The mention of German Run on the north side of the Rapidan River in the Great Fork fascinated me. A topographical map indicated that German Run ran into Fields Run shortly before Fields Run emptied into the Rapidan River. Still, as I commented in the last note, this would not be conclusive because it was only about two miles from Germanna.
On a historical map of Culpeper County which is marked with old and new names of features, I found that Fields Run was the modern name. In times past, it had been called Fleshmans Run. This changed the outlook drastically. Fleshman was not a member of the First Germanna Colony at Germanna but he was a member of the Second Colony. Thus, when German Run flows into what had been Fleshmans Run, it tended strongly to say that the name "German" was probably associated with the people around Fleshman who were the Second Colony.
Eventually I got a more complete statement of Spotswood's description of how the Second Colony came into being and its early history. From the "Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1724-1725," v.35 edited by Cecil Headlam and published by the Public Record Office, London in 1936, Spotswood wrote in 1724 these statements which add to his previous quotations,
". . . [Beverley] invited me to become a sharer in the land, and at the same time admitted in some partners, to the end we might all joyn our abilities to make a strong settlement with a body of people all at once. . . . paying down the passage-money for 70 odd Germans, we settled them upon our tract as freemen (not servants) in 20 odd tenements, all close joyning to one another for their better defense, providing them with there with a stock of cattle and all other things necessary for their support, without receiving (even to this day) one penny or penny's worth of rent from them."
I draw your attention to the 20 odd tenements. Remember that the lease to Byrn, in note 278, mentioned that Byrn was to have parcels number 18 and 19. This sounds very much as if these tracts were a part of the 20-odd that Spotswood is mentioning here. Remember that the development in the Great Fork was very limited and probably, outside the potential German settlement, there were less than 18 houses in all of the Great Fork at this time.
The Byrn lease mentioned "New German Town." Spotswood says the Germans were "close joyned for their better defense." Now closely joined would probably trigger a designation as a town. Because Germanna was close by and because it was also called German Town, it was necessary to add "New" to distinguish the two German Towns. This is in itself would suggest the Germans in total were living in two different towns.
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.