John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 254

Headrights are one source of immigrant names.   These were used at the time a land patent was taken from the Crown.  In the last note, I gave forty-eight of these names, all of which seem to be members of the Second Germanna Colony.  One can take the names from the land patents, and Nugent was very careful to give the names in her abstracts of the patents.

Normally though, the first step was to obtain the headright.   The immigrant went to court to prove his importation and thereby set in motion the process.  For example, on June 3, 1724, the following First Colony members all went to the Spotsylvania Court and gave evidence as to their coming:   John Spellman, Harmon Fitchback, John Huffman, Joseph Cuntz, John Fitzback, Jacob Rickart, Milchert Brumback, Dillman Weaver, Peter Hitt.

The amount of detail that a man gave varied considerably.   They usually gave the year and perhaps the month.  The statement also said who came with the petitioner.  These are not to be taken too literally.   For example, John Huffman said he was accompanied by Katherina, his wife.  You might assume that John was married when he came, but you would be in error if you did.  She did come at the same time, but they were not married yet.

Not everyone took out a headright.   After treasury warrants came in use, one could pay five shillings per fifty acres as an alternative.  If you lived in the Northern Neck, as the First Colony did, you had to find a buyer for your headright, since you could not use it in the Northern Neck.

Alexander Spotswood complained that people were cheating the Crown by taking out multiple headrights.  He set up a system of cross checks to prevent this, but it was not perfect.  In fact, some of our Germanna people applied for and got headrights even though they were not entitled to them.   Peter Weaver was one such person.