Samuel Urlsperger

He came from a former prestigious and wealthy Hungarian family that, during the Thirty Years' War, was forced to emigrate like many other Protestants in Hungary and Styria due to religious persecution by the Habsburg authorities.

While in Augsburg, Urlsperger from 1735 to 1752 edited the 18 Continuations of the "Detailed Reports on the Salzburger emigrants who settled in America" which contain the diaries and letters of two pastors, Johann Martin Boltzius and Israel Christian Gronau.

These men accompanied and helped Urlsperger to transfer Salzburg Protestants, exiled from their lands by Prince-archbishop Leopold Anton von Firmian, and settle them at Ebenezer near Savannah, Georgia.

Altogether they traveled to England, where they took the oath of allegiance to the British Government on January 8, 1734 in order to set sail for Georgia on the ship "Purisburg" under Captain Coram.

Although he tried to refute the arguments favoring Prussia, Urlsperger ultimately admitted that travelling to Georgia would be more dangerous and much less certain of success than the simple journey to the Prussian lands.