I quoted statements from Willis Kemper in recent notes, without commentary, even though there were erroneous statements embedded in them. First, I would like to correct these comments.
Mr. Kemper said that the Second Colony moved into the Northern Neck. At the time of the move, this area was not considered to be a part of the Northern Neck. Only after the boundaries of the Northern Neck were clarified in England in the mid-1740's, was this area known as a part of the Fairfax domain, i.e., the Northern Neck. But it would be unfair to say as of the time of the move that it was the Northern Neck.
A reference was made to the joint appeal of the First and Second Colonies in Germany which stated they needed assistance. This was about 1720 and the appeal is usually associated with Zollicoffer who carried the message to Germany. Kemper assumes this appeal was, to some degree, successful, and that some money was raised. He goes on to say,
"The latter [Second Colony people] seemed to have held on to the contributions from Europe. They built Hebron Church, still in existence, and still have an organ and a communion service, contributed by their European friends."
First, there is absolutely no evidence that the Zollicoffer appeal raised any money. Hebron Church was not built until 1740, twenty years after Zollicoffer. The fund raising in 1734 to 1738 for this is well documented and the original book of the contributors (most, at least) still exists. This fund raising was entirely done by the Second Colony, as augmented by several new immigrants, and none of the proceeds were intended for the First Colony. The organ was purchased (in Lititz, Pennsylvania) in 1802, so it is a stretch to say that it was contributed by European friends.
In quoting Rev. Jones, (p. 29 of the Kemper Genealogy), Kemper takes a sentence from one paragraph which talks about the Second Colony and merges it into a paragraph which talks about the First Colony. This has confused historians.
At another point, Kemper says that the Kollicoffer advertisement referred to all of the Germans living at Germantown on the Rappahannock. Kemper faults the writers of the petition saying that they meant Germanna, not Germantown. Actually, the one individual who wrote more about Germanna than anyone, John Fontaine, called the place Germantown more often than he called it Germanna. He does use both names showing that it was the same place, but it is clear that Germanna was known also as Germantown. And to distinguish the home of the Second Colony people, it was called by Spotswood (or at least his agents) New Germantown . Thus, the name of Germantown is not unique in Virginia history. There is no question that this has confused the interpretation of history but we can hardly correct what was said almost three centuries ago.
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.