John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes
Note 156
Spotsylvania County was formed in 1721 and 1722. By this time, the First
Germanna Colony had left Germanna for their new homes in Stafford County,
now Fauquier County. The Second Germanna Colony remained near Germanna until
after the formation of Spotsylvania Co. And when they moved to their
permanent homes they were still in Spotsylvania Co. In this new location,
they were at a considerable distance from the courthouse. In terms of
today's counties, they would have had to travel east across a portion of
Madison, the full length of Culpeper, and into Orange where Germanna is
located; however, the population center of the new county of Spotsylvania
was to the east of Germanna and pressures soon developed to relocate the
seat of the government from Germanna to the east. This only increased the
distance for the Robinson River people. Going to court was not an easy
matter. They had to leave early in the day on the day before they appeared
at court. The First Colony people, who had moved from Germanna early in 1719
(new style) to Stafford, continued to come to Germanna and Spotsylvania to
transact some of their business. For example, their proofs of importation
were made at Germanna, not at the county seat of Stafford. Also Jacob
Holtzclaw filed his proof of naturalization in Spotsylvania Co., not in
Stafford. This use of the court at Germanna was probably because of their
familiarity with the location.
The formation of Spotsylvania County was not a clean, neat event. In the
fall of 1720, the House of Burgesses, under the sponsorship of Spotswood,
created two new counties, Brunswick and Spotsylvania. The legislative act
gave as a reason for their creation that they would be a means of increasing
the security of the frontier. These were not routine creations though. They
contained clauses reducing the requirements for acquiring land in them. The
act stipulated that settlers would be "free from public levies" for ten
years. This in itself was an ambiguous and undefined statement. Did the
language mean free of the quit rents and of the purchase fee? Also, there
were no size limitations placed on the amount of land that could be
acquired. And the act was mute on the treatment to be accorded land already
acquired in the county. Could this be re-patented under the new terms? It
was very clear that the sponsor of the bill, Spotswood, could profit
handsomely under the terms of the act, especially as he already owned much
land in the new county.
The law was to take effect in May of 1721, but as soon as the measure was
signed by the (Lt.) Governor in December, the Council began accepting and
approving applications for patents. Immediately, ten applications, the
smallest for 3,000 acres and the largest for 20,000 acres, were approved.
But Spotswood knew that the special features of the legislation needed
approval from London (as "unusual acts"). Therefore, he did not sign the
patents approved by the Council. And the new county of Spotsylvania was not
installed at the date specified for its creation. A full year went by and in
the Spring of 1722, Spotswood was sure that he would be replaced as
Governor. Since the new Governor might balk at signing the patents,
Spotswood proceeded in May 1722 to sign the patents including those where he
was the hidden beneficiary. One of latter ones was for 40,000 acres and
included the land where the Second Germanna Colony was living. More than
138,000 acres of land was patented plus 9,000 acres of old Spotswood
patents. From this land, Spotswood was to be found as the owner of more than
85,000 acres of land in the new county.