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| OK, this is Maine, but I couldn't get to England to take the proper shot! |
He already had made his way from deep in the Palatine,
his Bavarian home near the city of Zweibrucken in what is now called Germany, to
a city that was more than 300 miles to the north in the Netherlands called
Rotterdam. If traveling by bicycle on the roads of today, he could make it in
less than a day and a half. Philip would have been amazed to know that in the
world of the 21st Century he could make the trip by automobile in
less than five hours! In his day, it would have been almost impossible, even by
horse and carriage, to make the trip by land. Roads of 1738 were poor and few, and
even fewer stretched in the direction he needed to go, Zweibrucken to
Rotterdam.
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| Ok, that's a model of a ship I made as a kid. Give me a break, everything else is copywritten! |
So why make it? Perhaps he was seeking a better life.
After decades of war, poverty was taking hold everywhere. Governments found
they needed to raise taxes to pay the costs of these wars. Many citizens had
already left, died in the wars, or perished from disease which made the tax
burdens of those remaining even worse. Colder than normal winters brought fuel
shortages and more sickness. The winter of 1709, when Philip was just seven
years old, was so cold birds were seen freezing in mid-flight[2]
and livestock froze in their pens, barns, and coops. Cold such as this hurts
not only birds and animals, but orchards and vineyards as well. Worse, temperatures
stayed below freezing for 3 months. It was the worst winter in 500 years.[3]
With peoples’ livelihoods damaged or destroyed by the weather, the government
taxing them at exorbitant rates, and wars continuing to tear families apart,
many were glad to seek a new beginning.
Colonization schemes began to spring up as shipping
companies and governments realized there were profits to be had in emigration.
That terrible year of 1709 sent many Germans, French, and Swiss headed to New
York and North Carolina with English promises of land, privileges and a new
beginning. However, many never even got
on a ship due to epidemics caused by overcrowding in “newlander” settlements while
waiting for ships to carry them across the ocean. Many who did find a cramped
space on a ship, died making the crossing. One scheme called the Mississippi
Scheme of 1720, was a French backed project that recruited more than 4,000
people from southwest Germany, Alsace, and Switzerland. Of those, only a few
hundred reached their destination, the coast of Louisiana. Another French
project, called the Cayenne Project, came to an even worse conclusion in 1763
when almost all the emigrants died.
However, enough good news reached the old world from the
new, that many people began to consider making the new world voyage on their
own. Beginning approximately 1717 and continuing into the 1750’s, this pattern
became the method most Europeans chose for making a fresh start in a new world
English colony. Solicited by shipping firm recruiters, sometimes alone,
sometimes banding together in small groups from the same location, they made
their way to Rotterdam. Ships bringing cargo from the colonies to Europe found
profit in being filled with human cargo for the trip west once more.
The profits, of course, came from the fees the travelers
paid. Fees were covered in any number of ways. Some people agreed to pay a
specified fee upon a set date after their arrival in the new world. Others sold
goods they brought with them to raise the fees. Some had money supplied to them
by friends or relatives already in America and still others indentured
themselves, using the money to pay the fare and planning on working it off as a
servant once there.
Conditions being what they were in his homeland, Philip
must have welcomed it when he first was approached with the suggestion of a new
life in America, no matter how he determined to pay his family’s fare! What was
not welcome were the physical dangers that lay before the little family at
every turn as they made their way. So much was outside of Philip’s control.
As the travelers made their way up the Rhine, thieves and
shysters did all they could to separate the travelers from their resources, if
not their lives! If the traveler survived these dangers, he faced lack of
provisions, uncooperative weather, the poor hygiene standards of the day, and just
the rigors of travel, that weakened the traveler, making him susceptible to
disease.
Clearly, it was essential to get to Rotterdam in as short
a time as possible but even in that, the traveler had little to say or do about
it! To fill their ships, shippers needed to get the travelers to Rotterdam. So,
the shippers made agreements with river boatmen, promising the boatmen free
shipping for their merchandise in return for transporting these emigrants; the
more emigrants, the more merchandise shipped for free. Therefore, the boatmen jammed
as many travelers on their boats as possible. Overloaded boats resulted in slow
and dangerous progress, often with disastrous ends. In addition, usually by
prearrangement with merchants along the way, the boatmen made stops, often too
many, to “give” the passengers “a moment of relaxation” and/or to restock food
supplies. However, these stops only increased the length of the trip while, at best,
creating more money spending opportunities or, the more likely, to make contact
with thieves.
Philip remembered how tired he had been when they had
finally gotten to Rotterdam, and how angry! There they were, in Rotterdam
harbor, they could SEE the city streets and buildings right in front of them,
but because of some difficulties with Newlanders the previous year, 1737, a new
law had been passed. No one was allowed off the boat! They all had to be taken
to what was essentially a tent city, hastily set up outside of Kralingen.
