Peter Benjamin Groat, recounting his ancestry in First Families of America - The Compendium of American Genealogy, states that one Johannes Groat was a "Hollander" among the Palatines and Dutch along the Hudson River when he volunteered to join an expedition against Canada in 1711.
A few words of explanation are due here to give one an understanding of the Palatines. The term Palatinate is the German name given to any territory ruled by a count palatine or count of the palace. These counts were officials appointed by the emperor to look after the royal interests in the feudal duchies. In the old German Empire, there were two important palatinates -- the Upper and the Lower. We are concerned here with the Lower Palatinate of the Rhineland, which included the Black Forest and the cities of Spire, Manheim, Weinheim, Mayence, Oppenheim, Heidelberg, Worms and Phillipsberg. This was the birthplace of German Protestantism. Deep-seated hostility between the German Protestants and Roman Catholics was the underlying cause of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the last of the great religious wars of Europe. A religious civil war at the beginning, it was actually a series of wars which eventually involved most of the nations of Europe. The war devastated the Lower Palatinate. Whole cities, villages, and farms disappeared and much of the property of the area was destroyed.
Persecution of German Protestants continued and during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) the Roman Catholics, under Louis XIV, took Strasbourg, destroying many towns and rendering thousands homeless. The Palatine refugees fled to the lines of Marlborough and Holland for protection. While the war still raged Queen Anne of England sent a flotilla to Rotterdam in 1709 and took many of the refugees to England. Some of these refugees remained in England, while others became tenant farmers in Ireland and Scotland. An English traveler, Femar, wrote of these immigrants to Ireland: "They (the descendents) have left off sauerkraut and taken up potatoes, though still preserving their own language." Later, many of those who remained in the British Isles joined their relatives who, as we shall see, continued their hardships in the Americas, victims of false hope and broken promises.
A not yet industrialized England found it difficult to handle such a great mass of refugees. Most of them were poor, uneducated, farmers who knew no other way of life. It is written that Peter Schuyler, Mayor of Albany, was in England at the time, having brought five Mohawk Indian chiefs to London. These chiefs are said to have given the Palatines a grant of land on the Mohawk River at Schoharie.
If the story is true, the Palatines were betrayed, for rather than Schoharie, they were taken to settlements in and around Livingston Manor and camped on both sides of the Hudson River, South of Albany, in the present area of Columbia, Greene and Dutchess counties.
They were promised free passage to America, individual "free" 40 acre plots of land, and 5 pounds sterling per head. They were also to be provided with "cloth, tools, utensils, and other things necessary to husbandry, to be given upon arrival." About four thousand refugees bearded ships late in December, 1709, and six months later, after the death of about 1,700 of their number, they arrived in New York. The following records tell of their plight:
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Second Immigration of the Palatines
In Council 13th. June 1710.
Reported that the ship Lyon arrived at Port having brought a considerable number of Palatines. As there were many contagious diseases among them they ordered that they be landed with their goods at Nutten Island.
Governor Hunter to the Board of Trade
New York, July 24, 1710
MY LORDSBy a small vessel bound for Lisbon I gave your Lordships notice of our arrival here (June 14). Since that time all the Palatine ships separated by the weather are arrived safe except the Herbert Frigate where our tents and arms are. She was cast away on the East end of Long Island on the 7th. of July; the men are safe but our goods much damaged. We still want the Bercley Castle which we left at Portsmouth. The poor people have been mighty sickly but recover apace. We have lost about 470 of our number:
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Governor Hunter to the Board of Trade
November 14, 1710
MY LORDSI have now settled the Palatines upon good lands on both sides of Hudson's River, about one hundred miles up adjacent to the pines; I have planted them in five villages; three on the east side of the river upon six thousand acres, I have purchased of Mr. Livingston about two mile of Row-1 of Jansen’s Kill (brook or river); the other two on the west side near Sawyers Creek, as your Lordships will observe by the enclosed sketch No. 10 compared with your maps. The lands on the west side belong to the Queen; each family hath sufficient lot of good arable land and ships of 15 foot draught of water can sail up as far as their plantations. They have already built themselves comfortable huts and are now employed in clearing the ground. In the spring I shall set them to work preparing the trees according to Mr. Bridger's directions.
