial history

Prefatory Note

MANY letters, received since the fact became known that the pubhcation of this Story of the Palatines was contemplated, render it proper to state, by way of preface, that the book is purely historical and in no sense genealogical. The sole attempt has been to narrate, in as brief compass as was consistent with the value and interest of the facts, the story of a people. The tracing of the lines of family descent did not come within the scope of such a narrative. To do that for all the Palatines would be work for more than a lifetime ; and were it done, the record thereof would be out of place in a book designed for the general historical student.

Nor has any attempt been made to transfer to these pages the name-lists of the several immigrations. The Docjimentary History of vi Prefatory Note

New York contains the list of those who came in 1 708 with Kockerthal, and also some names of those settled at the two Camps. The Pennsylvania Archives contain lists of over thirty thousand names of those who came to Pennsylvania. These lists have been published by Rupp, who also gives names of Palatines on the Hudson in 1 71 1. Beyond these the author does not know of other lists accessible in this country. Nor is he aware that any lists have been preserved in London of the immigrations to North Carolina and Virginia, and of that to New York in 1710. Of this last company Rupp's list of Palatines on the Hudson is a very incomplete record, as many of the people died on the voyage, and many on Governor's Island, while about three hundred settled in the city of New York.

Such lists, however, are not needed for the purpose of this work. The addition of them to the present volume would swell it beyond reasonable limits, and defeat the chief aim of its writing, viz. : the giving to the general student of American history an account, not now widely known, of one distinct and unique element in our colonization, which some historians

Prefatory Note

Vll have entirely ignored and others have treated with undeserved reproach.

The short collection of Palatine names, given in Note I. at the end of the volume, is designed only as a specimen list, taken almost at random, to illustrate the permanency of the Palatine stock, and the changes of form which many of the names have suffered.

S. H. C.

Contents

CHAPTER

I. Introduction II. The Palatinate.

III. The Exodus

Introduction

THE reasons for writing this Story of the Palatines are several. Chief among them are these three : that it has never been written in its fulness, or with proper regard to its historic importance ; that much of the little which has been written about it abounds in misunderstandings and misstatements ; and that the story truly told is one of such intrinsic interest and bears such relation to colonial history as to make it worthy of regard by every student of American society and institutions.

That which by most people, who know anything about the Palatine Immigration, is supposed to be alluded to in any reference to that people, is merely the incoming of the large company which landed in New York in the early summer of 1 7 lo. They made the largest body of emigrants coming at one time to this country in the colonial period. There were nearly three thousand of them, and they were perhaps at once the most miserable and most hopeful set of people ever set down upon our shores.

But they were not all. A small band had preceded them to New York ; about the same time as their own coming, a company of seven hundred had gone to North Carolina, and another company to Virginia ; and in later years they were followed by many thousands of their countrymen in the Palatinate, the vast majority of whom found settlement in Pennsylvania. These various immigrations make in reality one story, having, as they do, one source and bound together by a common impulse, constituting a distinct episode in colonial history well worthy of study, and quite unique in its interest and character.

Of these immigrations there are many scattered notes of mention in Colonial Records, and many incidental and fragmentary allusions in local histories, sketches, and biographies. But of the movement of these people as a whole, with the statement of its causes and the singular experience to which a large portion of them came in America, no full or connected narrative has yet appeared. Much of the brief mention accorded to it is with the evident assumption that the movement was insignificant and possessed of no features v/orthy of special comment, save the almost unparalleled poverty of the immigration of 1 710. The allusions to these people are apt to lay particular emphasis on that condition. They are most frequently called "the poor Palatines." So to some writers they seem to stand in the history as representative only of pauperism, to be dismissed from discussion so soon as possible with scant measure of courtesy or respect. Thus Mrs. Lamb turns them out of court with the following contemptuous paragraph :

" These earlier German settlers were mostly hewers of wood and drawers of water, differing materially from the class of Germans v/ho have since come among us, and bearing about the same relation to the English, Dutch, and French settlers of their time as the Chinese of to-day bear to the American population on the Pacific coast."

With this disparaging comment we may contrast the words by which Macaulay describes the same people :

" Honest, laborious men, who had once been thriving burghers of Manheim and Heidelberg, or who had cultivated the vine on the banks of the Neckar and the Rhine. Their ingenuity and their diligence could not fail to enrich any land which should afford them an asylum."

