USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 1 > Part 20
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The story of this migration is an extremely complicated one. The mass of evidence is large from which the narrative here pre- sented has been abstracted and simplified; yet, there is much in it that does not meet the eye, and which can be reduced to the level of high probability only by working significant fragments of evi- dence into a mosaic of consistent theory. There are many threads in the tangled mass of relevant documents, one of which at this point prompts to a digression leading up to the fact that Old Broad Bay was to some degree a French as well as a German settlement, and that this French element came in this migration of 1751 from the Comté de Montbéliard, an eighteenth-century part of the old Holy Roman Empire. It is a known fact that Crell recruited in this area21 populated by descendants of French Hugenots of whom great numbers had settled in Germany after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and against whom there had been renewed persecution in the years of 1750-1751. With what success Crell had worked among these people has heretofore never been known.
Very recently there have come to light French documents and letters in the Bibliothèque de Besançon, France, which make it clear that Crell did draw migrants from this area, that they crossed the ocean with the Germans on the Priscilla, that it was an exceptionally long voyage against headwinds, and that they landed in Boston, November 9, 1751. These French Huguenots were accorded an unusually cordial reception and were shown around and made to see the wealth, comfort, and fertility of the country. Thereafter they were induced to write glowing letters to the folks back home for the purpose of making them eager to mi- grate the next year. In all this there is, of course, the visible hand of Joseph Crell, which is even more visible in forged documents to which were affixed the signatures of a number of these French Prot- estants.22 The majority of this French contingent eventually settled
21Letter, Luther to Spencer Phips, Mass. Records (Ms.) XV A.
22Bernard Fäy, Franco-American Rev., I, No. 3, 276-283; of especial interest is the Acte de Déclaration du transport de l'année dernière.
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at Frankfort (now Dresden) on the Kennebec, but a number of these families elected to come to Broad Bay. Of interest in Waldo- borough history are the following heads of families: Georges Henri Dennuth (Demuth) of Wisenbachen, Jean Henri Dennuth of Bir Kenbauel, Jean Jacques Burckhord (Burkett) of Eichfelden, Pierre Bracht (Prock) of Altzen, Jean George Rener (Rinner) of Haltschut, Casimir Lorsch (Lash) of Hofheim. There were also other family heads difficult to cite at this late date. This group was unquestionably bilingual and hence easily merged into the settlement on the Medomak and lost its racial identity long, long ago.
With this digression completed, the main sequence of events affecting this migration is here resumed, and it should be recalled that this migration left the Ruhr in late May, sailed from Rotter- dam in late June, from Cowes on July 31, 1751. It finally arrived in Boston on October 28th. One hundred and fifty days had elapsed since they left their homes - a trip unnecessarily lengthened by many delays. The trip across the Atlantic alone took ninety days during which they faced strong headwinds much of the time. This was a passage almost without precedent in respect to length. It is a matter of unquestionable certainty, as previously indicated, that their provisions were entirely inadequate for such a trip. A great many of the immigrants arrived in Boston in debt to the ship, hav- ing been compelled to draw on the ship's stores for food to keep from starving, and hence subject to sale under indenture on be- ing landed. The facts strongly warrant the cynical supposition that the voyage would have ended in this same way irrespective of its duration, for as early as mid-September "numbers of Gentlemen Proprietors" in Boston were anticipating the arrival of this migra- tion and had been notified "to send in their proposals in writing" as to what they could offer for these "Germans and other Protes- tants." Such proposals were to be directed to John Franklin, a brother of the great Benjamin, "in Cornhill, Boston."23
The Gentlemen Proprietors were destined to wait quite a bit longer, for not until October 21st was the Priscilla reported off Marblehead,24 and on October 28th arrived in Boston "with about 200 Palatines." Winter was near at hand and the late arrival posed the problem of what should be done with these poor people. What actually was done is possible to determine only in general outline; for it was done either under cover or under camouflage. Due to the lateness of the season, the Province could not settle these people on the frontier; so to weasel its way out of its dilemma, the General Court took the position that until one hundred and twenty families
23 Advertisement in the Boston Post-Boy of Sept. 16, 1751.
24 Boston Post-Boy, Oct. 21, 1751.
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were on hand no township could be opened. Hence the fifty fam- ilies arriving on the Priscilla would have to await the advent of seventy more family units. This act left those Germans who were still free pretty much on their own resources in a strange world, with a New England winter setting in.
