The British government in the first decade of the 1700's was actively pro Protestant and favorable to the Germans, especially the Protestant branches. One does not often hear it, but Queen Anne was married to Prince George of Denmark, a Lutheran of German stock. Add the enmity between England and France, and the wars that Louis XIV was waging in the Palatinate, and one has the ingredients for an active policy of encouragement to the Protestant Germans. Queen Anne's consort, Prince George, died on 28 Oct 1708 and the policy of the British government in the next couple of years may have been a memorial to him.
The encouragement offered in 1709 seems to have originated with Queen Anne, and certainly she took a part in relieving the Palatines who flooded London. She approved the policy of sending large numbers of them to New York, as a part of an official effort to raise naval stores, and to provide employment for hundreds of families. Some of the Germans were sent to Ireland, and many were distributed among English villages. Six hundred went to North Carolina under the care of Christoph von Graffenried.
The numbers were so large that it was like maintaining a standing army of thousands. The expense was huge, and the shifting political winds in Parliament forced a reversal of the policy for a few years. When Queen Anne died in 1714, her successor was a German, George I. Thus, the Germans could see that their people were in favor in London even though there was no active encouragement given to the Germans to migrate to the colonies. There was no objection to small numbers of Germans who did not seek the sponsorship of the English government. Small groups of Germans passed through London during the period 1710 to 1717, such as the Siegen people and the Mennonites. The official policy in London favored immigrants to the colonies, because they believed the strength of a nation depended on the numbers of people. One must remember that the French were in North America also and they were not looked on favorably. Financial support was not a part of the encouragement to the Germans though.
William Penn advocated a bill in Parliament in 1709 for the naturalization of foreigners. He argued that to thicken the population with people not our own should be encouraged. Late that winter, a bill was passed by Parliament for the naturalization of foreign Protestants. One of the provisions was that naturalized persons could pass their property on to their children. The naturalized people could partake in trade and commerce also. This act could hardly have discouraged the Germans. First, William Penn had "cheap" land, and, second, they could leave the land to their children.
We are seeing that several things contributed to the flood of large scale German emigration to North America in 1709. Once the dam gave way, there was no stopping the waters.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.