Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

The Mohawk Dutch and the Palatines

by Milo Nellis
Their background and their influence in the
development of
The United States of America

This book is presented as so many others are on the Fort Klock site, without making any judgment call on the correctness of the information. There is careful research contained within the book and perhaps the reader might derive some insight into their family research from the information contained herein.

Chapter VI:

THE PALATINES

This brings us to a more extensive consideration of the Palatines, many of whom were Walloons in their origin. In 1897, G.P. Putnam Sons, New York and London, published a work by Rev. Sanford H. Cobb, who, like Wm. E. Griffis, became Interested in the subject while serving as pastor among the descendants of these people at Schoharie and Saugerties, and produced the best and probably the only careful study of those pioneers. From his Story Ot The Palatines we quote:

(p. 5) "It challenges our sympathy, admiration, and reverence, and is as well worth the telling as that of any other colonial immigration........... ''Very emphatic are the words of Judge Benton, in his History of Herkimer County: - 'The particulars of the immigration of the Palatines are worthy of extended notice. The events which produced the movement in the heart of an old and polished European nation to seek a refuge and home on the Western continent, are quite as legitimate a subject of American history as the oft-repeated relation of the experiences of the Pilgrim Fathers.'

"There are some general features of this movement which may be fitly noted here as suggestive, of special interest. The volume of it was very remarkable. The doors of the Palatinate seemed to be set open wide, and through them poured for forty years an almost continuous stream of emigrants, their faces set stedfastly towards America. There was nothing else like it in the colonial period, for numbers and steadiness of inflow. There were nearly three thousand of these people in the company landed in New York in June and July of 1710. Though the arrivals in port of the ships bringing were at intervals through five weeks, stormy seas having separated the vessels, yet the company was one, and sailed as such from England under one command and with one destination. This was the largest single company of immigrants to this country until long after the Revolution;"..........................

"At the beginning of the eighteenth century such an influx was notable indeed, giving rise to amazement and imaginings, and occasion for alarm to some timorous minds............Whence came they? Why in so great number, and in so deep poverty? What could be the object of the home government in, not only permitting, but encouraging such an influx of foreigners? What shall be done with them? How can they be provided for? The questions were many. There were grave speculations as to the wisdom of introducing so large a foreign element into these English colonies. When in the following years it was seen that this immigration of 1710 was the prelude to a continuous stream of people from the Palatinate and other parts of the German Empire, this cautiousness found voice in earnest public speech, and sought restrictive power in legislative action. It was loudly declared in some quarters that the unrestricted incoming of alien people, with their strange language and manners, might be dangerous to colonial government and society. Coming In so great numbers and so frequent accessions, they might in a short time obtain the majority in any community, and 'subvert our institutions.' With the French upon our borders --it was said -- always hostile, frequently stirring up the Indians against us, their peace little better than an armed truce, is it wise to admit other aliens to our very firesides?

''All this, indeed, did not come to expression or to thought at once upon the immigration of 1710, but most of it, on the continuance of the movement then begun; which continuance must be borne in mind in any proper understanding of the 'Story Of The Palatines.' As to the immediate effect on the colonial mind of the coming of this first great immigration of the Palatines, it seems to have been mainly one of surprise. In those days travel, by land or sea, was difficult and with many hardships; the movement of large bodies of people was slow; the voyage across the Atlantic took from three to fivemonths, and was made in ships devoid of all the comforts which the modern traveller considers necessities. The landing then of this large company was a most notable thing in the history of the Port of New York; and to every onlooking New Yorker, whether Dutch or English, assumed either the proportions of an invasion or the dignity of an exodus.

"Well - it was an Exodus. As we study the story of it, we see that the untaught wonder of the average on-looker at the time was correct in its expression.

"It was an exodus in the full sense in which Bible story has taught us to use that word --a going forth from the house of bondage to a land of promise. It was not the incoming of a rabble of distressed humanity, hurried onward by the mere force of their misery -- objects only for compassion. It was not a mere company of people deceived by agents of colonization schemer and to be looked upon only as 'objects of speculation.' Nor are this people to be considered as merely moved by that unreasoning unrest which at times takes possession of the popular mind with such collective force as to set in motion migrations and invasions. All of these constructions of the Palatine immigration have severally been suggested and more or less emphasized by those who have alluded to it.

