Alexander Spotswood had to explain his land acquisitions to the people in London who had oversight of the Virginia Colony (it was a royal colony). He wrote, in 1724, to Col. Nathaniel Harrison, the Deputy Auditor of H.M. Revenues:
. . . "I fell into another partnership of land. Mr. Robert Beverley having discovered some excellent land among the little mountains had made a survey of it before the proclamation of 1710. But not daring to seat lands so remote from all Christian inhabitants, and exposed to Indians, found it in vain to take out a patent which would have required him to pay his fees then."An opportunity happened of freeing a considerable number of German families IMPORTED [emphasis added] in 1717 and he invited me to become a partner in the land, along with some others, to the end that we might all join in making a strong settlement with a body of people all at once.
"Paying down the passage money for 70 odd Germans, we settled them upon our tract as freeman in 20 odd tenements, close to one another for their better defense and provided them with a stock of cattle. But afterwards, understanding that many other Germans wanted to join them, we thought it needful to enlarge the tract. Because the Lord Commissioners of Trade were encouraging the raising of naval stores, we took in a large quantity of piney lands which lay contiguous and the total was then 40,000 acres."
Spotswood claims the increase in the size of the tract was after the Germans came. He would have us believe that the Germans came first, then the tract was increased from 13,000 acres to 40,000 acres. But the Germans were not settled on the 13,000 acres that Beverley had. They were settled on the 27,000 acres of the increase. That is, the plans for the 40,000 acres were in place before the Germans came. They were settled on the north side of the Rapidan River, across from Beverley's original claim. This shows that the partnership was active before the Germans arrived and that they were looking for settlers with an emphasis on Germans.
In the quotation of Spotswood above, I emphasized the word "imported". Spotswood spoke of the Germans as something that one ordered from Europe, like furniture or clothing. And I believe that is what he did do. He let the ship's captains know that he wanted a ship load of Germans. He wasn't speaking about one or two families but about " a body of people ", whom the partners could settle all at once. The plans of the partners had been in place since the expedition over the Blue Ridge Mountains. The additional land had been surveyed and was waiting. The partners were seeking a body of people, but the search was not passive. Spotswood became actively involved in it.
[Quotations from Spotswood have been modernized to conform more closely to our rules of grammar, punctuation, and spelling though the words are essentially his.]
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.