John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes
Note 176
This note starts another set of twenty-five and I like to review the term,
Germanna Colonies. In the narrowest sense, the Germanna Colony was a group
of 42 Germans who came in April of 1714 to Virginia and were settled on the
frontier in a "fort" called Fort Germanna. The transportation of the Germans
was paid in part by Lt. Gov. Spotswood. In return for this, the Germans were
to work four years for him.
In 1717 (but by the modern calendar, it was very probably 1718), another
group of seventy-odd Germans came and their transportation costs were paid
by a partnership of which the principal partners were Spotswood and Robert
Beverley. This group was settled about two miles from Germanna, across the
Rapidan River, in a community called New German Town (the alternative name
for Germanna, widely used, was German Town). This second group had no fort,
but their defense was the number of people and the Rapidan River which could
be forded at their doorstep. Since this group was only two miles from
Germanna, it is customary to consider them as Germanna colonists also. To
distinguish the two groups, they are called the First and Second Colonies.
(Sometimes, Germanna 1 and Germanna 2.)
More Germans came early on, but mostly as individuals and at different
times. Collectively they have been called the Third Germanna colony but it
is a misnomer as they were not a group. The number of people has also been
overestimated. By 1724, the Second Colony had grown from seventy-odd to
about 100 per a statement by Spotswood . Since many of these people were
living with the Second Colony, it seems as if they should be called Germanna
colonists also. Some of the immigrants were scattered throughout Virginia.
After 1719, essentially no Germans were at Germanna proper. After 1725,
there were no Germans at New German Town. But the Germans kept coming right
up to the time of the Revolution when the war stopped immigration, and
relocation within the colonies slowed down. These later Germans usually
lived in the neighborhoods of where the First and Second Colonies made their
permanent homes away from Germanna.
What is the requirement to be called a Germanna colonist? Was it to have
lived at or near Germanna? The definition that has evolved included anyone
who lived in the neighborhood of the original German immigrants whether at
Germanna, or in the larger surrounding community. Generally, this larger
community is taken to be the modern counties of Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison,
and Rappahannock in Virginia. All of these counties are east of the Blue
Ridge Mountains. This area is also in the Piedmont of Virginia. There are
alternative phrases.
The history of the Germanna colonists is repeated in part by other Germans.
Also, there were interactions between the Germanna colonists and the larger
community. Several of the Germanna people came from other colonies such as
Pennsylvania. In the writing these notes, I favor being easy-going about the
term, "Germanna colonist". After all, some people moved from other colonies
to Germanna, and, the Germanna people moved on to every other colony south of
New York and New Jersey. Researchers primarily interested in these other
regions may have information.