There was a huge emigration taking place beginning about February or March 1709. Perhaps inspired by the 1708 emigration led by Kocherthal, many Palatines decided to take action and leave their burdened lifestyle. Some Palatines received letters of recommendation or birth certificates from officials while others tried to dispose of their property in an orderly and legal manner and obtain lawful permits before they could begin their journey down the Rhine to Rotterdam.²⁶

The trip to Holland was not as simple as it sounded. The journey to Holland could take anytime between four to six weeks²⁷ where the Palatines ran the risk of running into authorities who would demand money or threaten to send them back home. But they would run into the occasional well-wisher who would provide them with food, clothing and money.²⁸

Once the Palatines reached Holland, they encamped outside the city of Rotterdam in shacks covered with reeds.²⁹ The Burgomaster of Rotterdam took pity on these poor emigrants and appropriated 750 guilders for distribution among the people.³⁰ The British government sent two Anabaptist Dutch merchants—Hendrik van Toren and John Suderman, who was later replaced by Jan van Gent—to supervise the loading and sailing of the Palatines to England.³¹

James Dayrolle, the British resident at the Hague and person in charge of transporting the Palatines, granted passes to 60 or 100 families at a time. Dayrolle reported to London that approximately 900 Palatines had arrived in Rotterdam and more were on the way. He made a request to Queen Anne on April 19, 1709, for transports to carry the Palatines to England. He requested that they use transports carrying troops from England to the Low Countries to fight the French in the War of the Spanish Succession.³² Later that month, four transports came and took away 852 Palatines to England.³³ By May 12^th, a fifth transport had 1,283 on board.³⁴

The Palatines continued to arrive in Rotterdam in increasing numbers. Early in June the arrivals numbered about 1,000 a week until July when the government made some attempts to halt the emigration.³⁵ On June 29^th, Dayrolle made a move to stop several Palatines from making their way down the Rhine. He sent some back home to serve as a warning to others. He ordered an advertisement to be placed in the Gazette in Cologne, announcing that no more Palatines would be accepted in Rotterdam. This attempt ended in failure.³⁶

Mistakenly under the impression Dayrolle had been successful in halting the immigration, Secretary Boyle complimented Dayrolle in his actions in preventing more immigration and gave his permission to ship 500 more Palatines to England. However, Dayrolle discovered that 500 had grown to 2,000! He was only able to allow 1,433 to sail by July 18^th.³⁷ Dayrolle discovered that the citizens of Rotterdam were considering sending the Palatines to England at private expense without passes and perhaps without convoys which he could not prevent. By August 12^th, about 1,000 had done so under those conditions—about 250 had sufficient funds to pay their own way.³⁸ Boyle ordered Dayrolle to make a request to the Dutch government that they prevent any further embarkation and that any more Palatines sent to England would be returned. It had little effect on the Dutch authorities who apparently wanted to get rid of the Palatines from their town by any means necessary.³⁹

Circular Advertising Carolina, distributed to the Palatines aboard the transports in Rotterdam in August 1709.

Dayrolle then formally requested the States General to order their college of Admiralty that no more ships be allowed to transport more Palatines to England. They said that they could not prevent those already in Holland from crossing over to England. However, they said that they could order their ministers in Cologne and Frankfort to warn the Palatines against going to Holland.⁴⁰

In the meantime, Dayrolle discovered that someone from England was encouraging the emigration. Sometime in late August, an unidentified gentleman accompanied by a servant from Hartwick, England, went aboard the transports and passed out circulars. These circulars, about 3" by 6" in size, were entitled, "Propositions of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina to encourage the Transporting of Palatines to the Province of Carolina." The circulars offered a hundred acres of land for each man, woman and child, free from quit rent for ten years. These people would have to pay one penny per acre annually if they would settle in towns now or later, to lease them land for building and improvement for the term of three lives or 99 years, which would expire first at a peppercorn rent, with the privilege to renew in case the lives died.⁴¹

Although the landing of more Palatines in Holland could not be prevented, they would not be cared for at public expense until those already in England could be cared for.⁴²

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