*** START HERE *** Hello List No … too bland. Hi, good friends - here's a preliminary notice. Having received the go-ahead from Admin., over the next few weeks I propose to post here as much of the Tenison Groves material as I have to hand and have typed. This material is derived entirely from the manuscripts I received from the amazing Liz Haren (N.J.), who so generously copied it all from microfilm, duplicated it and sent it for the cost of postage to all who were interested. I'm probably preaching to the converted in most cases, but there are surely some who have no idea what these texts mean, so I need to explain. (Let's face it, six weeks ago, Tenison Groves meant no more to me than Jack Dempsey - he could have been a plantation of orange trees, or as Walter McE suggested, a relative of the English poet). Bear with me. Tenison Groves was the Belfast archivist who transcribed all (or a least most) of the original XVIII/XIX-century documents relating to the settlement of the German Palatine immigrants in Ireland (from 1709 onward), as compiled by various bodies and individuals for the benefit of the instigators, Queen Anne and her government and - later (1714) - her successor George I. If the documents said "Palatines" anywhere, good old Tenison jumped on them and reproduced them for us all to savour. Anyway, all of those people at the top were intent on subduing the "Papist/Popish" influence in Ireland and, by way of a bonus, perhaps developing a severely backward economy - at least that's how I read it. Along the way, the Rhinesiders are shuffled around from pillar to post, even lodging in the Barracks in Dublin and later in gaols (jails) for want of space, until those "poor, distressed Palatines" are eventually dispersed to the countryside, in about 1712. As the ranks thin out (many Palatines abscond, returning to England and sometimes Germany, or emigrating further to the Americas, often under their own steam) … the wrangling goes on behind the scenes. A monarch dies, the parties in government change hands, officials are fired and replaced with baffled newcomers and sometimes unscrupulous gangsters, whilst the industrious Palatines beaver away at the land, build homes and develop their individual trades and crafts, unaware of the shenanigans. [By the way, I talk a lot - sometimes too much, I know. But it's the fever of discovery that grips me. I hope you'll want to share it. ] The documents take up a lot of space, so: IF YOU'RE NOT KEEN, DON'T READ BEYOND THE "SUBJECT" BOX AT THE TOP OF YOUR MAIL PAGE. All my contributions will be clearly flagged with the "Subject" line: GROVES TRANSCRIPTS # A (through Z, then AA …). The beginning and end of the relevant material [without my comments in square brackets} will be marked: ***START HERE*** and ***END HERE*** You can't go wrong. And remember, you have the option of skipping it at all times. But, if you ARE interested, you can print the documents on-line, or save them to a special folder set aside in your ISP program (AOL, etc), remembering to name them PG1, PG2 or something simple and memorable (but keep a handwritten list beside you, in case you overwrite previous saves). About the documents themselves …. Well, to my mind there isn't a single redundant page. There are Petitions, Depositions, Memorials, Representations, Muster lists, periodic Accounts and some of the creepiest letters imaginable, addressed to Archbishops, Judges and similar worthies. The language is ornate, tortuously elegant in its quasi-legal way ('Sheweth' 'Saith', 'Doth' and 'deliveryng' are reproduced as found). There are spelling mistakes and typos galore - I have included them all, as well as some of my own I feel sure. Do let me know (through the List). Incidentally, the symbol for pounds sterling may not come out properly, so you can insert it easily by hitting Num Lock (or Figures Shift) above your numbers pad on the right, then holding down the Alt key and typing the ASCII code 156 (ON THE NUMBERS pad, not along the top of your keyboard). There is often scant regard for punctuation and this helps convey the breathless urgency of the particular message. I love it all for its mad quaintness and immediacy. We are there behind the scenes with the stage crew and it's the living English as she is truely spakt. We learn that "the said Deponent further Deponeth…" and That The Worshipful/Honourable/Excellencies &c addressed do actually seem to buckle under the praise and estimable grime of the authors of our Grovesian Treasurie…. More preliminary details. Some of the more important documents (lists of Palatine names and key Letters from/to the Sovereign, Her Lord Lieutenant in Ireland and so forth) have already been posted, under the good offices of Barb Milburn (Ont.) and Susan Willig (Washington, USA - I think). If you missed them and want them, go to http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/irl-palatine/ and look for the following: >From Barb Milburn 30 June 2000: Palatine Families in Ireland, July 1715 (lists of names #1 and #2). 01 July 2000: TG papers - Muster 1720 (#1, #2 and #3) 02/03 July 2000: Religious census 1766 (First, then #2 and #3) 03/04 July 2000: Freeholders (#1, Ballyrigin, Ballyngarane, Killiheen) >From Susan Willig 30 July 2000: Queen Anne's Letter, 17 Oct. 1709 (TG papers) 06 August 2000: Letter to Earl of Wharton, July 1710 14 August 2000: Letter to the Queen's Representative, 18 Dec. 1710 09 Oct. 2000: More TG Letters, 28 July 1711 - Treasury Report 26 Nov. 2000: Report of Commission … 24 June 1714 - Certificate 07 Dec. 2000: More TG papers - Petition after July 1713 of Leicester plus an interesting analysis from Chris LeGear (UK, somewhere?) on the ethics of IP colonization (15 Aug. 2000). There is very much more of great interest, of course, but here I'm concerned with the TG stuff. Right, I've said enough - more than enough, I fancy. My first despatch will hit your mailboxes soon. You can DELETE immediately or, as one member did about a year ago, simply UNSUBSCRIBE and pick things up as you choose from time to time. Bye bye, until later on. Terry Pyper (Lincolnshire UK)