USA > North Carolina > Craven County > New Bern > History of the Presbyterian church in New Bern, N.C. : with a resume? of early ecclesiastical affairs in eastern North Carolina, and a sketch of the early days of New Bern, N.C > Part 5
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53
CHRISTOPHER EMANUEL DE GRAFFENRIEDT.
Indian Massacre, these Huguenot colonists were victims, yet they have descendants who hold up the blue banner of their forefathers' martyr-faith.
Our attention is next challenged by
Christopher Emanuel de Graffenriedt.
He was a citizen of Bern, Switzerland, the elder son of An- tony De Gräaffenried, Lord of Worb, and descended from a " De Gräaffenriedt," or Graffenried, a follower of the great Duke Berchthold V., the founder of the city of Bern. This ancestor built the family castle of "Worb," six miles from Bern, and inherited by Christopher in 1730, after his return from Carolina with broken fortune. It is still in good preser- vation. Christopher is described as a handsome and fascinating man, a great favorite of Queen Anne, of England. Upon his purchasing a large body of land, with certain privileges, from the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, she made him a Baron of England and Landgrave of Carolina. His patent of nobil- ity, written in Latin on parchment, and his insignia of rank, his golden star, with its obscure heraldic devices, and his seal, are in possession of one of his lineal descendants in Dougherty County, Ga. Tradition, fond of the romantic, has long woven around the "star" the pretty story, that when he was a prisoner among the fierce and implacable Indians, he saved his life by its exhibition in proof that he was a king, and they dared not kill him.
De Graffenried had been "Bailli," or Mayor, or Governor of Yverdon, in Neufchatel, under commission from the Senate of Bern. Here he met financial reverses, and seeing no chance of recuperation at home, he-against the wishes of friends and relatives-leaving his private affairs in confusion, secretly started for England, with the design of building up his fortune in far- off America. Long had he been attracted thither from previous association with the deceased Duke of Albemarle. He seems to have been a mere adventurer, ready for any money-making scheme. With himself he associated Ludwig Michel, or Lewis Mitchell, also from Bern, and possessing considerable know-
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NEW BERN.
ledge of America. Lawson, in his history, speaks of "my in- genious friend, Mr. Francis Louis Mitchell, of Bern, in Switz- erland, who has been for several years very indefatigable and strict in his discoveries amongst those vast ledges of mountains and spacious tracts of land lying towards the heads of the great bays and rivers of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, where he has discovered a spacious country, inhabited by none but savages, and not many of them, who yet are of a very friendly nature to the Christians. This gentleman has been employed by the Canton of Bern to find out a tract of land in the English America, where the republic might settle some of their people, which proposal, I believe, is now in a fair way to- wards a conclusion between her Majesty of Great Britain and that Canton, which must needs be of great advantage to both."
Prof. Löher (History of the Germans) describes them both as bold and shrewd men. Williamson, near their day, says they regarded the Germans as objects of speculation. They are pictured as enthusiasts, who believed that North Carolina was the real El Dorado. Such emigration agents, dressed splendidly, traversed Europe, and offered poor people most fasci- nating inducements to emigrate. The "Journal of the House of Commons" says, "There were books and papers dispersed with the Queen's picture, and the title page in letters of gold, which, on that account, were called 'the Golden Book,' to en- courage the people to come to England to be sent to the Caro- linas." Remembering the tactics of agents to-day, we can un- derstand what power was then wielded by such canvassers over the ignorant, poor and oppressed, as well as those of romantic and adventurous dispositions ; and can also measure the bitter : disappointment that frequently bowed down newly arrived emi- grants, whose voyage had been filled with rosy dreams. The same system was pursued by John Peter Purry, of Neufchatel, in 1731, in his descriptive pamphlet about South Carolina, which he scattered in Switzerland to gather his people, as he success- fully did, for that colony.
It is difficult to get accurate information about the Palatine and Swiss colonists brought by De Graffenried and Mitchell, and
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THE PALATINES.
especially about their ecclesiastical affairs, before and after their arrival. I have made very laborious search after this know- ledge, and had an extensive correspondence with the most learned and best informed men and women in this State and country, with this result in the main, the belief that such light can be gotten, if obtainable at all, only from hidden old man- uscripts hereabouts, or from documents in European libraries. Yet some facts, new to most persons, will be stated in connec- tion with others of general history. Also valuable and en- tirely new matter will be given from a yet unpublished and extended contemporary manuscript history of his colony by De Graffenried. This document, written in barbarous French, has recently been copied from the original in the public library of Yverdon, Canton de Vaud, and will fill eighty pages in the Colonial Records, now in press.