Such contemptuous regard as that of the language first quoted is surprising to one who has made even a slight study of the story of these people, in which are conspicuous other features than their poverty, — some worthy to engage the positive interest of every student of American history, and others fit to compel the hearty respect of all lovers of truth and manliness. It is a story of severe and undeserved suffering worthily borne ; a story of the stubborn and unyielding attitude of men who, for home and faith, endured an almost unequalled fight of afflictions, until at last they conquered peace, safety, and freedom. As such, the Story of the Palatines challenges our sympathy, admiration, and reverence, and is as well worth the telling as that of any other colonial immigration. We may concede that their influence on the future development of the country and its institutions was not equal to the formative power exerted by some other contingents. Certainly, they have not left so many broad and deep marks upon our history as have the Puritans of New England, and yet their story is not without definite and permanent monuments of beneficence towards American life and institutions. At least one among the very greatest of the safeguards of American liberty — the Freedom of the Press — is distinctly traceable to the resolute boldness of a Palatine.

But to create interest in their story it is not necessary to assert a superiority of influence. The historian is like the geographer in that the smaller items, the minor lines and points of description, claim from him fully as accurate, though not as extended, presentation as those which are more important. The coast- Hne upon the chart is not complete until it indicates each bay or cove wherein a skiff can float, and every rock or bar on which a keel may grate. A river map is not finished which fails to trace the course of any affluent, though it be so small that the deer can cross it at a bound. The lover of nature looks with different, and yet equal, interest on the little brook, tumbling riverward down the rocks and beneath the forests of the Catskills, and on the broad bay at the river's mouth, on which the navies of the world might ride. Indeed, it is likely that the beauty of the former will en chain his eye more strongly than the grandeui of the latter. Certainly, he would deny that, in order to enlist his regard, the lovely mountain stream must put on the majesty of the sea. So history finds its pleasing task in tracing all the streams, both great and small, which have run together in a nation's life ; of which, while some will challenge admiration for their volume and lasting power, others will excite interest by their unique experience, not to be read without more or less of a sympathetic thrill.

For such reason — whatever may have been the Palatine influence on our institutions — we may confidently tell the story of that immigration as something quite worthy of regard. We may speak of its character, the causes whicli gave it rise, the stages of its progress, and the exceptional experiences of many of these people during their first fifteen years in America, as making a story quite singular and unlike any other contained in the history of American colonization. Very emphatic are the words of Judge Benton, in his Histoiy of Herkimer County :

" The particulars of the immigration of the Palatines are worthy of extended notice. The events which produced the movement in the heart of an old and polished European nation to seek a refuge and home on the western continent, are quite as legitimate a subject of American history as the oft-repeated relation of the experiences of the Pilgrim Fathers."

There are some general features of this movement which may be fitly noted here as suggestive of special interest. The volume of it was very remarkable. The doors of the Palatinate seemed to be set open wide, and through them poured for forty years an almost continuous stream of emigrants, their faces set steadfastly towards America. There was nothing else like it in the colonial period, for numbers and steadiness of inflow. There were nearly three thousand of these people in the company landed in New York in June and July of 1 710. Though the arrivals in port of the ships bringing them were at intervals through five weeks, stormy seas having separated the vessels, yet the company was one, and sailed as such from England under one command and with one destination. This was the largest single company of immigrants to this country until long after the Revolution, Their number was indeed inconsiderable when compared with the enormous crowds which come to America in our day. But at the beginning of the eighteenth century such an influx was notable indeed, giving rise to amazement and imaginings, and occasion for alarm to some timorous minds. The community in city and province was set questioning as to the meaning of so great an immigration — Whence came they? Why in so great number, and in so deep poverty ? What could be the object of the home government in, not only permitting, but encouraging such an influx of foreigners ? What shall be done with them ? How can they be provided for? The questionings were many. There were grave speculations as to the wisdom of introducing so large a foreign element into these English colonies. When in the following years it was seen that this immigration of 1710 was the prelude to a continuous stream of people from the Palatinate and other parts of the German Empire, this cautiousness found voice in earnest public speech, and sought restrictive power in legislative action. It was loudly declared in some quarters that the unrestricted incoming of alien people, with their strange language and manners, might be dangerous to colonial government and society. Coming in so great numbers and so frequent accessions, they might in a short time obtain the majority in any community, and "subvert our institutions." With the French upon our borders — it was said — always hostile, frequently stirring up the Indians against us, their peace little better than an armed truce, is it wise to admit other aliens to our very firesides ?

