Glossary Of Immigrants

From Jefferson County NY Wiki

Glossary Of Immigrants

HESSIAN: German troops used by the British in the Revolutionary War.


HUGUENOT: French Protestants who fled from religious persecution. They

first went to Prussia, the German Palatinate and then came to America.

Those in the French West Indies escaped to the southeastern coast of

America. Others went to England and Ireland.


LOYALISTS: Those men who sided with the British during the American Revolution and who settled in Ontario, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia.


MENNONITE: a Swiss Protestant group formed in 1525 who were followers of

Menno Simons, which migrated to America by way of Alsace, England and

Russia. They settled primarily in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Minnesota.


MORAVIAN: The United Brethren is a Protestant group formed in Bohemia

about 1415 which spread to Poland, Prussia, Germany and England.


PALATINES: In 1688, Louis XIV of France began persecuting German

Protestants from the west bank of the Rhine River. Queen Anne of England

helped a group to come to America in 1708. More than 2000 arrived in New

York in 1710 and settled along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers.


QUAKER: The Society of Friends was formed in England in 1648. Early

restrictions brought them to New Jersey in 1675 and some 230 English

Quakers founded Burlington, NJ in 1678. William Penn was granted the

territory of Pennsylvania in 1681 and within two years there were about

3000 Quakers living there.


SCOTS-IRISH: The descendants of the Presbyterian Scots who had been

placed in the northern counties of Ireland by British rulers in the early

part of the 17th Century. Most came to America from 1718 until the

Revolution. They settled first in PA, then moved south and then westward

to the frontier.


WALLOON: Walloons are from southern Belgium. The language of the Walloons

is a dialect of French. Cornelis May of Flanders, Holland and about 30 to

40 families came to America in 1624 and established Fort Orange. This town

is now known as Albany, NY.




See Also

Historical Glossaries and References