The Palatines.
The Palatinate was a fine province on both sides of the up- per Rhine. Its capital was Heidelberg, on the Neckar, with its picturesque castle, and its famous university. The Elector Palatine, Frederick III., surnamed "the Pious," who died in 1576, was one of the noblest and purest German princes,-the German Alfred,-and was devoted to the advancement of the political, educational and ecclesiastical prosperity of his people. The crowning achievement of his reign was the preparation by those learned and pious theologians and reformers, Zacha- rias Ursinns and Caspar Olevianus, of the Heidelberg Cate- chism. This is one of the most celebrated formularies of doc- trine ever composed, and stands to-day side by side with the Westminster Confession of Faith. It was called "The Pala- tine Catechism "; stood as the symbol of the Palatine Church, and formed the foundation of family instruction. It was adopted in St. Gall, Schaffhausen and Bern; was the first Pro- testant catechism planted on American soil, viz. : on Manhattan Island, in 1609; and was the banner of The Reformed Church. To the youthful Ursinus Calvin presented, in Geneva, his works, and wrote in them his best wishes. Lutherans, how-
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NEW BERN.
ever, were numerous in the Palatinate. But the elector Fred- erick, though reproached and threatened, made before the em- peror, at the diet of Augsburg, in 1566, as manly a confession of his Reformed Creed as Luther at Worms, and evoked the ad- miration of his opponents, and the applause of the Lutheran Elector of Saxony: "Fritz, thou art more pious than all of us."
In 1613, Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, was married to Frederick, Protestant Elector Palatine, and after- wards King of Bohemia. George II. of England was their grandson; and so Queen Victoria is descended from Elizabeth, who was also the great annt of Queen Anne. After several changes in the Palatinate, Charles, Elector Palatine, died without issue, and the electorial dignity went, in 1685, to the house of Newburg, a bigoted popish family. This upper Pala- tinate of the Rhine suffered untold horrors from a long series of desolating wars, and the merciless ravages of Tilly, Turenne, and Louis XIV. of France, and the unremitting persecutions by the popish Elector of these decided Protestant subjects, who would die rather than recant. In 1622, 1634, 1688 and 1693, Heidelberg was taken, and desolated with Mohammedan cru- elty. The beantiful land was cursed by the rage of man. Houses were burned, scores of cities sacked, and in Winter, the whole population were driven into fields covered with snow and ice. Encouraged by a proclamation by Queen Anne, and favorable reports from countrymen who had gone before, 12,000 Palatines went to England in the summer of 1709, and encamped in tents near London. Here they were pitiable ob- jects of English charity, and at the same time creators of se- " rious discontent among the English poor; for bread was scarce, and commanding double price, while these foreigners were supported by public collections and by the Queen. Twenty thousand pounds were paid into the treasury for them. So the native sufferers grumbled, and the House of Commons even voted that all who encouraged the Palatines to come to Eng- land were enemies to the nation. Hence they must be removed. Ireland and the American colonies afforded appropriate out-
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THE PALATINES.
lets. De Graffenried estimated that, at the very time of his arrival, more than 20,000 Palatines came to England, but "intermingled with many Swiss and people of other German provinces." He and Mitchell were looking for a profitable speculation, and ready to grapple with this problem for a consideration. It was understood that "the Queen would not only assume the expense of their transportation, but also be- stow upon them considerable assistance. This really took place; and this last sum amounted to £4,000 sterling." Other advantageous promises gilded the enterprise. Between De Graffenried and the Lords Proprietors was drawn up an elabo- rate contract, which still exists. His pay was five and a half pounds apiece for six hundred and fifty Palatines transported to North Carolina-more than $18,000. Liberal provision was made for their comfort on arrival, and for their sup- port for a year in their new homes. This agreement bears date October, 1709. Young people, healthy and laborious, and of all kinds of occupations, were selected, and ample provi- sion was made for their comfortable voyage in well-equipped ships. De Graffenried appointed three directors, notables from North Carolina, then in London, one of whom seems to have been Lawson, the surveyor-general; for he could not himself sail with them, as he had to await his colonists from Bern.