All this, indeed, did not come to expression lo The Palatines

or to thought at once upon the immigration of 1 710, but, most of it, on the continuance of the movement then begun ; which continuance must be borne in mind in any proper understanding of the Story of the Palatines. As to the immediate effect on the colonial mind of the coming of this first great immigration of the Palatines, it seems to have been mainly one of surprise. In those days travel, by land or sea, was difficult and with many hardships ; the movement of large bodies of people was slow ; the voyage across the Atlantic took from three to five months, and was made in ships devoid of all the comforts which the modern traveller considers necessities. The landing then of this large company was a most notable thing in the history of the Port of New York ; and to every on-looking New Yorker, whether Dutch or English, assumed either the proportions of an invasion or the dignity of an exodus.

Well — it was an Exodus. As we study the story of it, we see that the untaught wonder of the average on-looker at the time was correct in its expression. It was an exodus in the full sense in which Bible story has taught us

Introduction ii

to use that word — a going forth from the house of bondage to a land of promise. It was not the incoming of a rabble of distressed humanity, hurried onward by the mere force of their misery — objects only for compassion. It was not a mere company of people deceived by agents of colonization schemes, and to be looked upon only as " objects of speculation." Nor are this people to be considered as merely moved by that unreasoning unrest which at times takes possession of the popular mind with such collective force as to set in motion migrations and invasions. All of these constructions of the Palatine immigration have severally been suggested and more or less emphasized by those who have alluded to it.

But it is not difficult to show that such conceptions are unworthy and far below the real dignity of the movement. Attentive regard will discover in it motives and reasons far higher than anything which poverty, or unrest, or speculation can originate. It presents the impulse, the spirit, the patience, and the hope which a genuine exodus involves. These men were men of principle, who had suffered much for principle and steadfastness therein. The very poverty, which to some critics seems suggestive only of opprobrium, had come upon them for such steadfastness. Their story rightly told must tell of statecraft and church polity, of the movements and campaigns of armies. It must speak of sufferings which approach to martyrdom, of the dark crimes possible to kings and priests, of the oppressions wrought by unbridled power and the passive resistance offered by a steadfast adherence to truth. The Pilgrim Fathers were not the only company who sought in this western world " Freedom to worship God." The fact is that, if ever a body of emigrants came to America from under the hand of the oppressor, such were these Palatines ; and if ever the thought of religious liberty constrained men to leave their native land for hoped-for freedom in America, such hope was powerful with these children of the Palatinate. Hence it is, that the story of their coming hither, with the bitterness and pathos of their antecedent suffering and endurance, and the sturdiness of their unconquerable faith and determination to wrest fortune and happiness out of the very talons of despair, is one that should be better known to the student of American history.

In addition to that experience of affliction in the Palatinate which w-as the expelling cause of the migration, there are other elements of the story which give it singular interest and unique place in colonial annals. Perhaps never were a people the objects of such kindly treatment and so lavish generosity as the first few thousands of the Palatines experienced at the hands of the English, the Queen and her subjects vying in the effort to provide for their necessities. That chapter is unexampled elsewhere in history. Equally unexampled in the history of our colonial period is the story of the privation, distress, fraud, and cruel disappointment to which were subjected that large immigration to New York in 1 710. Their experience was utterly unlike that of all other bodies of colonists. Those of their countrymen who came in after years, as did emigrants from Enoland or other European countries, met no such distresses, and were under the pleasing compulsion only to subdue the wilderness and make for themselves homes in a new land. But the Palatine immigrants of 1710 found, to their bitter sorrow, that they had only made an exchange of masters. For fifteen years they suffered, with a disappointment of their hopes, a continuance of afBiction ; they were cheated and oppressed, and became the helpless victims of vindictive and rapacious men. Much of their affliction in America is set down by some writers to their own ignorance and obstinacy. But it will appear that their ignorance was rather an unwise trust in the promises of those in power, and that without their obstinacy, which in Europe had maintained their faith, they never, in that generation at least, would have found in America security of home and freedom. This, to the average reader, will seem a strange statement as descriptive of any community in the colonial period. Of that period, the most prominent conception is of an era in which the oppressed of the Old World found without failure an unrestrained freedom on American shores. For the most part this conception is true ; and it is the unlikeness of this description to the early fate of these Palatines in New York which makes their experience during the first decade and a half so remarkable an episode in the history of the colonies.

As to the permanent influence of this Palatine immigration, it goes without the saying that it were impossible for such sturdiness of stock, such patient and firm persistence in the right, such capacity for endurance, and such buoyancy of hope, conjoined with such addiction to religion, to be absorbed into American life without a deep impress on the character of after generations. Nor does the historian wait long for its testimony. Solely on account of the large influx of this German, and chiefly Palatine, element into Pennsylvania, bringing thither their qualities of industry, thrift, steadiness, and piety, the contemporary historian, Mortimer, declared that " Pennsylvania is since become by far the most populous and flourishing colony for its standing of any in British America."* So early did the beneficial efl"ects of this immigration begin to manifest themselves.