"But it is not difficult to show that such conceptions are unworthy and far below the real dignity of the movement. Attentive regard will discover in it motives and reasons far higher than anything which poverty, or unrest, or speculation can originate. It presents the impulse, the spirit, the patience, and the hope which a genuine exodus involves. These men were men of principle, who had suffered much for principle and steadfastness therein. The very poverty, which to some critics seems suggestive only of opprobrium, had come upon them for such steadfastness. Their story rightly told must tell of statecraft and church polity, of the movements and campaigns of armies. It must speak of sufferings which approach martyrdom, of the dark crimes possible to kings and priests, of the oppressions wrought by unbridled power and the passive resistance offered by a steadfast adherence to truth. The Pilgrim Fathers were not the only company who sought in this western world 'Freedom to worship God.' The fact is that, if ever a body of emigrants came to America from under the hand of the oppressor, such were these Palatines; and if ever the thought of religious liberty constrained men to leave their native land for hoped-for freedom in America, such hope was powerful with these children of the Palatinate. Hence it is, that this story of their coming hither, with the bitterness and pathos of their antecedent suffering and endurance, and the sturdiness of their unconquerable faith and determination to wrest fortune and happiness out of the very talons of despair, is one that should be better known to the student of American history.

"In addition to that experience of affliction in the Palatinate which was the expelling cause of the migration, there are other elements of the story which give it singular interest and unique place in colonial annals. Perhaps never were a people the objects of such kindly treatment and so lavish generosity as the first few thousands of the Palatines experienced at the hands of the English, the Queen and her subjects vying in the effort to provide for their necessities. That chapter is unexampled elsewhere in history. Equally unexampled in the history of our colonial period is the story of the privation, distress, fraud, and cruel disappointment to which were subjected that large immigration to New York in 1710. Their experience was utterly unlike that of all other bodies of colonists. Those of their countrymen who came in after years, as did emigrants from England or other European countries, met no such distresses, and were under the pleasing compulsion only to subdue the wilderness and make for themselves homes in a new land. But the Palatine immigrants of 1710 found, to their bitter sorrow, that they had only made an exchange of masters. For fifteen years they suffered, with a disappointment of their hopes, a continuance of affliction; they were cheated and oppressed, and became the helpless victims of vindictive and rapacious men. Much of their affliction in America is set down by some writers to their own ignorance and obstinacy. But it will appear that their ignorance was rather an unwise trust in the promises of those in power, and that without their obstinacy, which in Europe had maintained their faith, they never, in that generation at least, would have found in America security of home and freedom. This, to the average reader, will seem a strange statement as descriptive of any community in the colonial period. Of that period, the most prominent conception is of an era in which the oppressed of the Old World found without failure an unrestrained freedom on American shores. For the most part this conception is true; and it is the unlikeness of this description to the early fate of these Palatines in New York which makes their experience during the first decade and a half so remarkable an episode in the history of the colonies.

"As to the permanent influence of this Palatine immigration, it goes without the saying that it were impossible for such sturdiness of stock, such patient and firm persistence in the right, such capacity for endurance, and such buoyancy of hope, conjoined with such addiction to religion, to be absorbed into American life without a deep impress on the character Of after generations.".....

"In many towns in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, and on the banks of the beautiful Schoharie, wherein are found many names of the early migration, families in direct descent and with the same old High Dutch leaven, delighting in memories of the fathers, steadily ambitious to emulate their virtues, thrifty, industrious, Intelligent, and godly. Out of this stock came many who were second to none in the ardor of the Revolution. Far better than most of the people of the colonies they knew what it was to suffer under the hand Of the oppressor, and by contrasthow desirable were the blessings of liberty. Whole companies of them went to the front -- brave and loyal always -first against the French and Indians, and afterwards against the British. They were largely Palatines whom Herkimer led to the battle of Oriskany; 'of all the battles of the Revolution, the most obstinate and murderous.' (Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 292) It was to the Americans a technical defeat, indeed, but one of those defeats which rival victories; for it shattered the plans of the British campaign, sent St. Leger with his regulars and Indians back to Oswego, and delivered Burgoyne into the hands of the Americans.

