In 1710, Graffenried and Michel sailed to North Carolina, via Virginia, with the Swiss Anabaptists (Mennonites). The German contingent had sailed earlier. Albrecht, hired to recruit miners, went to Siegen where he spent considerable time having mining tools made and in contacting prospective workmen.
The initial response to Albrecht was not good. Probably on his own initiative, on 15 Aug 1711, he made an agreement with the pastors of the (Protestant) church in Siegen in which he promised the pastors some of the income from the mines if they would help secure men to go to America.
Though Graffenried called Albrecht the "chief miner", Albrecht was not bashful about claiming to have been appointed to develop mines and smelters for gold and silver in the Colonies on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen Anne, and the proprietors of Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. (In actuality, the proprietors of the Northern Neck in Virginia, of Maryland, and of Pennsylvania were protesting that the proposed venture of Graffenried and Michel infringed on their lands.)
One factor which helped Albrecht was the mass exodus from Germany which took place in 1709. Within a 15 mile radius of Siegen, over 200 individuals have been identified who left the region (Nassau-Siegen) and made it to America.
Thus almost everyone in the region around Siegen was aware of people who had left for America. The importance of these "ice-breakers" should not be forgotten.
Communications between Albrecht and Graffenried must have been limited. As will be seen, things were not going well for Graffenried, so Albrecht had time on his hands. During this period, Albrecht went back to London (probably in part to have better communications with Graffenried). In London, Albrecht spent time preparing a fancy document (which still exists in the Spotsylvania County, VA Court House) and in trying to sell shares in the mining venture. He must have been frustrated because he appeared to have done his job and yet no word was forthcoming from Graffenried to proceed.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.