Chapter Three

We don't know if the Presslers, or any of the Palatines, actually signed the agreement, or covenant, with the British Crown on December 21, 1709 (no signatures have been found), or whether it was just read to them. The agreement, which became a source of so much controversy in 1711, specified that the Palatines would, in effect, become indentured servants of the British government for an unspecified period of time, employed in the manufacture of naval stores until the profits had repaid the costs of their transportation, settlement and support. When the governor, who was to decide on what land they would be settled, had judged their obligations met, each Palatine was to receive a grant of forty acres of land.

The newly appointed governor of New York, Robert Hunter, was to accompany the emigrants on the voyage to his new post. Tents, guns, ammunition, and other supplies were obtained for their settlement on the frontier. Ministers to provide for their religious needs and someone to instruct them in the making of naval stores were obtained. Transportation was arranged to New York at the low rate of five pounds, ten shillings per head.

Ten ships were in the Thames at the specified time, and between December 25 and December 29, 1709, the Palatines were taken on board. Valentine and Christina Pressler and their children were among this group, but we don't know on which of the ships they sailed. Because of the low transportation rate, the people were packed tightly into the small vessels.

When the ships reached the Nore, a buoy at the mouth of the Thames, the Royal Navy refused to accept responsibility for escorting these slow ships. It was true that the War of Spanish Succession was still raging in Europe, but this ineptness of the British bureaucracy was unconscionable. Two departments were working against each other to the detriment of the Palatines, and they were imprisoned in their ships for what eventually became a six month voyage.

All during the winter they remained in the rat-infested ships as they slowly made their way along the southern coast of England, stopping at times in the harbors of Portsmouth and Plymouth. The last letters written by emigrants at Portsmouth during April reported eighty deaths on one ship and one hundred people sick on another. Foul odors, vermin, inadequate food, no light or fresh air, filthy and damp conditions, and little or no provision for sanitation, had already taken their toll. Not until April 10, 1710, did they finally sail from Plymouth.

There were no passenger ships in the eighteenth century. The Palatines sailed on cargo ships, or merchantmen, just as the Mayflower passengers of ninety years earlier had done. In fact, there had been little progress in ship design during the preceding century, and to the inexpert eye, perhaps the most obvious differences included a lower forecastle and a somewhat longer and sleeker looking hull. Unlike the rigging of the fast men-of-war, the rigging and sails of cargo ships remained much simpler. This was necessary because of the fewer crew members manning the cargo ships, and of course, the result was that they sailed at a slower speed, much to the discomfort and distress of any passengers.

Deplorable Shipboard Conditions in the 1800s--probably much better than those endured by the 1709 Palatines (picture source unknown)

Passengers were crowded into the 'tween deck within the hull of the ship and below the main deck. The hold which carried cargo and provisions was below them. The 'tween deck had an overhead only four or five feet high, so that passengers could barely stand up, if at all, with no provisions for light or fresh air. Obviously, there was limited access to the main deck, and for long periods when weather conditions were inclement, they were battened down in their dark space below. There was no access to the galley, so food, such as was provided, was eaten cold. Drinking water was dirty, and worms invaded both the food and the water.

The Presslers and their fellow Palatines were mostly farmers. Indeed, it is unlikely that many of them had ever seen the sea before they had arrived at Rotterdam. In the worst of times in their beloved homeland, even in starvation times, there was light and fresh air. Now, confined in their dark quarters, with sick and dying companions, in the midst of a stormy sea, they must have been terrified. There must have been times when Valentine, Christina, and the children clung to each other, huddled in a corner, and prayed for deliverance, thinking that they might die at any moment, dashed into the abyss of a dark, stormy, and bottomless ocean.

It was not long before "ship-fever" began to decimate the passengers. From their misery, the doctors of that day began to call it "Palatine Fever," but we now know it was typhus, the deadly disease transmitted by infected fleas and body lice, which the Palatines reported at the time were biting them. On one ship 330 persons were sick at one time, and there were only three doctors on board the eleven ships. Of the 2,814 Palatines who set sail from England, 446 died before the end of July, and thirty babies were born but no record indicates how many of those died.

Daily quarrels among the passengers and within families were inevitable, considering the crowded and miserable conditions. Why had they undertaken this voyage? Who had made the decision? Would not they have been better off at home in the Palatinate? Even if they had starved to death, it would have been better to die among family and friends than to be buried here at sea with only strangers to mourn! Who would take care of their orphaned children, if they died?

