Josua von Kocherthal

Background

Josua von Kocherthal was born in 1669 in Bretten, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Career

In the first years of the new century Kocherthal was pastor at Landau in the Bavarian Palatinate. In 1704, a year after the French invasion, he went to London to inquire about the feasibility of emigrating to America. In his Aussführlich und Umständlicher Bericht von der Berühmten Landschafft Carolina in dem Engelländischen America Gelegen he described the Carolinas as a land of freedom, peace, and plenty and invited prospective emigrants to join his expedition. Although Kocherthal had not overlooked entirely the risks and hardships of emigration, his friend, the Rev. Anton Wilhelm Boehme, thought it wise to publish another pamphlet, Das Verlangte Nicht Erlangte Canaan (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1711) as a warning against being too sanguine.

Meanwhile Kocherthal, with his family and almost fifty destitute followers, returned to London in 1708 and petitioned the Board of Trade to send his party to one of the plantations. By his piety and gentle manners he won the personal interest of Queen Anne, and his petition was granted.

On December 31, 1708, he and his people reached New York, where they found a generous benefactor in Lord Lovelace. In the spring they settled on the Hudson at the mouth of Quassaik Creek (Chambers River) and named their settlement Newburgh.

Lovelace's death in May left them helpless, and Kocherthal immediately sailed for England to consult with the Queen. Again he was successful, and in 1710 he returned with ten shiploads of exiled Palatines. Of this great company, which numbered 3, 086, according to Boehme, when it left England, 600 died on the voyage and 250 more after landing. In conformity with the plans of the new governor, Robert Hunter, the Palatines were shipped up the Hudson to East Camp and West Camp, where they were expected to repay the cost of their transportation and keep by gathering naval stores. There were, however, no naval stores to gather; Hunter had been deceived by Robert Livingston. So far as the Palatines were concerned, the one result of this unfortunate enterprise was to reduce them to the condition of slaves. By 1714 the scheme was given up. That the Palatines did not fare even more miserably was due in good measure to Kocherthal, who had intelligence and fortitude as well as piety and gentleness.

In 1711 he established himself at Newtown in the West Camp area and from there made regular visits to congregations in East Camp, at Newburgh, and along the Mohawk and the Schoharie. He was on terms of friendship with Justus Falckner and with John Frederick Häger, who was of German Reformed antecedents but had received Episcopal ordination in England.

Achievements

• Kocherthal was the leader of the Palatine emigration to the province of New York.

Connections

Kocherthal's wife was Sybilla Charlotte. Benigna Sybilla, the eldest of his five children, married Wilhelm Christoph Berkenmeyer.

Spouse:

Sybilla Charlotte

Ftiend:

John Frederick Häger

Daughter:

Benigna Sybilla

Friend:

Justus Falckner

Friend:

Anton Wilhelm Boehme

clergyman

References

• Lutherans in North America
• A Peculiar Mixture: German-Language Cultures and Identities in Eighteenth-Century North America (Max Kade Research Institute)