At a Sep. 17, 1717 meeting, Williams Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania,
said that foreigners from Germany settled in Pennsylvania without any
certificates demonstrating their identity, origin and intention. Thus,
he and the provincial Council ordered that those aliens take the
following oath of allegiance:
“We the subscribers, natives and late inhabitants of the Palatinate
upon the Rhine and places adjacent, having transported ourselves into
this Province of Pennsylvania, a colony subject to the Crown of Great
Britain, in hopes and expectation of finding a retreat and peaceable
settlement therein: Do solemnly promise and engage that we will be
faithful and bear true allegiance to his present Majesty king George II,
and his successors, and will be faithful to the Proprietors of this
Province; and that we will demean ourselves peaceably to all his said
Mejesty’s subjects, and strictly observe and conform to the laws of
England and of this Province to the utmost of our power and best of our
understanding.”