It is quite possible that this was exactly the effect desired, for it would place these helpless and homeless waifs in the hands of certain very distinguished Boston citizens who held large areas "in eastern parts" which they were in the process of settling and developing. These gentlemen were men of wealth and power. They were in the government. In the case of one it may be said he was the government. In short, whatever the nature of behind-the-scenes pressure or manipulation, the following advertisement appeared in the Boston Evening Post, November 18, 25, and December 2, 1751:
Lately arrived in Boston, a Number of German Protestants; some of them both Male and Female, not having paid their Passages, are will- ing to hire themselves out for a certain time, in order to have their Passages paid Any person wanting any of the said Germans, may treat with William Bowdoin at his store in King Street, who acts for said Germans.
The story of the distress, suffering, and hardship which fell to the lot of many of these good people during the winter months in Boston may well be passed over in silence. Under the duress of these circumstances they forfeited themselves to various interested parties. With the advent of spring some went to the lands of the Kennebec Proprietors at Frankfort (Dresden) and others accepted the terms of the New Germantown Glassworks Company at Brain- tree and became its bond-laborers. These were not able to join friends and relatives at Broad Bay until eight years later. The lion's share, however, seems to have gone to one, Samuel Waldo, who was not even on the scene, but who had anticipated them all through his lively interest in the Province's project, through his collusion with Crell, whom he saw in London in 1750, through his use of money with "the Commissiocier," and through a land contract with him.25 By virtue of such considerations Crell had undertaken to deliver to Mr. Waldo an agreed number of families. Just how this was to be done while he was working for the Prov- ince does not appear in any documentary form. But certainly the lion's share of the prey was lined up in Boston during the winter by Waldo's son-in-law, Isaac Winslow, and with the spring of 1752 this lion's portion reached Broad Bay in the persons of be- tween twenty-five and thirty families. This fact is substantiated by the very highest authority, that of Joseph Ludwig, one of the
"A grant of a specified number of acres at Broad Bay.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
original Broad Bay settlers, who in his lifetime told Cyrus Eaton that "twenty or thirty German families, who had arrived the pre- vious year in Massachusetts, were induced to remove to Broad Bay and settle with their country men there, on the Dutch Neck and down about the Narrows."26 This same solution of their prob- lem is confirmed by Schoff, who states, "both German and Hugue- nots went to Broad Bay where they settled on Dutchmens' Neck."
After Crell's departure with his first transport for Boston in 1751, Luther continued his activity from Frankfort with the end in view of counteracting the influence of those who were bent on undermining the New England project. He has defined his own activity as follows:
Discovering from day to day more and more of the bad Effects of the caluminating discourses of the Pennsilvania Recruiters and of the passionate Conduct of the Deputy of the Agent for Nova Scotia at Rot- terdam I neglect no Opportunity in order to dissipate the bad Impres- sions these malicious and false Insinuations have excited in Peoples' Minds: this induced me till this time to cause to be inserted in the Pub- lick Newspapers Everything my Correspondence would furnish me with which I thought would contribute to this salutary End.27
Luther went further and proposed to the Province a compre- hensive plan for handling migrations by which all control would be centered in his hands, all abuses would be eliminated and the profits of this business which totalled "from twelve to twenty thousand pounds Sterling per annum" would be destroyed.28 Such an arrangement the Province, for rather obvious reasons, declined to enter into.
In brief, this was the situation which was to confront Crell in his next recruiting campaign in the Rhineland. In the meantime he had embarked on February 12, 1752, for his second mission abroad for the Province. Toward the end of March he arrived at St. Ives in Cornwall and proceeded to London, where he met General Waldo and renewed his contract with him to recruit for the latter's project at Broad Bay. In this contract as a sop to Luther there was inserted a clause stipulating that those who were brought to Broad Bay "should have the freedom to remain there or to be- take themselves to other places as might best suit them."29 This was a concession that Waldo could well afford, since once the Germans were recruited and landed on American soil he would be in a position to gain his objective unhampered by Luther's high humanitarianism. In other words, once the settlers were at Broad Bay he could see to it that they stayed there.
