There still remained many Palatines in England waiting for some disposition. Col. Robert Hunter, who became the governor of New York to replace Lovelace who had died, suggested that many of the Palatines could be usefully employed in New York in manufacturing naval stores including tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin. England at this time was dependent on the forests of the Russia and Scandinavia for its naval stores since its own forests had been denuded. Using the Palatines for this purpose seemed like a happy way to relieve England for the care of the Palatines, to supply England with naval stores, and to earn some money to repay the costs. The Board of Trade heartily endorsed the idea. In this scheme the contract was between the English government and the Palatines individually.
They were to be fed and clothed by the government and should labor in the stipulated work until they had repaid the expenses of transportation and maintenance. Each man was to receive five pounds sterling and forty acres of land at the time of settlement and they were not to leave this land unless Gov. Hunter gave his consent.
About the first of January in 1710 (NS), the expedition left England. With about three thousand Palatines it was the largest single emigration to this country in the Colonial period. Ten ships were required, including two or three naval vessels. The voyage was long and stormy and the ships were driven apart. The first ship to arrive at New York did not do so until June. It was a few weeks after this that the rest of the ships arrived. The mortality rate was very high (one of six) and sickness among the survivors was high. For a lengthy period, the survivors were housed on Governor’s Island (then called Nutten) to protect the citizens of New York from the sickness.
Hunter sent a commission to discover a proper place of settlement. Another problem was that many children had been left as orphans due to the sickness. Hunter decided the best way to deal with this was to apprentice the orphans. One of these children was John Peter Zenger, who was apprenticed to William Bradford to learn the trade of printing. Zenger succeeded in this business and became himself a printer of note and a leading light in the freedom of the press.
The commission to select a site felt that the ease of transportation along the Hudson River required that the Palatines be settled close to the river. Robert Livingston who owned land along the river convinced Hunter that his land would be a good solution and he sold six thousand acres of land, about one hundred miles up the river, to the government. The Earl of Clarendon, who had been governor of New York, said that Hunter “fell into very ill hands.” The Earl was perhaps correct, for history records that Livingston was one of the ablest, shrewdest, most ambitious, covetous, and unscrupulous men in the Colony. He rarely came out of a transaction with clean hands but he always brought them full.
(13 Oct 06)
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.