Several notes back, I quoted Graffenried on what the Germans were doing at Germanna during the first years they were there. He implied that their activities consisted of farming some land that they had cleared. This would be consistent with what Spotswood was writing. He had placed them with the objective of mining silver but he would not let them start on this until the question of the royal share of gold and silver mines was cleared up. There was a hitch in this activity, as Queen Anne died shortly after as the Germans arrived. The new monarch was King George, a German speaking individual. Spotswood suggested to Blakiston that he try the argument that the new King would be helping his fellow countrymen if he resolved the question. But the Crown never showed any enthusiasm for settling the question and it remained unresolved.
In January of 1715 (NS), Spotswood wrote to the Lord Commissioners of Trade,
"[they are] German Protestants . . . who upon the encouragement of the Baron de Graffenried, came over hither in hopes to find out Mines, but the Baron's misfortunes obliged him to leave the Country before their arrival. They have been settled on ye Frontiers of Rappa. [Rappahannock] and subsisted since chiefly at my charge and the Contributions of some Gentlemen that have a prospect of being reimburs'd by their Labour whenever his Maj'tie shall be pleased, by ascertaining his Share to give encouragem't for working those Mines. . ."
Spotswood continued in the same letter with another thought. Even though the Germans had been there less than one year, in fact little more than a half year, he wrote,
". . . I hope the kind reception that they have found here will invite more of the same Nation to transport themselves to this Colony, w'ch wants only industrious people to make it a flourishing Country. . ."
Though it is getting slightly ahead of the rest of the story, this thought of Spotswood was to have a major impact on the future development of the western regions of Virginia. Already he was beginning to think of new possibilities.
>From the very first days in Virginia, Spotswood had been thinking of ways of earning some money to support himself in the style to which he would have liked to live. One of his first ventures was an Indian trading company. He proposed, and the Virginia colony enacted, legislation which granted a monopoly of Indian trading to one company. Spotswood was an investor in this company. (This is another example of his use of legislation and rulings to benefit himself.) But the Board of Trade in London ruled that there could not be a monopoly. The silver mine was another venture but it was hung up on the question of the royal share. By 1715, Spotswood had been frustrated in his efforts to develop his personal economic base.
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.