"Herkimer, than whom no braver man fought in the War for Independence, was the son of a Palatine immigrant, and lends his glory to their story. Other names might be cited in the same category of Palatine extraction and honorable public service, A stock that produced such virile and widely serviceable characters as Weiser, Herkimer, Heister, and the Muhlenbergs -- of which last name no less than four of those who bore it have laid America under tribute for praise and honor, -- (the present writer would suggest also John Peter Zenger and Col. Jacob Klock) -- such a stock should not be considered the least significant or influential among those which have made our country what it is.

"These then are the reasons for telling this 'Story of the Palatines,' We would rescue it from undeserved obloquy. The tale will take us far afield. We have not only to look at that miserable company -- sick, discouraged, sordid in their poverty and decimated by disease -- landing at New York in the summer of 1710. We have to inquire what thrust them into that evil case, We will need to visit the land which they and their followers spurned with migrating foot. We must see them ground between the upper and nether millstones of kingcraft and priestcraft. We will have to follow the tracks of armies, and listed to some of the contentions of royal cabinets. Then across the sea in the new land we shall note their various settlements and dispersions."

(p. 20) "The name of the Palatinate, as that of a political division, disappeared from the map of Europe before the opening of the present century, (19th) the principality being fully shattered by the Napoleonic wars. From the thirteenth century to the close of the eighteenth it maintained a varying importance among the continental powers. Its boundaries were changeable with the shifting fortunes of diplomacy and war. Situated between the rival powers of France and the German princes, its soil was the frequent path of armies and field of battle. Either of the greater combatants,but more frequently the French, was wont to appropriate what towns and castles, what broad acres and treasures of the Palatinate he thought himself able to retain. In the settlement of treaties, however, when each contestant was wearied by the war, and when, more often than otherwise, the status quo was re-established -- proof of the folly of the war -- the reigning prince of the Palatinate was apt to come to his own again.

"There were, in fact, two Palatinates -- distinguished as the Upper, or Bavarian, Palatinate, and the Lower, or Palatinate of the Rhine --or the Pfalz. The latter, with which alone this story is concerned, was by far the more important, and so overshadowed the other that, when the name Palatinate was used without qualifying word, the understanding was of the Rhenish province. Its boundaries may be somewhat vaguely stated as the states of Mainz, Treves, Lorralne, Alsace, Baden, and Wurtenberg; boundaries subject to more or less of expansion and contraction, according as one or other of its little provinces became the spoils of war. Its lands lay on both sides of the Rhine, extending from near Cologne above Manheim and containing somewhat less than 3500 square miles. Its capital Heidelberg and its principal cities were Mayence, Spires, Manheim, and Worms, all of which, with still others, have obtained famous place in history.

"The origin of the name, Palatinate, is notable. Derived from the title of its ruler, it means the principality of the Palatine. He was Master of the royal household, and 'had supreme authority in all cases which came by fiction to the king. When the sovereign wished to confer peculiar favor upon the holder of any fief under him, he granted him the right to exercise the same power in his province as the Comes Palatii exercised in the royal palace. With this function went the title Comes Palatinus, Count Palatine, and from the ruler the province received its name'......

"Palatinate is the name of the country and never properly used for Its inhabitants, who are always to be called Palatines, with their princes." (p. 26) ''The position of the Palatine was in all respects regal, save in so far as it was limited by those loose bands which bound all the German States, together with Austria, in the Holy Roman Empire....

