A recent article about the Germanna Colonists contained many errors. To quote one erroneous statement, "It was during the 1716-17 that many of the first colony moved near Midland in present Fauquier County and patented land on Licking Run, naming it Germantown." First, to correct a minor error, the first colony had a land grant, not a land patent. They purchased their land from Lady Fairfax and they were issued, after a delay, a grant by Lord Fairfax. Prior to the Revolutionary War, land patents were issued directly by the Crown to the person taking up the land. In the Northern Neck, on the lands of the Fairfax family, grants were used. The more serious error is the date of 1716-17. The use of this date shows a lack of understanding of the history of the First Colony.
When the First Colony went to London from Nassau-Siegen, they were expecting the George Ritter Company, of which Christopher de Graffenried was a field director, to pay their way to the New World. But once they were in London, they found that the George Ritter Company and Graffenried were both broke and in debt. The First Colony did not have enough money to pay their own way but they had some funds. They pooled their money and agreed to work four years to pay the balance of their transportation costs. Graffenried used this offer to shop around and found that Col. Blakiston, agent for Virginia, was willing to commit Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood to paying the balance of the funds, 150 pounds sterling, in return for the German's agreement to work four years. The Germans arrived in April of 1714 so their four years were not up until the spring of 1718. This was an inconvenient time to move as it was too late in the year to clear ground and plant crops for the growing season. By staying at Germanna for a few more months, they could use the land that they had already cleared.
Spotswood gave a summary of these years in a letter to Col. Harrison in which he said that he had the Germans commence a search for iron ore in February 1717 (1718 on the modern calendar). But about two years later he stopped the search after spending something more than sixty pounds sterling. This would bring the time up to early 1719 or late 1718. The small expenditure shows that the work could not have involved a furnace and so one would conclude the search had concentrated on finding a good source of ore.
The Germans left testimony in the Essex Court that they worked until December 1718 though they said they had started work earlier than Spotswood had said. The implication is that this was the end of their endeavors for Spotswood. This work, they said, consisted of mining and quarrying. It was signed by Johann Justus Albrecht and Jacob Holtzclaw, two of the Germans at Germanna.
So we know that the Germans could not have left Germanna much before January 1719 (new style) because they were obligated to serve four years. But even better, we have Spotswood's statement that they worked until late 1718 or early 1719. The Germans themselves said they worked until December of 1718.
We also know that they purchased the land for their permanent homes in 1718 which appears to be in anticipation of their need.
The statement that the Germans moved in 1716-17 shows a lack of knowledge of the published records which are quite clear. For instance, the memoirs of Christoph von Graffenried have been published in the " Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission ", by Vincent Todd in 1920.
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.