One research source for answering some questions about our ancestors is the data in the Virginia Colonial Record project. There is little genealogical information, as most of the data is of a general historical nature. You can only hope to find your ancestor if he did something unusual which resulted in his record being committed to the official files. In the case of Germanna ancestors, they were involved in official or near-official acts. Therefore, many incidents which affected them are recorded. (This is one of the fringe benefits of getting entangled with the Lt. Gov. of Virginia.)
During colonial times, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many records were made and sent back to England. Spotswood regularly reported to the Board of Trade which oversaw events in the colonies, including the Caribbean area. Many of these records were bound into volumes and preserved.
Shortly after WWII, the Commonwealth of Virginia, in preparation for the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, sent crews to England to examine and to make records, on microfilm, of these colonial records. They limited themselves, though, to records which mentioned Virginia. Back at the Library of Virginia, in Richmond, they prepared indices to these records using several categories such as personal name, ship name, or keyword. These indices are now online and accessible via a computer; however, you cannot obtain a copy of the record but only an abstract. The abstract is often very useful and gives a good clue as to whether you might want the record.
As to how extensive these records are can be judged by the number of different individuals in the index whose surnames starts with the letter "S" and go up to Sands. The number is about 275. Many individuals are in the index a multiple number of times. (Originally, I had intended to count all the people whose name began with "S" but I grew weary with the task and stopped at Sands.) The number of ships that are mentioned is large also. There is no assurance that any particular ship or person will be mentioned.
Some people have said that the captain of the ship which brought the Second Colony was Capt. Scott. Others have been inclined to be doubtful of this as the only source record which hints at this says, "in Capt. Scott", a phrase which does not inspire confidence.
I used the data in the Colonial Record Project to see if I could find a mention of a Capt. Scott as a person. I could find none close enough to 1717 who is listed as a civilian. There were many captains named Scott, but they were too far away in time (twenty years or more), or were military men. Failing to find a captain ("master") by the name of Scott, I tried to find a ship by the name of "Scott". There was one not too many years from 1717 in 1724. And fortunately, the name of the master of it was given, an Andrew Tarbett. A search for Andrew Tarbett in the records discloses another record for him in 1717 when he was talking to Alexander Spotswood.
I have put this information together, with other information, and reached the conclusion, which I believe is most probable course of events, that the Second Colony came in the ship "Scott", of which Andrew Tarbett was the Captain, or Master. This information, in more detail, was reported in the last issue of Beyond Germanna and will be covered briefly at my talks at Hebron Lutheran Church on September 20.
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.