In a census taken on May 6, 1709 in St. Catherine's (parish?), John and his family are listed as First Arrivals. (Information source: Board of Trade Miscellaneous, Vol 2, D 57, British Museum Library, London, England). John is listed as age 38 in the section labeled "Husbandmen & Vinedressers" which probably means he was a farmer of perhaps worked in the wine industry. The list shows his with a wife, but no name for her is given. Two sons aged 8 and 2 and two daughters aged 12 and 10 are also listed. The final entry for the family is "Ref." meaning Reformed, or Protestant.

     In January 1710, a group of about 600 Palatines set sail from Gravesend for Carolina and the Hornighs were among them. It was a bad crossing and many died during the winter voyage across the North Atlantic. Their ship carried them off course tot he mouth of the James River in Virginia where they were set upon and robbed by a boarding party of one of Louis XIV's warships. The French took everything including the ship's rowboats and the clothes from the colonists' backs. The Jamestown colonists were surprised to see a group of literally naked people wading ashore from their stripped vessel, but soon recovered their composure and provided the colonists with food, blankets, and shelter.

     After a few weeks in Jamestown, the Palatines set out overland to find the Neuse River to travel to the proposed colony area. When they finally arrived, they found their ;and had not been cleared of its Indian title as von Graffenreidt had supposedly arranged, and the Tuscaroras were in no hurry to vacate. By early summer, von Graffenreidt himself had arrived and matters were settled to the point where a late crop was planted. The settlers had no way of knowing it, but von Graffenreidt's finances were shaky and he was forced to mortgage the tract on which the Palatines had settled. The land titles were unsound and the colonists eventually lost their settled lands by foreclosure.