The name Scott has been said to be the name of the captain of the ship which brought a group of German Lutherans to Virginia in 1717. B.C. Holtzclaw, writing in Germanna Record Six, says the importation statement of some of these Germans stated they came "about nine years since with Capt. Scott". The statements, three in total and all saying the same thing, are to be found in Spotsylvania County Order Book 1724-1730. When one reads the documents in their original form, one learns that the word "about" is not a part of the statement. One also learns that they do not say " with Capt. Scott" but they say " in Capt. Scott".
It is unusual to refer to Captains in this way, which raises the question as to what was the intent of the statement. Remember that these are Germans whose knowledge of English was limited. Perhaps, in their bumbling way, they were referring to a ship by the name of Scott instead of a man. They may have said something to the effect that they came with the captain of the ship named Scott. The clerk misunderstood their meaning and wrote down something which was not their intent at all.
To answer whether " Scott " might not refer to a ship rather than a man, I examined the colonial records. This is not as hard to do as might be expected in spite of the large volume of records in many depositories in Great Britain. Shortly after World War II, the state of Virginia sent researchers to Great Britain to look for records which referred to Virginia. When they found one, they microfilmed it. The collection was brought back to Richmond, and an elaborate index was prepared. In this age of computers, they have even made the index accessible via a computer; however, the microfilms must be read or copied at Richmond.
These microfilms are not a complete record of events but the extent of them is surprising. For example, in looking for a captain named Scott , several were found. But the civilians were either too many years before 1717 or too many years after 1717. There were also military captains in the Navy but they would hardly seem to qualify. The captain in question spent time in a debtor's prison in London which would not be typical of a military captain. The lack of an appropriate captain named Scott in these records casts doubt there was a captain by this name.
Next, the records were examined for a ship named Scott and one was found. It was the ship of which Andrew Tarbett was master. The record in question says little about the ship except that it was engaged in trade with Virginia (it was carrying Virginia tobacco). But the record said a lot more about the character of Andrew Tarbett.
Looking for more information about Tarbett, it was discovered that he had been talking, in the spring of the year of 1717, with Gov. Spotswood. This occurred when he lost a ship to the pirates and had to give a disposition on the facts. It is my belief that Tarbett was back in Virginia in less than a year with a group of seventy-odd Germans. Tarbett's appearance on this occasion was not an accident of the weather. It was a deliberate action and he was abetted in his criminal activities by Gov. Spotswood.
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.