"The accession of Frederick (1559) in addition to change of dynasty, marked an epoch of importance in the history of the Palatinate, in that he associated himself and his house with the Reformed, or Calvinistic, branch of the Protestant Church...... The situation of the country brought the people into early contact with the Reformation and its great teachers. Wittenberg was not far to the east, and Geneva no farther on the south, and the people were open-eared to both Luther and Calvin...... Both Lutheran and Reformed doctrine found a friendly and fertile soil in the Palatinate. The numerical strength was with the followers of Geneva, to that extent that for generations the Palatinate was known as a stronghold of the Reformed; while the Lutheran element, found in large numbers was accorded by their neighbors of the Reformed faith the charity and tolerance of common Christian brotherhood. So when the people began to flock across the sea, Lutheran and Reformed came together, bringing each his own special thought and desire of worship and doctrine. It is interesting to note in the history of their settlement in America, that almost in every place where they made their permanent homes both forms of the Protestant faith found early foothold and habitation. Side by side they erected their humble churches, since grown in many places into noble temples. And to this day, in the valleys of the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Schoharie, and the Swatare, the children of those Palatines still Lutheran and Reformed, worship side by side as their fathers of the sixth generation gone, worshipped on the Rhine.

"When, in 1690, John Williams became the Elector Palatine, he brought on the greatest change of all, seeking ...... to bring the Palatinate again under the Roman See.......... To the people already suffering from the intolerable hardships which the cruelest of wars had thrust upon them this persecution spirit of their prince came as the last impulse to break off their attachment to the fatherland and send them to make new homes in distant America.

''Of the wars which wrought upon the Palatines so piteously and expulsively ......... there were two of them covering almost the entire period between the years 1684 and 1713, with but four years of so called peace thrust into the midst of it: (1) The Great Alliance (2) The Spanish Succession. "Both wars were due to the overweening ambition and rapacity of Louis XIV. (Menzel's History of Germany, Vol. XI, p. 498) The possession of the Palatinate had long been the object of his most covetous desire. Like all the princes of France and almost all Frenchmen from the time of Philip Augustus to our own day, Louis considered that the frontier of France could be properly constructed only by the left bank of the Rhine. For this object many battles have been fought and many thousands of men have died. To the mind of France one of the chief glories of Napoleon was that he gave to her that boundary, and today the deep grudge of France against the German is that, twenty five years ago he wrested from her the Rhenish province. So to Louis, the modern Ahab, through the first half of his long reign, the fertile meadows and vine clad hills of the Palatinate, its populous towns and many castles with the smiling river in the midst, made a Naboth's vineyard which of all things he desired to call his own.........

"In the autumn of 1685 Louis ..... revoked the Edict of Nantes, by which Henry IV (of France) had given safety to the Huguenots and eighty years of prosperity to France. At once began the flight of the Refugees -- 'best blood of France' --to seek safety and new homes in other lands. Many of them found a warm welcome with the Palatine and its people, against whom, for this act of harborage, the wrath of Louis 'smoked like a furnace.' Holland and England had also opened their doors to the fugitives, but the Palatine especially, for the double reason that it was more accessible and was itself the object of his long desire, became the victim of his anger.......... The war lasted for nine years and in the Palatinate with unparalleled ferocity... Louis.... sent 50,000 men into the Palatinate under General Montclas... Louvois urged upon the King 'the Palatinate should be made a de- sert'... Montelas and his. Lieutenant Melac were neither unwilling or slow to execute the orders with as literal and complete a fulfilment as possible. Melac boasted that he would fight for his King against all the powers of Heaven and Hell.

"The Spanish Succession lasted twelve years, being terminated in 1713 by the Peace of Utrecht......... In every year one or other portions of the little State was made to suffer from the brutality of the French; and in 1707 the Marshall Villars led into it an army with the intent to repeat the work of desolation wrought by Montelas in 1688, having the same, though not so universal, result in burning towns and impoverished people, and then began that exodus which brought so many thousands of the poor people to America.''

