Nearly twenty-eight hundred Palatine German emigrants in the summer of 1710 are transported in ten ships by Queen Anne's government to New York, the largest single group of immigrants before the Revolutionary War.
By comparison, Manhattan at this time has only six thousand people.
Because of their refugee status and weakened condition, as well as shipboard diseases, they have a high rate of fatality.
Another three hundred-some Palatines make it to the Carolinas.
The Germans are employed initially in the production of naval stores along the Hudson River near Peekskill.
Settlement on the east side (East Camp) of the Hudson River is accomplished as a result of Governor Hunter's negotiations with Robert Livingston, who owns Livingston Manor in what is now Columbia County, New York. (This is not the town now known as Livingston Manor on the west side of the Hudson River).
Livingston is anxious to have his lands developed.
The Livingstons will benefit for many years from the revenues they receive as a result of this business venture.
West Camp, on the other hand, is located on land the Crown had recently "repossessed" as an "extravagant grant."
Pastors from both Lutheran and Reformed churches will quickly begin to serve the camps and create extensive records of these early settlers long before the state of New York is established or keeps records.