And so a voyage of suffering brought them to the land of promise. "So we have come upon this expedition and are never more to see our Deutschland," wrote one Palatine several years later when he made the voyage to Pennsylvania. Eleven ships which set sail from London in December of 1709 arrived in New York harbor in the summer of 1710. The first of the ships, the Lyon of Leith, arrived on June 13^th, and the next day, the Lowestoffe, on which Governor Hunter sailed without any Palatines, arrived, along with several of the other immigrant ships. Prior to July 10^th, the Fame, the Tower, the Mary, the Hartwell, the Baltimore, the James & Elizabeth, and the Sarah had all arrived. The Herbert was wrecked on the east end of Long Island on July 7^th, while the Midford arrived after July 12^th. The last to arrive was the Berkley Castle on August 2^nd, which had had to return to England, and then set sail again.

The arrival of all these ships in New York harbor was of major concern to the Dutch city officials. There were only about 4,500 people in the city at that time with perhaps 950 slaves. The Council was informed that the first of the immigrant-laden ships had arrived, and the Mayor and the Corporation of the city "prayed that they might not come within the Citty as there was just cause to believe that there were many contagious distempers among them which might endanger the Health of the Inhabitants of the Citty."

It was decided that Nutten Island (now Governor's Island) was "the properest place to put them" for a period of quarantine, and it was ordered that huts be constructed for them on the island. Because there had been a scarcity of foodstuffs in New York that Spring, stockpiles had been created, and there was issued a proclamation preventing a rise in prices of bread and other provisions.

Since Nutten Island was not within the legal boundaries of any county in the colony, Governor Hunter established special courts of Judicature for the immigrants. The listmasters, who had been appointed by the British in England to be responsible for the families on each ship, served in the quarantine camp on Nutten Island as Justices of the Peace and helped in handing out supplies to the various families.

The immigrants were slow to recover their health and an additional 250 deaths were reported after their arrival in New York. Perhaps as many as 74 orphaned children were apprenticed, as a means of providing for them.

The Governor kept a record of his payments for the subsistence of each of the 847 families from the time of their arrival in New York until September 1712. These accounts were for the purpose of the Palatines repaying the government by their labors in the production of tar and pitch. From these first records dated July 1, 1710, it appears that Valentine and his family had come through the terrible journey intact. The family of Johann Philipp Greisler, listed on the same day, had not been so fortunate. Their two sons were still with them, but their young daughter, Beata Maria, had died somewhere along the way, probably in the London camps or on the long and difficult sea voyage to America.

On September 13^th, while they were possibly still quarantined on Nutten Island, Johann Philipp and Anna Catharina Greisler were blessed with another baby, christened by the Reverend Joshua Kocherthal, as Johann Henrich Valentine Greisler. Valentin Presler and Henrich Mehs were the sponsors, or godparents, and the event was eventually recorded in the West Camp Lutheran Churchbook.

The Presslers were not immune from tragedy, either. Soon after they landed in New York, their youngest son died, but late in 1710 or early 1711 Christina gave birth to a baby girl, whom they named Maria Agnes. One wonders if she was perhaps named after the little Greisler girl who had died enroute.

While the Palatines were recovering their strength and health, the Governor was involved in finding suitable lands and making arrangements for their movement to settlements in areas where they could begin to repay the government by producing naval stores. He decided upon a tract of 6,300 acres on the west side of the Hudson River ninety-two miles above New York City which belonged to the crown, and a second tract of 6,000 acres purchased of Robert Livingston on the east side of the Hudson, along with an adjoining 800 acres purchased of Thomas Fullerton.

Map of New York City in 1703, showing Dutch (green) neighborhoods and English (red) neighborhoods, along with the occupations of the residents.  The wealthier English and major Dutch merchants lived along Dock Street facing the waterside and port. (Eric Homberger, The Historical Atlas of New York City (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1994)

New York City in 1710 was a town which had been under English rule for forty-six years, but it still retained a significant Dutch flavor. Sixty percent of the population remained Dutch and worked primarily as blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, shoemakers, etc, while the later-arriving English and French Huguenots were forming a wealthy mercantile elite.

The fort which lay at the tip of Manhattan Island contained the Governor's residence within it, a two-storied twelve room house. Adjoining the fort was Bowling Green, or the parade ground, where the Palatines built a tent city after they were released from quarantine. In front of the fort was an area where market fairs were held on three days a week. The wall which had marked the northern limits of the Dutch town had fallen into disrepair, and the Dutch had taken the stones to construct a new city hall at the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets where the Reverend Häger held church services for the Palatines.

