Johann Wilhelm Cramer (1662 - 1709)

Born 1662 in Horn, Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Descendants

Died 1709 at about age 47 in New York County, New York Colony

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Biography

Johann Wilhelm Cramer was born in 1667. He passed away in 1709/10 • En route to New York City. Wilhelm and Anna Maria Cramer were called Palatine Germans because in 1709 after war and famine they were enticed to immigrate to America. 15 thousand Palatine Germans first went to Rotterdam and from there to London, England. About 3 thousand Palatine Germans were boarded on 10 ships to New York City in 1710.

The Cramer family left their native land for economic reasons and because Queen Anne made promises to them for political reasons (all of which she broke) and land speculators gave them pamphlets promising heaven on earth. After a long trek up the Rhine, being harassed by officials, & arriving in Rotterdam, they were herded into centres with the British officials culling them to weed out Catholics . After the trip to England, & being placed in filth camps on the outskirts of London, they, by some arcane process, were selected for either staying in England, going to Ireland or being herded onto ten shops bound for New York as little more than slave labour, with a very high proportion dying on route. Anna Maria, whose husband died during the voyage, and not knowing a word of English, a widow with seven children ranging from 18 to about a year and a half, her second son literally taken away, somehow made her way to New Jersey. In New Jersey they were harassed and yet manages to survive. Her eldest son marrying & having a child and then he and his wife apparently dying the same year the child was born. Anna Maria left with the grandson and somehow outlived all but Adam, who died in 1773.

Sources

• The Early Germans of New Jersey; Their History, Churches and Genealogies .. https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewer/collections/30335/images/earlygermansnj1895-0426?pId=84101

• Rhineland, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1533-1950 for Johann Wilhelm Krämer .. https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewer/collections/61131/images/0492974-00022?usePUB=true&_phsrc=hWK4159&usePUBJs=true&pId=407589

• Baptism Records for 5 Cramer Children .. https://www.ancestry.ca/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/100069528/person/240069332527/media/b0723941-314e-476c-83fb-3765d3344885?_phsrc=hWK4160&usePUBJs=tru

• Information as contributed by Dr Charles Posner, Researcher