Urban TANNER, Part 3:
In 1709, for a variety of reasons, but most probably because of a desire to improve their economic situation, thousands of Germans descended on London thinking that Queen Anne would provide them with transportation to the New World, and would provide them with land there. I recommend two books on this exodus. W. A. Knittle wrote “ Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigrations ”, which is a must book for every student of German emigration. Excellent information can also be found in Henry Z Jones’ book, “ The Palatine Families of New York ”.
About 13,000 Germans went to London. Queen Anne, who was favorably disposed to the Protestants among them, wanted to do something for them but her purse (and the government’s purse) were limited. Eventually, about a quarter of the people were sent to New York along the Hudson River, where they worked, briefly, on a naval stores project. Several hundred were sent to North Carolina under the leadership of Christoph von Graffenried. About a quarter of the people were sent to Ireland. Many were distributed among villages in England. Catholics were sent back to Germany but many Catholic Germans became “instant Protestants”. Apparently Urban Tanner was in this group and he was one of the three thousand or so people who were sent to Ireland.
The Irish venture had three motivations. It could be a home for the Palatines and the English saw it as a way of injecting Protestants into Ireland. English landlords who owned land in Ireland saw a cheap labor supply. Ireland did not prove popular with the Palatines and about two-thirds of them found their way back to England over the course of years. Then many of them found a way to go to America which had been their original desire. This appears to be the case with Urban Tanner, though the details of the Irish sojourn and the return to England are skimpy (basically unknown).
Hank Jones made a study of these Irish Palatines which has resulted in the book, “ The Palatine Families of Ireland ”. This book has gone through several printings and is now issued in the Second Edition. Some of the Palatine families have extensive genealogical information, but the Tanner/Danner family has none. About all that can be said is that Urban Damur (or Damus) was the head of a Palatine family in Ireland on 13 July 1715. This fact is recorded in the Groves Papers . How these variations in the spelling of the name came about is unknown, but the records do record many variations in the spelling or perhaps difficulities in the reading/transcription.
The
Groves Papers
are more formally entitled, “
Collections on the Palatines compiled by Tenison Groves
”, which are to be found in the Genealogical Office at Dublin Castle as
Manuscript 540
. They are also in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast, as
Manuscript T808/15284
.
(17 May 07)
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.