The history which Robert Beverley wrote was divided into four parts. The first gives a running narrative of the settlement of the colony up to the writer's own time. The second is a description of the natural history. The third part deals with the Indians. The fourth part is a discussion of the form of government, with a description of the laws and public offices. It was the last part that generated the most excitement, as it was filled with comments, mostly negative, about the present office holders. The historical narrative was too sketchy to be of value but the natural history and the description of the Indians were good. All were written with verve, clarity, and a sense of humor.
Back home in Beverley Park, the historian was content to live in austere simplicity. His brother-in-law, William Byrd, tried to make his establishment into a replica of an English lord's estate. Beverley disregarded all trends and fashions. While others purchased their furniture from England, Beverley made his furniture on the plantation. Style was not important to him; he and his guests sat on stools, not chairs.
Though he had only the one child, William, and had no plans to remarry after the death of Ursula Byrd, Beverley labored to increase his estate by land speculations. He scouted a tract of 13,000 acres along the south side of the Rapidan and had it surveyed. He was ready to patent the tract in 1710 when the law was changed to require him to pay his fees and commence the seeding and planting period. He held off on this because getting settlers was doubtful for a tract that was this remote. Without the settlers, he could lose his investment.
When Spotswood came in 1710, they became friendly (they were of a similar age, just past thirty). Spotswood gave Beverley a few small public offices to hold. Beverley gave Spotswood a lesson in western land development, the area where the action and the profits would lie. Beverley proposed that they might enter into a joint land development project based on Beverley's 13,000 acres. Spotswood wanted more land and on their trip across the Blue Ridge Mountain they explored Beverley's proposed tract plus other land that they could add to it. As a consequence they found a total of 40,000 acres (the public description) but in reality it was closer to 65,000 acres.
What was needed was a group of settlers. Spotswood's experience with Germans led him to favor the "Dutchmen" but they were not coming to Virginia. Spotswood let the ship Captains know that he would take a whole boatload of Germans. In particular, about six months after the expedition, Spotswood was talking to Capt. Tarbett. About nine months later, in late 1717, Tarbett arrived in Virginia with some seventy-odd Germans. Spotswood and Beverley formalized their partnership, and took in a few small partners, to settle the Germans on the 40,000 acres.
The initial hope had been that the Germans would remain on the tract indefinitely and lease the ground from the partners. But an important point was that this would secure the title to the tract.
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.