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poor-relief · card R

Redemptioner

A redemptioner was an immigrant, usually from continental Europe, who sailed without paying the fare and on arrival sold years of labor to cover it.

Redemptioners came mostly in the 1700s and early 1800s, many to Pennsylvania. Unlike British servants, whose contracts were approved before sailing, they bargained after landing: the shipping company set the fare, and a buyer paid it in exchange for years of service. Relatives already in America could redeem them by paying the passage.

Newspapers advertised newly arrived redemptioners for sale for a term of years, as the Lancaster Journal did in 1798. Philadelphia's mayor kept a record of indentures for 1771 to 1773 that gives each servant's name, port of departure and master, so look there and in court records for an ancestor who came this way.

As seen in a recordPhiladelphia newspaper notice, 1700s
Just arrived, the ship Hope, a number of Palatine redemptioners, whose time is to be disposed of
Sources
How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "Redemptioner." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/poor-relief/redemptioner. Last checked 2026-10-03.

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poor-reliefFFreedom duesPayment owed a servant when the term endedLegal and landIIndentureFormal agreement, such as a deedOccupationsIIndentured servantBound by contract to work a set term
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