On the day before sailing, he went to Gravesend, on the Thames, with Rev. Mr. Cesar, a German reformed minister of London, who preached a feeling and appropriate sermon to the departing emigrants. On account of the war, Rear-Admiral Noris was permitted -: as a signal favor-to escort the two ves- sels with his squadron as far as the latitude of Portugal. They sailed in mild weather, in January, 1710; but were overtaken by such terrible storms that the voyage lasted thirteen weeks. All suffered, and more than half died at sea, and many after landing died from eating imprudently. One of the vessels, containing the best goods and colonists, was plundered by a French captain at the mouth of James River. They landed in Virginia, not daring to go by sea to Carolina on account of
4
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NEW BERN.
privateers, and the bars at the mouths of the rivers. The rem- nant, being recruited a little, travelled by land to Colonel Pol- lock's, in Albemarle, on the Chowan. Thence they crossed the Sound into Bath County, and "were located (in May or June) by the Surveyor-General" (Lawson) "on a tongue of land be- tween the News and Trent rivers, called Chattawka, where afterwards was founded the small city of New Bern." (Note: This is the way De Graffenried writes the name.) He says that Lawson cheated them terribly, by putting them on his own land, on the southern bank of Trent, "at the very hottest and most unhealthy place," and selling them the before-mentioned tongue of land at a heavy price and as uninhabited, whereas it was not his, and Indians still lived there. De Graffenried afterwards bought this tongue from the Indian King Taylor.
With faith in their leaders, and committing their money to De Graffenried, these "poor Palatines" (as they were termed) had come to the new world. They "were forced to stay until September in the greatest poverty, and to sell nearly all their clothes and movables to the neighboring inhabitants, in order to sustain their life."
Arrival of the Swiss.
The Swiss embarked in Holland, under contract with the owner of a ship from Boston, and sailed for Newcastle, in the northeast of England, where De Graffenried joined them and sailed for Virginia at the beginning of June, 1710. Only one ship-load is mentioned, so the number of Swiss could not have been as large as sometimes stated. They had a happy passage, in want of nothing, and pursued the same journey the Pala- tines had traversed, by Col. Pollock's, and so on to New Bern. There "a sad state of things, sickness, want, and desperation having reach their climax," greeted them. De Graffenried's life was in danger. The troubles of Cary's rebellion were upon him, too. He set to work energetically to establish the colony in comfort. He says that in eighteen months they "managed to build homes and make themselves so comfortable, that they made more progress in that length of time than the English
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ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.
inhabitants in several years." There was only one water-mill in the wole province ; rude mortars and hand-mills were used for breaking their corn. But his colonists arranged wheel- works on the brooklets to pound their grain, and he began the construction of a water-mill. But as after " such cross-accidents, mishaps, and inconveniences," a happy state of things was dawn- ing upon them, the desolating Indian massacre and long war burst in fury over their homes, and he was captured by the savages. Before giving a condensation of his account of his captivity, and the close of his connection with the settlement, we will further consider the colonists.
Ecclesiastical Affairs.
Some of these Palatines were doubtless Lutherans. But judging from facts already given, and from their well known history in New York and Pennsylvania, large numbers, if not the body of them, must have been Reformed or Calvinists. When, in 1746, Rev. Michael Schlatter (who was from St. Gall, Switzerland,) was sent by the Synod of Holland to look after the Reformed German churches, he travelled in his in- vestigating and organizing tour from the Delaware to beyond the Potomac, and found forty-six churches and 30,000 Re- formed population. These were largely from the Palatinate. In the manual of the Reformed Church in America, by Rev. E. T. Corwin, D. D., it is stated, that "the full tide of emi- gration did not fairly begin" (from the Palatinate) "till about 1709. In this year four thousand Palatinates embarked for New York, but seventeen hundred died on the passage. They were invited to settle on the Livingston Manor, and many of them did so. Others settled in Schoharie and in the valley of the Mohawk. The following year large numbers of the same class fled to North Carolina (where some French Protestants had already settled on the banks of the Neuse), and founded New Bern. They had preachers among them. But in 1713 the settlement was broken up by the Indians. The remnant fled to South Carolina."
The " Historic Manual of the Reformed Church," by Prof.
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NEW BERN.