(p. 51) "In 1710 a committee of the House of Commons appointed to Investigate the causes of the Palatine emigration, reported that it was entirely due to land speculators, who had obtained patents in the colonies and had sent agents into Germany to induce the peasantry to emigrate to America upon the said lands. Stress is laid upon the fact that the Palatines themselves had acknowledged the receipt of books and papers containing the portrait of Queen Anne, urging their emigration and promising rights of land. No mention is made in the report of any other influence leading to the emigration and inference is made that these poor Palatines were deluded 'objects of speculation' whom the arts of the land agents had, for their own purposes, foisted on the British public, to the great disturbance of home and colonial affairs.........One can hardly fail, on full study of the question, to be surprised at such conclusion...............................................................

"The records show 13,000 fugitives arriving in England in one year (1709) and these lists include mostly Mohawk Valley names of the present time, viz:- Klock, Nellis, Snell, Lepper, Fox, Ford, Dillenbeck, Diefendorf, Hoover, Roosevelt, Rockefeller, Wanamaker, etc.

"These destitute people were camped in the parks of London when Peter Schuyler, Governor of Albany, and Colonel Nicholson of the Royal Army, accompanied by four Indian Chiefs, including King Hendrick, arrived there in May, 1710*, to plead for assistance against the encroachments of the French. In showing the Indians about London they beheld the destitute and homeless Palatines and thereupon promised to give them land in America
*See Stone's Life of Brant, pps 3 and 4

with a view of thereby obtaining the very aid they sought. Confronted with the real problem of what to do with so many destitute people in England on one hand, and how to protect her colonial border on the other, the offer of King Hendrick bore fruit and Queen Anne readily yielding to her advisers promised ships and the Palatines eagerly accepted a chance to establish themselves in their own homes among the friendly disposed Indians.

"In June 1710, 3000 arrived under Governor Hunter, over 400 had died** of sickness on the voyage. The anxiety of the Queen's advisers, and of Governor Hunter, in particular, to get immediate financial returns on their "investment", led to an attempt to practically enslave these people in an impossible and expensive venture of making tar and naval supplies, and not only thwarted the original intent of Colonel Schuyler and King Hendrickand the Palatines as well, but also led to the financial and political ruin of the Governor and to unwarranted oppression of these poor people. (See Beers' History of Montgomery & Fulton Counties, p 34)

"The story of Governor Hunter's failure with his tar camps on the Hudson River; the consequent suffering Inflicted on his poor charges; their fleeing through the wilderness to Schoharie, at the beginning of winter, to seek and receive Indian protection from starvation and freezing; and their ultimate ejection, after ten years, from the lands they had there improved, which brought many of them to the Mohawk Valley in 1722, is a long one.

"Old Judge Brown in his historical sketch, Halsey in his Old New York Frontier , and some others seem to have too readily accepted the theory that the Palatines were an ignorant, stubborn and unmanageable lot, who therefore merited the treatment they received from Governor Hunter and others.

'Roscoe, in his History of Schoharie County has ably defended the Palatines but the opinion of Brown has gained unwarranted credence.

"If we consider the effort necessary for these poverty stricken sufferers to raise funds to send three of their number to England to present their grievances, we must be convinced that they had confidence in the justice of their claims and that Roscoete conclusions are correct.

"These deputies, viz:- Conrad Wieser, Gerhart Walrath, and William Schiff, having secretly made their way to Philadelphia in 1718, sailed from there, but were robbed of their money by pirates. The ship had to put into Boston for new supplies, and upon reaching London the Palatine deputies were imprisoned for debt. By that time, Hunter himself had returned to London to recoup his fortune. He falsely claimed that the Palatines had taken possession of lands in Schoharie already granted to others. His suggestion that they be removed to other lands on the frontier was adopted.
**See Stone's Life of Brant, p 167.

The Palatine deputies were not in agreement themselves, as to what should be done. This and their lack of financial resources lent feeble opposition to the influence of Hunter. Walrath, homesick, sailed for New York, but died before reaching his destination. Toward the close of 1721 Schiff returned, but he too died within six weeks of his homecoming. At last in November 1723, John Conrad Weiser came back to New York, still unreconciled to the government's proposal. (See Early 18th Century Palatine Emigration, W. A. Knittle.)

"The memorial carried by Weiser and his companions is found In Vol. V of Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York, p 553, but seems to have been ignored by other writers. In the interest of letting them tell their own story, it is here appended without further comment.

