German Emigration to England

St. Paul's Cathedral, London

I thought I'd share a little bit of my German Emigration research project with you fine people.  (remember to click on the pictures for larger view)

While in London, I was taken to the St. Paul's Cathedral.  In front of the Cathedral is a statue of Queen Anne.  After leaving England, I dove into my German Emigration of 17th and 18th Century research and came across Queen Anne a lot.  Reading up on her, she brought me back to my memories of that Cathedral.    Turns out that she is buried there... and the interesting part of her story for me is her involvement in the emigration of 1708-1709 by Germans (Palatines) [Rhineland].  As thousands of Germans of that area fled to the Netherlands [Rotterdam] on their way to London, which the Government of Rotterdam didn't want to allow after a while as those Germans were quite poor and didn't contribute to the economy, Queen Anne, a Protestant, helped the Germans, who were mostly Protestants with means of transportation, money and a roof over their heads.  She tried to find places for them in the West Indies and Ireland until eventually the opportunity came for some to go to the New World (although Germans went to the Swedish Colony in Delaware in the Year of 1638 already).   

"She was a sincere friend of the Palatines, doing everything in her power to improve their condition while in England, and to settle them comfortably elsewhere." (The German Exodus to England in 1709 by Frank Ried Diffenderffer, (Lancaster, PA)(1897), Footnote p.281)

Queen Anne

So Queen Anne has been an important figure in a way for a great number of Germans (Palatines) who wanted to leave a poor life behind them and live in England.    (Until Mr. Penn started his PULL-campaign)


I thought it might be nice for some of my readers to read this perhaps as a little "fun-fact"  ;-)   



Until my next post (in regards to my England/Wales research)... may you all have a most wonderful day :-)