As Spotswood rode back to Williamsburg, he reviewed his economic plans. The thoughts that were turning over in his mind probably went something like this:
" Land is the proven route to wealth in Virginia. The big tracts are out west in the uninhabited regions. If I owned the land, I could lease and not sell it. Then if I ever have a family, I would have something to leave to them. I need a group now to settle on the land and provide support and protection for each other while I prove up my title to the land. Those Germans at Germanna have worked out well. It was too bad the mines have not turned out but that wasn't the fault of the Germans. They have kept the peace. They stayed in place and did not create any problems. Too bad they don't have more time left to serve. I wonder why Virginia isn't getting more shiploads of Germans? I must investigate this more. Right now, I must get the surveyors at work on a tract of land above, to the north of the Rapidan River. There was some good land there. That would go well with the land that Beverley has, just across the river. "
Within about six months, Spotswood had an opportunity to talk to a ship's captain. Actually, in his capacity as the governor and the commander of His Majesty's naval forces in the region of Virginia, he had many opportunities to visit with the ship masters. One of the problems that Spotswood had to deal with was pirates who openly operating at the mouth of the bay. For example, when one of the ships bringing Graffenried's Germans stopped by Virginia, it was raided by a pirate ship right in the view of a ship of Her Majesty's navy which was at anchor. It did not sit well with the merchants, ship owners, and the Crown for the pirates to be so busy right on the coast of Virginia. Spotswood was very active in his pursuit of the pirates, and did more to eliminate piracy than any governor. It was he who hung Blackbeard in the Williamsburg square as a lesson to other pirates.
On 17 April 1717, Spotswood took testimony from Andrew Tarbett, master of the ship Agnis, and from Robert Gilmer, super cargo on the Agnis. The Agnis was bound from Barbados to Virginia with rum, sugar, molasses, and sundry European goods, on 7 April, when it was intercepted off Cape Charles by a pirate ship. The cargo of the Agnis was plundered by the pirates, the crew of the Agnis was taken on the pirate ship, and the Agnis was sunk. The pirates intercepted other ships and put the captured crews on board one of these. They were able then to make land. From the conversations with the crew of the pirate ship, it was learned that about ten pirate ships were operating in the Atlantic.
Andrew Tarbett is to be found in another record from Great Britain. In 1724, two custom officials were convicted for accepting a bribe from Andrew Tarbett, master of the ship Scott , to allow some Virginia tobacco to pass without the payment of the usual customs (H. M. Customs and Excise Library, Class 1480). There are several interesting things in this document but foremost is the mention of the ship of the name Scott . " Scott " is a red flag in connection with another group of Germans who ended up in Virginia.
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.