In 1710, while Albrecht went to Siegen, Graffenried and Michel went to North Carolina with their Anabaptists. The ship stopped by Virginia and Graffenried paid a visit to Lt. Gov. Alexander SPOTSWOOD. Graffenried showed Spotswood his letter from the Queen stating he was to have land for his silver mining colony; however, Graffenried could not immediately pursue this objective in the Shenandoah Valley because he had to get his colony in North Carolina started. Spotswood was very courteous to Graffenried, as Graffenried was now a Baron, and Spotswood was always respectful of nobility. The biggest impact of this meeting is that Spotswood was set on to the idea that there might be precious metals in Virginia. He started reading the law on the subject.
Spotswood was nervous about having foreigners come into Virginia. He was not sure of the precedents and procedures. He asked his supervisors in London about this, suggesting that it might be a good idea if the foreigners were placed beyond the frontier to protect the English colonists from the Indians; however, no guidance was given to him on this subject. But he did not forget the idea.
Graffenried went on to North Carolina where he found that events had not gone as well with the Germans as could have been wished. These Germans had arrived before Graffenried. Even worse, the Indians attacked the colony and destroyed much. Graffenried himself was kidnapped by the Indians and narrowly escaped with his life. When Graffenried was free of the Indians, he began to think about relocating the colony to Virginia. He visited Virginia again with two purposes in mind, finding the silver deposits and relocating his colony. In short, neither came to pass.
Michel and Graffenried had a falling out. As Graffenried tells it in his memoirs, Michel had acted very badly toward the Indians and made life very difficult for Graffenried. So Graffenried had to locate the silver deposits on his own. He personally traveled up the Potomac and above the falls (vicinity of modern Washington, D.C.). Though he never found any deposits, it appears that his faith in the metal was not shaken. Other individuals in Virginia seemed to share this belief including Spotswood himself.
Back in North Carolina, the lack of adequate food production in the first year plus the havoc raised by the Indians meant that help for the colonists was needed. To procure money to buy food, Graffenried mortgaged the farm which was the basis of his title. He couldn't pay his debts though and was hounded by his creditors who foreclosed on his farm. His primary plan had failed and his backup plan to relocate the colony to the silver mines in Virginia failed also because he could not find the silver nor was there a desire on the part of the North Carolina colonists to relocate. By now two years had gone by in America and Graffenried was a fugitive from his creditors. He escaped to Virginia.
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.