26Cyrus Eaton, Annals of Warren, 1st ed., p. 81.
27 Mass. Archives, Vol. 92, Letter, Luther to Phips, Sept. 12, 1751. 28 Letter, Waldo to Josiah Willard, Oct. 31, 1752, Mass. Records, XV A, 202-215. 29 Letter, Luther to Phips, Sept. 14, 1752, Mass. Archives, XIV.
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In early April 1752 Crell crossed from England to Rotter- dam, where he entered into a contract with one of the most avari- cious and conscienceless of the English firms in that city, Daniel Harvard and Company, for handling his transport of that year to New England. This contract was made without Luther's knowl- edge and in the face of the fact that Crell had previously acqui- esced in Luther's opening negotiations with a more humane firm in Amsterdam, Knevels and Company. From Rotterdam Crell pro- ceeded to Frankfort, where he again set up headquarters in Luther's house.
Crell's arrival was the signal for the battle to start. Practically all the interests and forces engaged in the emigrant traffic were pit- ted against him - the representatives of the Rotterdam shipping firms, Messrs. Dick and Koehler, the agents for Nova Scotia, and the whole host of recruiters for Pennsylvania and the southern provinces sought to destroy the New England project by subject- ing Crell to continual misrepresentation, slander, and humiliation. As in 1751, Luther gave loyal support and had his friends set up recruiting bureaus in the different Rhenish centers. From the be- ginning the war was carried on in newspaper advertisements, and no trick was left untried by the opposition, aroused to destroy Crell's credit with all prospective emigrants in the Rhineland. The character of the tactics used may be inferred from the following sample, a letter to Luther from Goethel, head of the recruiting bureau in Speyer: "There are people in Heidelberg, Mannheim and Worms appointed by Mr. Dick who enlist People for noth- ing and promise to transport them gratis to Nova Scotia, without their paying any Thing for their Passage or Board. This is the Rea- son that several who were inclined for New England, have been decoyed by them."30 Here, as in so many other cases, the emi- grants were promised free passage, free land, free food for six months after arrival, and free equipment for their farms.
In the face of such opposition Crell worked openly with Luther to secure recruits for the Province project at the same time that he was, through professional recruiters, enrolling "freights" for the Boston landed proprietors and Samuel Waldo. It was his aim to secure a sufficient number to charter one ship for Boston and another for Broad Bay. The settlers for the Waldo grant he hoped to enroll hastily toward the end of his recruiting in the northern part of the Westerwald in the district of Westphalia, and in the bordering principalities of Wittgenstein, Soln, and Nassau. To this end he had circulars or handbills printed and circulated in Oelpe, Bielstein, Smalenberg, Ollendorp, Meschede, Berlenburg, Laasphe, Dillenburg, and other places. Thither also he quietly sent
30 Mass. Records, XV A, 120-121.
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his agents, and in the middle of May 1752 went himself to Herborn to assemble his recruits. Here he set up headquarters in the house of the publisher, Riglein. The latter was a friend of Luther, and Crell, in order to cover up the real intent of his activity in this district, played Luther up in one of his circulating fliers as a pa- tron of emigration to New England. Elsewhere in this circular he made it clear that
by reason of a contract concluded with Brigadier General Waldo, I have obligated myself to accompany a considerable number of these peo- ple to his own estate in the Province of Massachusetts Bay; I do hereby affirm and give notice that Mr. Waldo may depend completely on my fulfilling the contract in question and that all people in the district of Westerwald who have determined to assemble and to emigrate, are to be embarked immediately on board the ship, which I have chartered of Mr. Harvard, shipper of Rotterdam, and which is destined for Broad Bay, with this condition however, that all such who may prefer to go to Boston, will be transported to that place free and without any inter- mediate stop.31
The plan that was furthered by this circular was not entirely successful. The recruits that Crell was able to get together in this area in late May were not sufficient to fill a ship, but he could not delay for more, for the end of May had been stipulated as the pe- riod when the recruits should assemble from all districts for the trip down the Rhine to Holland. On May 19th, the Würtembergers left Heilbronn "etwa hundert Köpfe stark."32 Each one, with the exception of two unmarried people, had the money necessary to pay the costs of transportation. From Speyer there went at the same time about sixty persons; and about a hundred had been as- sembled in Franconia. This number was further augmented by the eighty to ninety enrolled by Crell in the Wetterau. About June 1st the different transports met at the mouth of the Ruhr, with a total of around three hundred and fifty freights aboard, and pro- ceeded in river boats down the Rhine to Holland, where they were examined as to means by the Dutch Imperial Commissioners in order that none should be stranded as paupers in that country. Crell had gone ahead by post to make the necessary arrangements in Rotterdam for the reception of the migration which was proceed- ing to that city under the leadership of Philip Ulrich, a profes- sional recruiter. Upon arrival there, the migration found condi- tions chaotic so far as it was concerned. Harvard refused to assume responsibility for their food and shelter. They had been on their way since May 19th, from Würtemberg and the Oberrhein lands; and the long, slow journey had drawn so heavily on their limited reserves that some were already impoverished. Their contracts meant little; they were in the toils in a foreign land, ignorant of
31Mass. Records, Vol. XV A, p. 134.