And to this day we can see with small effort the reproduction in the population of the Keystone State of that same moral earnestness,

* History of England, iii., 233.

soberness of mind, and unflinching persistence which composed the "staying" quaHties of the early Palatines.

In like manner a similar monument is left in New York, in many towns in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, and on the banks of the beautiful Schoharie, wherein are found many names of the early migration, families in direct descent and with the same old High Dutch leaven, delighting in memories of the fathers, steadily ambitious to emulate their virtues, thrifty, industrious, intelligent, and godly. Out of this stock came many who were second to none in the ardor of the Revolution. Far better than most of the people of the colonies they knew what it was to suffer under the hand of the oppressor, and by contrast how desirable were the blessings of liberty. Whole companies of them went to the front, — brave and loyal always, — first against the French and Indians, and afterwards against the British. They were largely Palatines whom Herkimer led to the battle of Oriskany, "of all the battles of the Revolution, the most obstinate and murderous."* It was to the Americans

* Fiske's Am, Revolution, i,, 292.

a technical defeat, indeed, but one of those defeats which rival victories ; for it shattered the plans of the British campaign, sent St. Leger with his regulars and Indians back to Oswego, and delivered Burgoyne into the hands of Gates.

Herkimer, than whom no braver man fought in the War for Independence, was the son of a Palatine immigrant, and lends his glory to their story. Other names might be cited in the same category of Palatine extraction and honorable public service. A stock that produced such virile and widely serviceable characters as Weiser, Herkimer, Heister, and the Muhlenbergs, — of which last name no less than four of those who bore it have laid America under tribute for praise and honor, — such a stock should not be considered the least significant or influential among those which have made our country what it is.

These then are the reasons for telling this Story of the Palatines. We would rescue it from undeserved obloquy. The tale will take us far afield. We have not only to look at that miserable company — sick, discouraged, sordid in their poverty and decimated by disease — landing at New York in the summer of 1710. We have to inquire what thrust them into that evil case. We will need to visit the land which they and their followers spurned with migrating foot. We must see them ground between the upper and nether millstones of kingcraft and priestcraft. We will have to follow the tracks of armies, and listen to some of the contentions of royal cabinets. Then across the sea in the new land we shall note their various settlements and dispersion.

The sources of information on many points are far from full, leaving many gaps in the narrative which the reader wishes to have filled. Yet comparison of the accessible data makes it possible to construct a tale, which we do not hesitate to publish as the true Story of the Palatines, and which is confidently offered as a thing of interest and value to the student of American history.

It is probable that many more items of the story might be found in the papers of the Lords of Trade, preserved in London, and in other archives of the English Government. But the labor and expense of consulting them do not seem demanded by the task in hand. All the main facts and much of the minute detail are accessible in this country. It will be seen from the list of authorities cited, that no small pains have been bestowed to arrive at a true understanding of the facts, and to place this Episode in its deserved position among the records of our colonial times.*

* See Note III.

Chapter II. The Palatinate

THE name of the Palatinate, as that of a political division, disappeared from the map of Europe before the opening of the present century, the principality being finally shattered by the Napoleonic wars. From the thirteenth century to the close of the eighteenth it maintained a varying importance among the continental powers. Its boundaries were changeable with the shifting fortunes of diplomacy and war. Situated between the greater and rival powers of France and the German princes, its soil was the frequent path of armies and field of battle. Either of the greater combatants, but more frequently the French, was wont to appropriate what towns and castles, what broad acres and treasures of the Palatinate he thought himself able koln

HEINE-CK

PALATINATE

or the:

RHINE

BOUNDARY OF

ORd/KTUST CONTKKCTION to retain. In the settlement of treaties, however, when each contestant was wearied by the war, and when, more often than otherwise, the status quo was re-established — proof of the folly of the war — the reigning prince of the Palatinate was apt to come to his own again.