The Case of the Palatines, and other Germans in the Province of New York in America sheweth:

That, in the year 1709, The Palatines, and other Germans, being invited to come into England about Four Thousand of them were sent into New York in America, of whom about 1700 Died on Board, or at their landing in that Province, by unavoidable sickness.

That before they went on Board, they were promised, those remaining alive should have forty acres of Land; and Five pounds sterling pr Head, besides Cloths, Tools, Utensils and other necessaries, to Husbandry to be given at their arrival in America.

That on their landing there they were quartered in Tents, and divided into six companies, having each a Captain of their own Nation, with a promise of an allowance of fifteen Pounds per annum to each commander.

That afterwards they were removed on Lands belonging to Mr. Livingstone, where they erected small Houses for shelter during the winter season. That in the Spring following they were ordered into the woods, to make Pitch and Tar, where they lived about two years: But the country not being fit to raise any considerable quantity of Naval Stores, They were commanded to Build, to clear, and improve the ground, belonging to a private person.

That the Indians having yielded to Her late Majesty of pious memory a small Tract of Land called Schorie for the use of the Palatines, they in fifteen days cleared a way of fifteen miles through the woods and settled fifty Families therein.

That in the following Spring the remainder of the said Palatines joined the said fifty families to settle therein Schorie.

But that country being too small for their encreasing families, they were constrained to purchase some Neighboring Land of the Indians for which they were to give Three hundred pieces of Eight.

And having built small Houses, and Hutts there about one year after the said purchase some gentlemen of Albani, declared to the Palatines, that themselves having purchased the said country of Schorie of the Govr of New York they would not permit them to live there, unless an agreement were also made with those of Albany. But that the Palatines having refused to enter into such an agreement, A Sheriff and some officers were sent from Albany to seize one of their Captains, who being upon his Guard; The Indians were animated against the Palatines; but these found means to appease the Savages by giving them what they would of their substance.

That in the year 1717 the Governour of New York having summoned the Palatines to appear at Albani, some of them being deputed went thither accordingly, where they were told, that unless they did agree with the Gentlemen of Albany, the Governor expected an order from England to transport them to another place, And that he would send twelve men to view their works and improvements to appraise the same and then to give them the value thereof in money. But this not being done the Palatines to the number of about three Thousand, have continued to manure and to sew the Land that they might not be starved for want of corn and food.

For which manuring the Gentlemen of Albani have put in prison one man and one woman, and will not release them, unless they have suffict security of one Hundred C rouns for the former.

Now in order that the Palatines may be preserved in the said Land of Schorie, which they have purchased of the Indians, or that they may be so settled in an adjoining Tract of Land, as to raise a necessary subsistence for themselves and their families, they have sent into England Three Persons one of whom is since dead humbly to lay their Case before His Majty, not doubting but that in consideration of the Hardships they have suffered for want of a secure settlement, His Majestys Ministers and Council will compassionate those His faithful Subjects;

Who, in the first year after their arrival willingly and cheerfully sent Three Hundred men to the expedition against Canada, and afterwards to the Asistance of Albani which service they have never received One Penny tho' they were upon the Establishment of New York or New Jersey nor had they received one Penny of the five pounds per head promised at their going on board from England Neither have their commanders received anything of the allowance of fifteen pounds per Annum, and tho the arms they had given them at the Canada expedition which were by special order from Her late Majesty, to be left in their possession, have been taken from them, yet they are still ready to fight against all the enemies of His Maty and those countrys whenever there shall be occasion to shew their hearty endeavrs for the prosperity of their generous Benefators in England as well as in America.

Therefore they hope from the Justice of the Right Honble the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, to whom their Petition to their Excellencies the Lords Justices has been referred That they shall be so supported by their Lordships Report, as to be represented fit objects to be secured in the Land they now do inhabit or in some near adjoining lands remaining in the right of the Croun in the said Province of New York.

And they shall ever pray as in duty bound, etc.