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Upon arrival, they were camped in tents and set to work on an unsuccessful project to make tar and masts from pine trees for the British Navy, ostensibly to repay the crown for their passage and subsistence. They were later settled in seven villages of Livingston Manor (Hunterstown, Queensbury, Annsbury, and Haysbury on the East side of the Hudson River and Elizabethtown, Georgetown and New Village on the West side). The villages were generally referred to as East Camp, West Camp, Germantown and Saugerties. There they built small houses or huts for shelter to survive the first New York winter. They were not to leave the settlement until they had repaid their debt to the British.
The tar making project proved a dismal failure and, around 1713, the Palatines were permitted to leave the manor. Some resettled on the Mohawk Valley, in and around their original destination of Schoharie, others moved to Pennsylvania, where they became part of the Pennsylvania Dutch, and others remained on the Hudson River where they numbered 1,601 as late as 1718.
A complete list of the Palatines arriving in England in 1709 and 1710 has been examined and no family fitting the description of that of Johannes Groat is found.
The closest was among the third arrivals in 1709, a Johan Guth, age 36, with a wife, 2 sons ages 10 and 6, and a daughter age 11. He was a "Husbandman and Vinedresser". He was, however, Catholic. Another in the same group was Johan Graef, age 27, wife but no children, Lutheran. As will be seen later, Johannes had at least one daughter at this time.
However, in 1985, Henry Z. Jones, Jr., published an in depth study entitled: The Palatine Families of New York; A Study of the German Immigrants Who Arrived in Colonial New York in 1710. In it he identifies the family of Johannes Grad as an old one in the Neuwied Westerwald area of the Rhineland. Jones is quoted below:
JOHANNES GRAD
Johannes Grad was documented at 5419 Dierdorf (18 km. n.e. of Neuwied; Chbks. begin 1676; in 1704 he was called a shepherd at Bruckrachdorf (Dierdorf Chbk.). The family was an old one in the Neuwied - Westerwald area, some residing at 5905 Oberfischbach.
Johannes Gradt made his initial appearance on the Hunter Lists 1 July 1710 with 3 pers. over 10 yrs. and 2 pers. under 10. The reading changed to 2 pers. over 10 yrs. and 3 under 10 on 29 Sept 1711, and then again to 3 pers. over 10 yrs. and 3 under 10 on 24 Dec 1711. Johan Kradt was a soldier from Annsberg in 1711 (Palatine Volunteers To Canada). Johannis Graet was nat. 14 Feb 1715/16 (Albany Nats.). Johannis Kroth and Walburgis with 5 ch. were at Wormsdorff ca. 1716/1717 (Simmendinger Register). Johanes Craat was on Palatine Debt Lists in 1718, 1721, and 1726 (Livingston Debt Lists). He md. Johanna Walpurga (---) and had....
It would appear then, that our Johannes Groat was not a "Hollander" among these German "Palatines", but a Palatine immigrant himself.
Dutch or German. there is no doubt that Johannes Groat was among the Palatines along the Hudson as early as 1710. If the British administrators of the Palatine settlement were failures at making tar from pine trees, they made up for it by outstanding record keeping. They kept close tabs on debtors to the crown. The earliest record is a 1710 listing of Palatine debtors to the British government which includes a Johannes Gradt with a family of 3 adults (over the age of 10) and 2 children under 10. The debt is for subsistence given either on Manhattan Island or in the Hudson River settlements. Next we find a 1711 list of Volunteers for an Expedition against Canada which includes a Johan Kradt of Annsbury Village..
The December 24, 1711, list of debtors shows the family has grown to 3 adults and 3 children. The "Simmendinger List" (about 1717) lists a Johannes Kroth and his wife "Walburgis" and 5 children living in Annsbury. A Johannes Craat is among the 1,601 remaining in the 4 villages of the Manor on December 26, 1718. Three additional lists between January 1, 1721, and February 23, 1726, list Johannes Cra(d)t, Johannes Craat, and John's Cradt..
Thus, we can conclude that the original ancestor of the Columbia County, New York, Groat clan was Johannes Groat, and that he was among the Palatines in the Hudson River settlement of Livingston Manor as early as 1710. He may have been a "Hollander" but rather conclusive evidence indicates that he was German refugee from the Neuwied - Westerwald area of the Lower Palatinate of the Rhine River Valley. Further, we know that his wife's name was Johanna Walpurga or Walburgis (later we shall see this name spelled Waiburga in church christening records) and that they had at least five children and lived in the village of Annsbury in the Livingston Manor settlement.
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