The story of the Strople family in North America begins with the man we refer to as "The Loyalist Soldier", George Stropel or (Strople).  There are some bits of research that identify him as a Hessian soldier.  That is a bit of a stretch since we do not know if he actually came from the state of Hesse.  For our purposes, we prefer the term "Loyalist" as he was loyal to the king of England.  

Great Britain did not maintain a standing army in the 1700's. The British military strength was maintained in the British Navy, but when ground soldiers were needed, troops were raised and trained at that time. At the time of the American Revolution, George III, the King of England mustered 50,000 British Troops and 30,000 German Mercenaries for the war in the colonies. 

George III was the third Hanoverian king of England and was German by nationality and language. In addition to being the British Monarch, he was also Lector of Hanover, a German State bordering the North Sea. A soldier recruited in Hanover would probably have been a British Citizen.

It was common practice to recruit troops from the German States and from Switzerland. The German States numbered in the hundreds and were torn by years of wars, religious strife and poverty. The Princes of these states sold their young men as soldiers to other governments. This practice of using mercenary soldiers from this area goes back to the Romans. Although Hesse was only one of many German jurisdictions furnishing such soldiers, the German-speaking British recruits in the American Revolution are commonly referred to as Hessians. Swiss leaders discouraged and often prevented immigration in order to maintain the pool of available young males for military service as mercenaries.

It is difficult to determine where the soldier, George Strople, was born. He may have been recruited in Europe or may have already been in the American Colonies. Most of the German immigrants to the colonies in the 1700's were illiterate peasants fleeing tyranny, religious persecution and poverty. A large concentration of these immigrants was in the southern colonies and a second concentration was in western New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.

A large percentage of the Colonial American population was made up of former indentured servants who, having completed their seven year contracts, were free to leave servitude and blend into their community with full rights. At the time of the outbreak of the American Revolution, only about a third of the total population of the colonies favored the Patriot cause. Another third maintained their British loyalty. The remainder were indifferent to the conflict, having come from Europe, which had been torn by war for hundreds of years.