There were, in fact, two Palatinates — distinguished as the Upper, or Bavarian, Palatinate, and the Lower, or Palatinate of the Rhine — or the Pfalz. The latter, with which alone this story is concerned, was by far the more important, and so overshadowed the other that, when the name Palatinate was used without qualifying word, the understanding was of the Rhenish province. Its boundaries may be somewhat vaguely stated as the states of Mainz, Treves, Lorraine, Alsace, Baden, and Wurtemberg ; boundaries subject to more or less of expansion and contraction, according as one or other of its little provinces became the spoil of war. Its lands lay on both sides of the Rhine, extending from near Cologne above Mannheim and containing somewhat less than 3500 square miles. Its capital was Heidelberg and its principal cities were Mayence. Spires, Mannheim, and Worms, all of which, with still others, have obtained famous place in history.

The origin of the name. Palatinate is notable. Derived from the title of its ruler, it means the principality of the Palatine. This title, Palatine, is in itself peculiar, and receives its explanation from imperial institution. It is supposed by some writers to go so far back as to imperial Rome and to the Palatine Hill, with its palace of the Caesars.* Others date the title from the time of the Merovlnoflan kinsfs of France, with whose court was connected a high judicial officer, called comes palatii. He was Master of the royal household, " and had supreme authority In all causes which came by fiction to the king. When the sovereign wished to confer peculiar favor upon the holder of any fief under him, he granted him the right to exercise the same power in his province as the Comes Palatii exercised in the royal palace. With this function went the title Conies Palatinus, Count Palatine, and from the ruler the province received its name."

Butler f gives a somewhat broader explana-

* Appleton's Ani. Cyc.

\ Revolutions in Germany, Proofs and Illustrations, p. 45.

tion of the title, as one conferred by the Emperor in the Middle Ages upon those who in his name administered justice to the empire. Evidently the original intention of the officer was with the idea of a High Court of Justice. As such the title is even found in English history, conferred by both William I. and Henry H. on nobles in the centre and west of England. As an English title it soon passed away, but retained its place for centuries upon the Continent. Under the old Hungarian constitution it was the title of the royal lieutenant, who at a later period officiated as mediator between the nation and the sovereign, and as President in the upper house of the Diet. Also in Poland the title obtained for the governors of the larger divisions of the kingdom. None of these ever achieved as Count Palatine, any historical prominence. The chief significance of the title is found in the story of the Palatinate, the ruler of which was a king in everything but name, and frequently exercised large influence on European politics.

Now, the curious thing in historical nomenclature is that, unlike all other princes, the ruler of the Palatinate did not receive his title from the land he governed, but from his title gave the name to his dominions. Louis XIV., with all his magnificence, took his title from his realm and was known as King of France. But the Count Palatine was not so named because he ruled the Palatinate, but that country was the Palatinate because its ruler was a Palatine. Another curious thing is that the people of the Palatinate were described by the same name as their prince. They were all Palatines together, a title with him descriptive of place, honor, and authority, but with them only of birth and nationality. Such, indeed, is the fact with respect to all the emigrants from that country, though how widely the name may have obtained in continental usage does not appear. It is somewhat curious that these people should at times be called Palatinates — a misnomer which is almost grotesque. It is the same sort of absurdity as though one, in speaking of Englishmen, should call them Englands. Palatinate is the name of the country and never properly used for its inhabitants, who are always to be called Palatines, with their princes. As a name for the American immigrants, indeed, it had obtained such vogue, doubtless in consequence of the impression made on the colonial mind by the character and volume of the early immigration of that people, that for many years all Germans coming to this country, whether from the Palatinate or other provinces of the Fatherland, were called Palatines.

At the first the title of Count Palatine signified only a personal office, expiring with the life of its possessor, and to be renewed only on the pleasure of the Emperor in such person as his favor should designate. Probably under such conditions, and with such limitation of tenure, the title may have been more widely conferred as special and personal mark of imperial regard. In many such cases it must have been a title more of honor than of authority. This personal and temporary character certainly obtained with the Palatines of England, Hungary, and Poland. As early as the twelfth century, however, the title of the Palatines of the Rhine became hereditary, and no longer dependent on the favor of the Emperor. Until near the end of the thirteenth century the Palatines of the Rhine were the Dukes of Bavaria, the last of whom to bear both dignities was Louis, the Severe. He died in 1294, leaving two sons, Louis and Rudolph, between whom he divided his dominions.* Louis, the elder, took the more important and became Duke of Bavaria, while his brother received the Palatinate, and founded what is called the Rudolphine line of the Palatine family. The position of the Palatine was in all respects regal, save in so far as it was limited by those loose bands which bound all the German States, together with Austria, in the Holy Roman Empire. During the tenure of the Rudolphine line, the dignity and power of the Palatine were further increased by the imperial gift of the Electorship. By reason of this gift in rank and position, the title of the prince was changed, who thereafter was no longer Count, but the Elector, Palatine.