Aug. 2, 1720

Soon after his return to America, Conrad Wieser and his followers left the Schoharie settlements by boats down the Susquehanna River to Tulfehoken, Penn., near Reading and Valley Forge, and there reestablished themselves permanently. Even before that, others of the Schoharie settlers were leaving for the Mohawk Valley.

Touching upon this Simms (Frontiersmen of New York, Vol I, p 105) tells us that "Gov. Benjamin Fletcher in 1698 had issued such extravagant land patents to Rev. Godfrey Dellius and others, especially in the Mohawk Valley, that, on complaint of the Mohawks of the Ticonderoga castle, whose lands were embraced in the grants, they were annulled, which finally opened the way for the coming of the Palatines into the Mohawk Valley....... No future grant to any Individual was to exceed 2,000 acres."

Simms (p. 135) points to Hunter's added report "that their lordships knew that all the lands of any value were granted away before his administration; but that there was still a great tract of land granted to Dominie Dellius, which grant had been annulled by the Legislature. He thought if they were willing to go upon it, and their lordships were disposed to make them an offer to, a letter to the present Governor (Bumet), for that purpose would do the thing."

Page 137 mentions "another grant made to Rev. Godfrey Dellius, for a tract of land on the east side of the Hudson, about 70 miles in length and 12 in breadth. It extended north through Washington County into Vermont, and contained 620,000 acres. The quit-rent for this grant was a raccoon skin per annum".

(Page 139) "The Earl of Belmont who succeeded Gov. Fletcher in Apr. 1698 recommended annulling all those exhorbitant land grants, of Dominie Dellius he wrote:- 'I thought it better to lose a wicked clergyman than a good Bill'".

(Page 140) Bellmont 'having been violently assailed by Dominie Dellius and his friends, in a letter to the Lord Bishop of London, Sept. 11, 1699, he descanted upon the character of that former minister of Albany, whom he characterized as not only very immoral but as a liar, a drunkard and a seducer."

"On March 5, 1701, Gov. Bellmont died; and this same uncertainty hung over the question of annulling grants until 1708..... but matters relating to those immense tracts of land given individuals were the cause of a world of difficulties, which even cropped out as late as Gov. Colden's time in 1762." Gov. Burnet was evidently anticipating the re-location of the Schoharie settlers on the Mohawk and the prospect of private gains there from, and on March 8, 1722, together with five of his political associates secured for themselves the Harrison Patent of 12,000 acres, the first to be granted out of the Dellius lands , covering the best part of the available lands. The western half of this Patent, in the course of time, became the present township of St. Johnsville. The major part of the entire patent passed into the possession of Hendrick Klock and his family at a handsome profit to the Burnet crowd. The sequel is told briefly in the following sketch of the Nellis family, prepared by the present writer for the St. Johnsville Enterprise and News in July, 1926:

" The best Information obtainable indicates that the name Ne-lis (Nellis) is of French origin; the family is therefore believed to have been of those Huguenots driven from France when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Many of the refugees fled to the Palatines of Germany on the banks of the Rhine but were again driven from there by the murdering armies of the same monarch in 1710. In the spring of that year, 13,000 fleeing Palatines arrived in London in three months. Queen Anne sent 3000 to America among whom were three Nellis brothers, William, Christian, and Johannes. They were born in Heidelberg, Germany. Apparently, their parents perished on that terrible voyage to America, as no record of their arrival appears. William, the oldest son, was but 16 years of age. They were quartered for months on what is now Governor's Island, and later were transferred to Governor Hunter's 'tar camps' on the upper Hudson River near Germantown and West Camp of the present day. In the winter of 1710, William Nellis' name appears among those in the camp called Queensbury, on the east bank of the Hudson. In 1711, he joined Governor Nicholson's expedition against the French and Indians. In the fall of 1713, Governor Hunter abandoned his tar camps and left the Palatines destitute, half naked, homeless and starving, to face the winter. They applied to, and were received by the Indians at Schoharie after a harrowing journey through the wilderness, across the mountains. There they remained nearly ten years when land title troubles instigated by Governor Hunter made them abandon the land they had improved and flee still deeper into the wilderness.