82A good hundred head. Letter, Leucht to Luther.
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its language and its law, where they could not in any way become public charges. At first, they were kept on the small boats which had brought them down the Rhine, until after nine days a deter- mined Rhine shipper, Harling by name, forced Harvard to let them land. Those with the means were housed in boardinghouses and the others on board one of Harvard's ships in the harbor. Under such conditions precious time was lost. The emigrants were shel- tered, to be sure, but rations remained a highly uncertain issue.
In the meantime, Crell and Harvard were slow in reaching an agreement as to the final disposition of the freights. The former by his contract with Waldo had stipulated a given number, per- haps half of the migration, for Broad Bay. The transport num- bered around three hundred and fifty souls. The ship, chartered and consequently reserved by Harvard, could carry at the most two hundred and sixty freights, thus leaving from eighty to one hundred emigrants without transportation. There was no profit in chartering a ship for this number, which would have been less than half a cargo. Such was the impasse in which Crell found himself. The only solution that offered itself to him was to abandon these leftovers in Rotterdam, or to let them be used as cargo for other ships awaiting freights for Pennsylvania, Maryland, or the Caro- linas. The latter was a hard solution for the Germans who were to be left behind, for they had signed up for New England and paid their passage, or at least deposited a guarantee. In the recruit- ing these other provinces had been talked down and in consequence they did not wish to go to them. Besides, which ones would go to New England and which ones elsewhere? All this uncertainty and inaction created confusion without end. In the minds of these helpless victims, Crell was charged with being the cause of all this delay and suffering. He was constantly importuned, reproached, harassed, abused, and threatened with violence, and in the end was compelled to keep in hiding.
This is all a cruel, sordid, and ugly tale. The documentary data covering this episode has been preserved in all its inhuman detail, only the barest outline of which is presented here. Its end is briefly summarized in a letter written by Crell to Luther on June 24, 1752, from Rotterdam, which included this relevant para- graph:
Your esteemed communications, of which the last dated the 17th of this month have been handed to me. The tragedy is ended. To-morrow we put out to sea from here on board the ship St. Andrews, Captain Alex- ander Hood, with two hundred and sixty passengers. Eighty recruits which we could not take and which I released on their own wish, turned to other merchants and are going for the most part to Maryland.33
33Mass. Records, XV A, 145ff.
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From this letter it is clear that the St. Andrews sailed on June 25th, and in consequence must have reached Cowes, England, only a few days later. Here there was the usual interminable delay for no apparent reason, unless it were to exhaust the limited cash re- serves of the freights by extending the length of passage in order to have them reach Boston in debt to the ship and ready to forfeit themselves to the interested Proprietors as the only means of dis- charging the debt. Be this as it may, all the evidence points to early August as the date when the St. Andrews sailed from Cowes.