Jos. H. Dubbs, D. D., of Lancaster, Pa., states that "Henry Hoeger, a Reformed minister, appears to have accompanied De Graffenried's Swiss colony, which, in 1710, founded New Bern, N. C. When the settlement had been scattered by the Tuscarora Indians, he accompanied about fifty of the survivors to Virginia, where they were employed by Governor Spottis- woode. A cotemporary document, preserved in Perry's ' His- toric Collections,' relates ' that there went out with the first twelve families one minister, named Henry Hoeger, a very sober, honest man, of about seventy-five years of age. But he being likely to be past service in a short time, they have empowered Mr. Jacob Christofle Zollikofer, of St. Gall, in Switzerland, to go into Europe, there to obtain, if possible, some contributions from pious and charitable Christians to- wards the building of their church, and the bringing over with him of a young German minister to assist the aforesaid Mr. Hoeger in the ministry of religion, and to succeed him when he shall die, and to get him ordained in England by the Rt. Rev. Bishop of London, and to bring over with him the liturgy of the Church of England, translated into high Dutch, which they are desirous to use in public worship. They also seek the support of a minister from the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.' It seems, they felt themselves too weak to stand alone, and consequently 'conformed' to the Es- tablished Church. They were organized into an Episcopal Parish, with the reserved right to employ their own ministers, and on their own terms." Acting under dire stress of adverse circumstances, they were still unwilling to bind themselves blindly and inextricably. In Western Carolina the Reformed : Germans entered Granville County in 1740 under better aus- pices, with ministers Tobler and Zuberbühler.
The sin of these Germans was their Protestantism. They brought with them across the ocean their Bibles, hymn-books, catechisms, and other religious books.
I have found and copied the following interesting item from the old records of the Court of Quarter Sessions in Craven County, December, 1740. Present: George Roberts, Joseph
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THE SWISS.
Hannis, and James Macklwaine, Esqrs: "A petition of the Palintines or High Germans praying that they may have Liberty to build a Chaple on trent for a place of worship etc- granted-"
This looks as if these poor " Palintines" had not forgotten the great embodiment of their heroic faith, the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563. In 1729, there were 15,000 of these Germans and Swiss in Pennsylvania; and in 1731, eight hun- dred exiled Palatines passed through Dordrecht, while the Synod of Holland was in session there, to embark at Rotter- dam for America. This Presbyterian Synod visited them in a body, held worship with them, ministered to their necessi- ties, and promised future aid to these brethren of the common Reformed faith.
The Swiss.
What were the causes of the large Swiss emigration to America ? Many from Switzerland were refugees there. That republic was the common refuge for persecuted Protestants in the Reformation period. The fires of bloody Mary in England, the relentless fury of the Spanish in the Netherlands, the dia- bolical revocation of the edict of Nantes by France, drove numbers of English, French and Dutch to this mountain re- treat, where Italians joined them in holy exile and noble suf- fering for Christ. John Knox and John Calvin are illustrious examples. By an agreement between the Protestant Cantons, Bern was to receive and aid one-half of the needy fugitives. At one time nearly every well-to-do family in the Canton Zu- rich had one or more refugees quartered upon it by order of the government. "Antistes Hess says (Tercentenary Volume, Zurich, 1819), "From 1682 to 1685 many hundreds of French exiles settled in Zurich. In 1686, one thousand Piedmontese refugees arrived. In 1688, there were more than 3,000. In 1687, the Swiss confederation sent delegates to the Palatinate, Brandenburg, Hesse, and Holland, requesting the governments of these countries to aid Switzerland in providing for the exiles of the Reformed Church." In 1687, in five weeks, 8,000 Pro- testant refugees entered Geneva; 28,000 had passed through
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NEW BERN.
seeking some asylum, and ordinarily there were 3,000 in the city. The French Protestant Refugee Fund, established in 1545, and having 8,000 crowns capital, was exhausted. In 1696, there were in the Canton of Bern, including its depen- dency, the Pays du Vaux, 6,500 male refugees, of whom 2,000 were paupers, dependent on public support. Some German- Swiss objected to the billeting refugees on them; and guards, with halberds in hand, had to force the hospitality. Legacies, donations, collections in churches, appeals of the Waldenses, and public subsidies, were given to maintain the suffering of Christ's persecuted people. Still earnest efforts were made to facilitate their departure. Thousands were helped to leave, but many were driven back by the army of Louis XIV. In 1703, many came from the Principality of Orange. Many of these refugees were blessings to Switzerland ; but their num- bers were too large. Such was the story year after year, until the burden became ruinous, and the hospitable Cantons were compelled to find homes for their homeless and unbidden guests. Moreover, many refugees were skilled mechanics, and took work away from native artizans, so that great distress ensued .* Emigration was relief. -
The religious war in Switzerland, in 1703 and onward, caused sore disturbances and ruin. Switzerland depended for its politi- cal existence on fidelity to the treaty of Westphalia, made in 1638. Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed were the only reli- gious bodies recognized by that settlement. Anarchical Anabap- tists were not to be tolerated; so a violent persecution arose against the Mennonites in Zurich and Bern, which reached its culmination in 1710. Many of this sect went to the Palatinate, and thence to Pennsylvania. (Seidenstecker's Gedächtnissblät- ter, page 66.) There were also Swiss who quit their country be- cause they could not conscientiously subscribe to the " Helvetic Consensus Formula," directed against certain errors of the French Church, and prevailing for half a century after its adoption by the Reformed Cantons in 1675. (Mosheim, III. 435; Schaff's Creeds, I. 477, &c.)
