Some history of the Germanna Colonies, but only a peripheral amount, was written by William Byrd II. We have his " Progress to the Mines ", which recounts his visit to Germanna and the Spotswoods (Spotswood had a family by this time), followed by his comments on the iron mines and furnace of Spotswood; however, he wrote this about thirteen years after the First Colony had left Fort Germanna for Germantown. By then, Fort Germanna had disappeared to be replaced by Spotswood's home which was built on the same site. William Byrd wrote a cryptic remark which has never been explained fully. He spoke of a "baker's dozen" of ruinous tenements where Spotswood had housed workers. John Fontaine wrote of nine homes when Fort Germanna was the home of the First Germanna Colony.
Because of the difference in the number of homes, there has been a difference of opinion as to whether the houses to which Byrd refers were the same as the ones to which Fontaine refers. Probably they were. The increase from nine to thirteen could have come about in several ways. First, before the First Colony left Fort Germanna, it appears that several of the bachelors did marry. Whereas the bachelors originally appear to have been living together in one house, the new couples probably set up housekeeping in their own homes. Also, for a period of time, Francis Hume was Spotswood's supervisor of the Germans at Germanna. Probably he qualified for a house of his own. And then later, while Spotswood's home was under construction, he had many workmen on the site. Some of the additional homes may have been required for them.
Within a few months after Spotswood arrived in Virginia to assume his duties as the Lt. Gov. of the colony, Byrd made a proposal to Spotswood which Spotswood thought had merit. Spotswood followed up on Byrd's idea. Byrd was the owner of land on the James River which contained iron ore. In fact, it was in this area that the iron furnace of 1622 had been built.
Byrd said he would give up his claim to this land to the colony if the colony would build an iron furnace, and if the colony would give him a position or job in the operation. Spotswood saw that there was merit in the plan, for England had denuded herself by cutting down its trees to make charcoal for its iron furnaces. England was in the position of buying iron from the Baltic nations; however, Virginia had trees, water power, and iron ore. It would make sense for England to encourage iron production in Virginia. For a few months, Spotswood pursued these ideas.
(Willis Kemper, who wrote a history of two of the Germanna families, completely misinterpreted these actions of Spotswood. Kemper would have us believe that Spotswood found iron ore and was pursuing the subject of iron for personal reasons. Neither of these statements was true.)
In future notes, I will look at William Byrd II who was an interesting person, even though he had but little impact on the Germanna Colonies.
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.