The trip across was highly fortunate in that it was made in near record time, the ship reaching Boston on September 19, 1752. For the details immediately following, reference is here made to the following press accounts:
Tuesday last a ship arrived from Holland with about 300 Germans, men, women and children, some of whom are going to settle at Ger- mantown [Braintree, the glass blowers] and the others in the Eastern parts of this Province. 'Tis said about 40 children were born during the passage - Among the Artificers come over in this ship, there are a Num- ber of Men skilled in the making of Glass of various sorts -34
The second report is from a German newspaper at Frankfort am Main:
Milton near Boston in New England, Sept. 23, 1752. The German Transport of the current year which arrived in the ship, St. Andrews, Captain Hood, ended the trip across the Atlantic within five weeks, with the passengers in good health. Four children were born on the journey. Only a few young children died, none of the adults or old peo- ple. Since it is still early in the year the people will be distributed on suitable and advantageous locations, of which details will be reported later.35
And then of course there followed the final and inevitable newspaper notice:
Just arrived in the ship St. Andrew, Captain Alexander Hood, from Rotterdam, in good Health, a Number of very likely Men and Women, Boys and girls, from Twelve to Twenty-five years old, who will be dis- posed of for some Years according to their Ages and the different Sums they owe for their Passages: Any Persons who have occasion for such Servants, may treat with Mr. John Franklin in Cornhill, Boston, Mr. Isaac Winslow at Milton, or Capt. Hood on board his ship now lying in Braintree River, before the new Settlement of Germantown.36
The work of disposing of the Germans was apparently com- pleted by November 6, when Captain Hood cleared for Virginia.
84Boston Evening Post, Sept. 25, 1752.
35Ober-Post-Amts Zeitung, No. 197, Dec. 9. 1752.
86Boston Post Boy, Sept. 25, 1752; and the Evening Post for Sept. 25, Oct. 2, and Oct. 9, 1752.
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When Crell left for Europe in 1752, he had been commis- sioned to secure the equipment needed for the new glass works project at New Germantown, now Braintree, which was being financed by certain Boston capitalists. In addition he was to bring a certain number of artisans trained and skilled in the art of blow- ing glass. He secured the equipment at a cost of three hundred gulden,37 and brought along a number of skilled glass blowers in the transport of 1752. In due time after reaching Boston and after their means of support were exhausted, under the pressure of pov- erty and need, they indentured themselves to the capitalist group and settled near the Glass Works at Braintree. The experiment in glass making, however, was not successful even though the Gen- eral Court in November 1752 had granted to the Company a monopoly for a fixed number of years. Amid varying vicissitudes the industry struggled along until 1760 when a complete failure took place. The German and French Huguenot colonies employed in the works broke up, and a sizable portion of them joined their friends and relatives at Broad Bay. The names of the "Foreign Protestants" making up this colony are in part preserved in the marriage records of Old Braintree along with a list in the Massa- chusetts Archives of those engaging in the industry who, by rea- son of that fact, were granted exemption from military duty in the French and Indian War. Among those familiar in Waldo- borough annals who apparently joined friends or relatives at Broad Bay were Frederick Syder (Seider or Seiders), John Stole (Stahl), John Hilt, George Smouse, David Vose and Jacob Buckhart (Bur- kett).38
These were not the only Germans arriving in these years in the Boston district, for from time to time ships were reaching this port with migrants from Hamburg, from New York, and Philadelphia. Among such arrivals was the ship Thomas, Captain John Andrews, on August 21, 1750.39 On June 19, 1752, the Frank- fort am Main newspaper carried the following dispatch, dated London, June 7, 1752, "A Holland ship has landed in New England with several hundred German Protestants, who will settle in the adjacent provinces." Such facts are important in the history of Broad Bay, since through these years and down into the 1760's individual German families moved in from Boston and other dis- tricts from time to time. In fact, not all of the eighty leftovers abandoned by Crell in Rotterdam in 1752 went to Maryland. Some secured passage to Nova Scotia and biding their time from that point joined relatives or friends at Broad Bay.
37Letter, Luther to Waldo, Mass. Records, XV A, 200-211.
38Wm. S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy. 39 Ober-Post-Amts Zeitung, No. 48, Mar. 23, 1751.
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From Crell's second transport, that of 1752, General Waldo secured substantial additions to his Broad Bay settlement; for with Spencer Phips as acting governor, he possessed power and influ- ence in government circles and he was skilled and practiced in covert intrigue to the degree that he possibly profited more from the Province's program of bringing in "Foreign Protestants" than did the Province itself. Joseph Ludwig is again the source of our knowledge that upwards of twenty-five additional German fami- lies followed an earlier migration from Boston (the arrivals of 1751) to Broad Bay later in the year (1752).40
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