Philip was furious when he learned he and his family would have to stay there
until their ship passage could be arranged. But what was there to be done? It
was the law. Philip just hoped, and prayed, that his family could leave this
place soon, before any of the three of them caught the sickness that was so
common among the people there.
We know today the worry was worse than even Philip would
have thought then. Spending weeks in such close quarters, already worn down
from the trip up the Rhine, under low or non-existent hygienic conditions, one can
easily see how the on-set of diseases might be exacerbated; diseases such as Dysentery,
Cholera, or Typhoid Fever. Even a Common Cold might develop life threatening complications
under conditions such as these.[4]
All too many travelers never saw a ship before they died and those that did get
onto a ship, once again found cramped quarters on overloaded ships, in some
cases loaded 1/3 more than was considered normal.
The shipping firm Philip chose was the Hope firm. They
were preparing eight ships for the 1738 westward crossing: Friendship, Winter Galley, Queen Elizabeth, Thistle, Princess Augusta,
Oliver, Adventure, and Glasgow. As
if to add insult upon insult, the travelers were told, “Break up your trunks!
There will be no room on board for them! We’ll use the wood to make extra
bunks!” “Where will we put our belongings, our clothing?” the people asked. “Store
on-board what you can, sell the rest, burn it, do whatever you want but there
is no room on board for people and goods too!”
However, the anger Philip felt from this injustice was
soon replaced with joy. Philip and his family learned they had been assigned to
a ship, the Glasgow. They would be among the first families to begin the
journey across the ocean. Five of the Hope ships, now fitted with extra bunks
to hold all the people, what belongings that could be stored now stored aboard
as best as possible, the rest left behind, began the first leg of the journey
to Goeree arriving June 22; Philip’s ship, the Glasgow, among them.
Then it was on to England for customs clearance as
required by the Navigation Acts. Two ships, Queen
Elizabeth and Winter Galley,
headed toward Deal, desiring the northern route. Thistle, Oliver, and Glasgow,
headed for the southern route which would bring them to Cowes on the Isle of
Wight. The English Channel is famous for its storms. Philip was able to be a
witness in that regard as a storm blew up so violent it delayed the ships’ arrival
at Cowes, keeping them at sea 3-5 weeks, a trip that often took only a matter
of days.
The ship Oliver’s
captain found the storm so violent, he returned to the Netherlands and
resigned! Six passengers fled the ship there due to the death of two children.
However, a new captain was found and, now that the storms had subsided, he
brought the Oliver across to Cowes in just two days! The Oliver’s adventures were not yet done, however. After staying in Cowes
for six weeks, partly for the safety of the ship and partly to give the
passengers a respite, it started out again, this time for America, accompanied
by the Thistle. Again, storms blew up
forcing the ships to return to land, this time at Plymouth.
Winter Galley
was the first ship of the Hope eight to reach Philadelphia, doing so on
September 5th. Then on September 9, the Glasgow arrived, accompanied by the snow Two Sisters. Given the accounts of later arrivals, one wonders what
the Glasgow’s trip across the ocean
must have been like. By the end of November, it was reported that over 2,000
people had died making the crossing. One report stated that only two of the
fifteen ships to arrive by then arrived with the people “tolerably healthy and
well.” These were probably the first two, Winter
and Glasgow, which can be
accounted for by their having made the trip in the shortest time with the least
amount of waiting in the disease-ridden Kralingen camps.
Even still, it was not an easy voyage. Crossing the ocean
was a long and dangerous trip, taking by some accounts as much as 10 weeks or
more. Many on board became sick and some died. Captain Walter Goodman of the Robert and Alice, a ship from another
firm that arrived in Philadelphia on September 11 reported that his journey
began on July 4 sailing out of Dover, England and arrived “with crew and
passengers in good health but on the way had many sick people, yet since not
more than eighteen died, we lost by far the least of
all ships arrived to date.”
Captain Goodman’s statement is interesting. He says he
lost 18 passengers and that number was “by far the least of all ships arrived
to date”. Since Glasgow arrived
before the Robert and Alice, does
Captain Goodman’s statement mean more than 18 Glasgow passengers died during the crossing? Just what was the condition
of the members of our little family when they arrived in Philadelphia? We know
they survived the trip across the ocean, at least we know father and son
survived. Philip signed the oaths required of the immigrants at the end of
their journey[5] and
his son, Jacob, lives until he meets his tragic end in 1774.
If they, all three, were all well at the end of the
journey, what must it have been like for them to see Philadelphia come into
view at long last? Did the small family hug, cheer, weep, pray? Perhaps they
did all that and more.