Most of the houses of the city were of the Dutch style with gabled ends facing the street, but English-style homes were replacing many of the Dutch ones. Shops of the merchants sometimes occupied the ground floor of their houses. Beyond Wall Street wealthy citizens were building fine homes and beyond them the farmers of Manhattan Island raised food for the citizens of the city. Most of the citizens of New York still cultivated gardens within the yards of their houses. The Presslers must have been delighted at their first taste of Indian corn and cornbread, and astounded at the availability of venison (forbidden to common people in Europe), wild turkey (a New World bird), Dutch cheese, and Dutch pastries.

The busy harbor was filled with ships from England and the West Indies. New York was still a frontier town, and brawls and fights were common. Taverns, or ordinaries, catered to the seaman who were in town. Dogs were allowed to run loose in the city. Indians sometimes could be seen on the streets in what the Presslers would have considered outlandish costumes. They must have been surprised and amazed at the sight of the black slaves, New York being one of the largest slave-owning colonies at the time. They probably had acquired no knowledge regarding slavery in the New World prior to their arrival.

All of these things Valentine, Philipp and their other Palatine companions must have discussed amongst themselves, as well as their hopes and plans for the future. Where would they find lands? What would they do in the coming months? Was the covenant to which they had all agreed in England the same one by which the English now told them they had to abide? Did they have to go up the Hudson with their other fellow Palatines?

Early in October the Palatines boarded the boats, probably not too unlike those in which they had traveled down the Rhine a year and a half earlier, which would take them up the Hudson River. Taking all their belongings and supplies, and sailing up the river to the lands to which they had been assigned, this was a sadder people than those who had sailed down the Rhine. They were survivors, and they were now more than ever determined to seek and find the life of which they had so long dreamed. The future months would prove just how much they had changed from a people who had passively submitted to the tyranny of German rulers and French armies to a people who would defy the British government and its representative, the Royal Governor.

By June 1711 seven villages had been established on the two sides of the Hudson River: Hunterstown, Queensbury, Annsbury, and Haysbury were on the east side and were known as East Camp; Elizabeth Town, George Town, and New Town were on the west side of the river and were known as West Camp. There were a total of 1,874 Palatines on the Hudson with about 350 people remaining in New York City, most of whom were reported to be widows with families, or those who had obtained employment in the city.

Both the Pressler and the Greisler families appear to have remained in New York City. The records do not indicate why this was so, but perhaps they were among those Palatines who had found work in the Governor's gardens or the gardens of some of the other wealthy citizens, or perhaps they had found work cutting wood for some of the grand estates around the town. For the Presslers, it may have been just another of what became a long series of independent moves away from the path they might have been expected to take.

Meanwhile, the organization which was to manage the business of the Palatines in the manufacture of naval stores had a somewhat military character. Dissatisfaction was not long in making itself felt among the Palatines in the Hudson River settlements. They claimed the contract being forced upon them was not the one to which they had agreed in England. They felt they should be given their land immediately. Their supplies were provided to them in irregular fashion, and food was said to be inadequate and inferior in quality. As vine-dressers, they disliked working in gangs under rigid supervision. In May of 1711 a rebellion of three or four hundred of the Palatines had to be put down militarily.

In addition to an unwilling labor supply which worked only reluctantly and a lack of continued financial and political support by the English government, there was inadequate instruction of the Palatines in the methods of producing naval stores. It might have been that the pine trees of New York were not as productive of tar and pitch as the Carolina pines, or the methods taught them for producing the tar were not correct, but, in any case, production was not what had been expected. In the Carolinas the industry was quite successful. By September 1712 Governor Hunter told the Palatines that they would henceforth receive no further subsistence from the government, and they would have to provide for themselves.

Shocked, but probably somewhat relieved, they began to drift away from the settlements in search of better circumstances and in the next five years many had moved away, some to Albany and Schenectady and the Mohawk Valley, some to the Schoharie Valley, and some to Pennsylvania and to New Jersey.

It's not clear just how long Philipp Greisler and Valentine Pressler remained friends, or how long the Greislers remained in New York City, but in time they drifted apart. The Greislers moved up the Hudson to West Camp at least by 1715, and in his later years Philipp lived with his son in Schoharie. In New York City, Valentine and Christina began to build for themselves and their children a new life.

© 1997 Donald W. Presley.   Reproduction of this material for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of Donald W. Presley.  No claim is made to previously copyrighted material.  Elvis, Elvis Presley, and Graceland are registered trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

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