* Weiss's Prot. Refugees, Vol. II. pp. 163, &c.
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ECCLESIASTICAL CHARACTER.
These influences, united to the movements of the skilful em- igration agents before recited, sufficiently account for a wide spread willingness to seek new homes.
Ecclesiastical Character.
Switzerland was the birth-place and home of the Reformed Church This was the State Church. In form it was Presby- terian, and in doctrine Augustinian, as set forth in its Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed. Its great theologians were Calvin, and Francis Turrettine, with the lesser, yet brilliant lights, Oecolampadius, Farel, Zwingli, and Bullenger. The Palatinate Confession was accepted in Switzerland; and the second Helve- tic Confession, prepared by Bullenger, in 1566, and adopted by eight Swiss Cantons, was also adopted by the Palatinate. Bern, the most conservative, aristocratic and influential Canton in 1528, led by Zwingli, promulgated her famous "Ten Conclusions," which were approved by all the leading Swiss reformers. This was clearly the Calvinistic faith, professed by the South Caro- lina Swiss at Purrysburg, with their pastor, Rev. Jos. Bürgnion ; by the Swiss pastors, Christian Theus, in the Congaree settle- ment, and John Ulrich Giessendanner, at Orangeburg. In worship and doctrine, then, the Swiss were doubtless Presbyte- rian and apostolic, and seem generally to have been sincerely attached to their creed and church.
Great difficulties existed in obtaining ministers for the Ger- man Reformed churches, and supporting them. The Classis of the Palatinate was "The Church Under the Cross," persecuted and poor, and appealed to the Synod of Holland for help for its American emigrants. The Classis of Amsterdam agreed to help them, provided they adhered to the Heidelberg Cate- chism, the Palatinate Confession of Faith, and the Canons and Rules of Church Government of Dort. Mr. Schlatter, in 1746, found only four regularly ordained ministers for forty-six churches and 30,000 people. It was deemed necessary for a long time to get their clergy from Europe, or to send their candidates on the long and expensive voyage across the ocean to be ordained. These difficulties, and desires to have soure
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NEW BERN.
ministrations of the Gospel, gave a fine opportunity for the Es- tablished Church of England, with its wealth, position and prestige, to proselyte the newcomers. In some cases they were successful; but generally they were earnestly resisted and fully thwarted. Illustrations may be seen in Corwin's "Manual of the Reformed Church," in accounts of Schlatter, John H. Goet- schey, Michael Weiss,-all Swiss preachers,-and others.
De Graffenried's Letter.
A fulsome, cringing, disgusting letter was written from New Bern in 1711, by De Graffenried to the Bishop of Lon- don, "humbly requesting your lordship to accept of me and my people, and receive us into your Church, under your lordship's patronage, and we shall esteem ourselves happy sons of a bet- ter stock," and more of that sort. Nothing save a recommen- dation seems to have resulted from this petition. De Graffen- ried writes as if he had the consciences of men made of martyr stuff in his pocket, as he had their money and the titles to their lands. His moral integrity, illustrated in his treach- erously failing to give them titles to their lands, and causing them to appeal to the crown for relief, and his speculation in bringing them over, were scarcely so attractive as to exalt him to spiritual leadership. It seems improbable that these emi- grants, as a body, authorized that letter, and recanted apostolic principle, for which they were so lately willing to die. Nei- ther does it appear, so far as the history of this people can be followed in their children, that any large portion of them en- tered the Established Church. Lack of religious privileges and organization resulted in scattering those who survived the Indian massacre, and remained in this section, into various churches as they were established.
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