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| I'm sure this is how they felt. |
Even the recently installed Pennsylvania governor, George
Thomas, was there when the Glasgow
arrived. He had decided to over-see the oath-swearing process to help him
better understand the health issues his providence would now face with the
arrival of these immigrants. The Glasgow
arrived in Philadelphia carrying 349 men, women, and children. The Captain’s
list of men aged 16 and over included 120 names of which 115 signed the oaths[6],
perhaps the other five were too sick to leave the ship. Those male passengers
16 years of age or older who were able to do so, disembarked and paraded to the
courthouse for the oath-taking ceremony.
Across the gangplank they marched and, finally, back onto
solid ground. How strange Philip felt to be back on dry land, to not feel the
rocking of the ship anymore. A quick glance back over his shoulder to find his
wife and child, and then on with the rest, he went, marching, like soldiers, through
the cobblestone streets of Philadelphia to the Court House. There, the ceremony
began. After some speeches welcoming them to Pennsylvania and cautioning them
to abide by the laws of England, each man was called forward to take quill pen
in hand and sign his name or make his mark upon two oaths; an oath of allegiance[7]
to the King of England and an oath of abjuration[8].
Philip was proud that he was able to write his name, not just make an “x” as
was done by so many of the others.
It is interesting to note that when Philip signed his
name to the two oaths, it appeared to the transcriber to be spelled “Phillips”.
His last name appeared to be written “Drum” but included a diacritical mark
above the “u”[9]. Although
facsimiles of these documents do exist, the information generally available
concerning these lists are the lists that have been transcribed from the
originals. Reviewing those alone, we cannot be sure if the double “L” and/or
the “S” in “Phillips” was as he intended or if it was a transcriber’s error.
However, in the new world perhaps the name should be new too, so from then on
it would be “Philip Drum”, well, most of the time, as we shall see in later posts.
The oaths he signed read as follows:
Oath of Allegiance
We Subscribers Natives and late
Inhabitants of the Palatinate upon the Rhine and places adjacent, having
transported our selves (sic) and families into the Province of Pennsylvania, a
Colony Subject to the Crown of Great Britain, in hopes and expectation of
finding a retreat and peaceable Settlement therein DO solemnly promise and
engage that we will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to his present Majesty
King George the Second and his Successon (sic) Kings of Great Britain and will
demean our selves (sic) peaceably to all his Majesties’ Subjects, and Strictly
observe and conform to the Laws of England and of this Province to the utmost
of our power and best of our understanding.
Oath of Abjuration[10]
At the Court House of
Philadelphia September 9th, 1738 Present the Honorable George Thomas
Esqr. Lieutenant Governor Thomas Goryus Esqr. The palatines whose names are
underwritten imported in the ship Glasgow Walter Sterling Comr. And the Snow
Two Sisters James Cranshall Comr. But both last from Cows (sic) in England do
this Day [repudiate] and [renounce] the Oaths to the Government viz+
The signing of these oaths was not to be taken lightly.
These were proud people. They were making a promise and for these people, a promise was meant to be kept. Imagine how Philip must have felt! He’d not only left his
homeland to venture into this new world, he now was renouncing any allegiance
he may have yet harbored in his heart for his homeland. He was making a full
and complete break. It was certainly an act that was not, could not be, and cannot
be, taken lightly.
Return to Drums of Drums, PA on August 16, 2018 for the next post, One life well lived, one life cut short.
Return to Drums of Drums, PA on August 16, 2018 for the next post, One life well lived, one life cut short.
Note: Unless otherwise marked, this post’s content is based on an article entitled “The Emigration of 1738 – Year of the Destroying Angels” by Klaus Wust (1986: Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland).
[1]
Glasgow Ship’s Log, http://www.immigrantships.net/v2/1700v2/glasgow17380909.html
accessed 9/30/2005
[2]
Hawk, Rev. James R., They Came from Germany, Aboard the Thistle (2016:
Lulu Publishing)
[3]
Arreseigor, Juan Jose’ Sanchez, “Winter is Coming: Europe’s Deep Freeze of
1709”, National Geographic History Magazine, Jan/Feb 2017
[4]
Infectious Disease – Britannica.com https://www.britannica.com/science/infectious-disease/Population-density accessed 5/25/2018.
[5]
Glasgow Ship’s Log
[6] Glasgow
Ship’s Log
[7] An
Oath of Allegiance is a statement swearing loyalty to an individual, group,
government, or cause.
[8] An
Oath of Abjuration is a statement that repudiates any previously taken oaths,
or personal feelings, of loyalty to an individual, group, government, or cause.
[9] Glasgow
Ship’s Log
[10] The
transcriber of the Oath of Abjuration in the cited source was unable to read
the words that appeared in the original at the points where the words in
parentheses appear here, so I have inserted my best guesses given the oath’s
intent. I believe the intent of the use of “viz+” at the end is to mean “all
former governments.”
