The following is from a reply from Jeff Woodhall ([log in to unmask]) to a
posting I made to the "[log in to unmask]" about the
"Origin of 'Yankee'".

First, I posted Carol Kammen's ([log in to unmask]) definition of Yankee from
the soon to be published Local History Encyclopedia (AltaMira Press and
AASLH).

Then, in reply to that, Jeff Woodhall posted:

 ... (T)he source given for the word was Dutch ... who had been English
allies during the Spanish Wars of the Elizabethan Period. The Dutch word for
John being Jank or [Y]Jankie for Johnny.

The gist of the theory goes like this:

There were common Calvinist Religious ties between the Dutch Protestant
Reformers and Cromwell's Puritans who for a time ruled Great Britain after
the disposal of the Stuart King ... Charles I.   When the Catholic/Anglican
types [Cavaliers] regained power after Cromwell's death, they reinstitued the
power of the monarchy through CharlesII and began to persecute the Puritans
and other reform groups [like Presbyterian groups in Scotland] which fell
outside the sphere of the Holy Catholic Church of England.

Many Puritans who seeking to "purify" the Church of Christ fled in exile to
New England and New York Communities which already had a heavy "Dutch Reform"
influence. Furthermore, the Anglo-American Colonist had no problem
inter-marring with other Northern Europeans such as the Dutch, the Swedes,
the Germans, Scott-Irish, and French Huguenots etc.,.

The colonies began to garrisoned by the professional armies of George II &
III from the 1750's on to the Revolution.  British Regulars, proud of their
racial purity and Nationalistic religious/monarchial conservatism coined the
term "Janke" or Yankee as a way to refer to the religious views and diverse
parentage of the rough hewn, frontiersman, American Colonist in a
condescending, derogatory manner.

Evidence that this British arrogance and disdain against the people of
Colonies was in place before the Revolutionary troubles can be seen in Edward
Braddock's defeat at the hands of the French and Indians. The proud British
General failed to heed the advise of his colonial scouts and his colonial
militia officer, then Major George Washington. Braddock marched into a French
and Indian ambush in full uniform regalia with fife and drum a playing. They
became sitting ducks for French irregulars and their Indian allies hiding
behind trees and a massacre insued. Washington was able to organize a retreat
and get the surviving members of the regiment out the Ohio country and back
to Virginia.

Even the Virginians with their Anglican/Cavalier roots became "Yankee" to the
British Army and the German-Anglo King William III who had no empathy for the
ancient "Rights of Englishmen" that the colonials felt they held.