"Johannes joined a group that floated down the Susquehanna to William Penn's settlements located near Reading and Valley Forge. William and Christian came to the Mohawk Valley by the way of Schoharie Creek. Governor Bumet, who succeeded Governor Hunter, and had been advised by the latter, took title to the land of the Harrison Patent instead of giving title to the settlers as had been promised, and further trouble ensued. As a result, William Nellis and 26 others, as a reward for their military service of 1711, and their loyalty to government, finally secured title, Oct. 19, 1723, to the Stone Arabia Patent. William secured lots Nos. 32 and 42 of this patent. About the same time, Hendrick Klock, a Dutch Indian trader* who evidently knew something of the country, embraced the opportunity afforded by the Harrison Patent trouble and secured lot No. 13 of that patent. The two patents adjoined. William Nellis married Margretha, a daughter of Hendrick Klock, and on Dec. 21, 1754, his son William secured with his uncle George KLock, the Klock and Nellis Patent. William Nellis Sr. had five sons, viz; William Jr., Henry, Johannes, Ludwig, and Andrew.

Henry W. Nellis, Jr., who is believed to have been a son of Andrew, and grandson of Pioneer William, secured a part of lot No. 8 of the Harrison Patent and gave therefrom the site for the Palatine Stone Church, built in 1770. When the Revolutionary War broke, Henry W. Nellis, Jr., who had held office under Sir William Johnson, and his son Robert, went to Canada with Sir John Johnson, joined the British Army and forfeited their land which subsequently came into the hands of the Cochran family Henry W., Jr., saved the old church from destruction when Sir John ravished this section, but he never returned to the valley to live, and his descendants form a large family still living in Canada.

William Sr., died and was buried at Stone Arabia Jan. 17, 1778, aged 84 yrs., 10 days.

On Feb. 29, 1718, Christian Nellis married another daughter of Hendrick Klock named Barvalis. In 1725 he secured lot No. 12 of the Harrison Patent adjoining the land of his father-in-law. This land remained in possession of his direct descendants until about 1887, when it was sold and purchased by Alpha Nellis of Ephratah, a descendant of William Sr.'s son, Johannes.

Christian Nellis Sr. had six sons: viz:- Christian Jr., Henry, Robert, Adam, George, and Theobold. He died in 1771, aged 74 yrs. and was buried in the Old "Klock s Church* yard, close to where the first church stood. His grave marked with a crude limestone slab, lettered in crude German, with a cold chisel, can still be deciphered. A few paces distant is found his father-in-laws slab marked, "Here Ley H.K. 1762-97 Jahr".

Christian Nellis Jr. became active on the Tryon County Vigilance Committee of the Revolutionary War. His house and grist mill on the flats between the present railroad and the river, was Fort Nellis. He fought at Oriskany, served as a judge of Tryon County, attended at least one meeting of the state legislature at Poughkeepsie, and was killed by his runaway team at Timmerman's Mill - now St. Johnsville - on August 18,1808. He and his sister, widow of Col. Jacob Klock, are buried on the private burial plot of Lot No. 12 of the Harrison Patent. Their markers, though weather beaten,
* Described as a yeoman from Schoharie in his deed for lot No. 13 of the Harrison Patent, dated Aug. 16, 1725.

can still be deciphered.

Christian Nellis Jr. had three sons, Christian, Jacob C., and John C. This Jacob C. is the grandfather of Jacob C. Nellis, who died in Fort Plain, Jan. 1927, aged 95 years.

The Klocks and Nellises and their neighbors prospered and enjoyed peace in their final, permanent homes for a quarter of a century. Then, in 1738, a daring and ambitious young Irishman, William Johnson by name, with a "big political pull" in the English Government arrived in the vicinity, and in fifteen years had elevated himself to master of all his surroundings. The story of his ambition, his hatred of the Dutch, and the opposition he encountered at the hands of the Klocks and their neighbours now about to be told, will be introduced by a brief sketch of his life and character that has been more frequently omitted than mentioned by our historians.

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