R. T. Green's book, " Notes on Culpeper County ," incorporates Dr. Slaughter's comments on St. Mark's Parish. But, it is impossible to tell, with certainty, the exact contribution of Slaughter, as his remarks are not set off in a clearly defined area. Apparently, Green took some written notes of Slaughter and included them in his text. Therefore, the authorship and the date of some of the statements are not clear. What is clear is that by the time that Green published his book, another book had appeared with comments on Germanna. Therefore, Green could have been influenced by Slaughter, and by Willis Kemper, who was the lead author in the second book.
Slaughter had been born in the early 1800's and ill health toward the middle of the century forced him to leave the pulpit. He went to England and, while there, he did a little research on the history of Virginia. On his return, he established a private chapel on his family's farm, and during the Civil War he ministered to troops. He was active in researching the Parishes of Virginia, and published some of the results of his research. While he did research St. Mark's Parish, which at one time filled Culpeper County and more, he did not publish these notes. Therefore, the history in the last note was not made generally public. Rev. Slaughter died in 1890. [If anyone can correct and add to these comments, I would like to hear from them.]
In the history of Germanna, it seems that from the earliest days, perhaps starting with Rev. Jones (1724) and Col. Byrd (1733), the First and Second Germanna Colonies were confused. Typical of this was the previous comment that the Germans and the captain of the ship fell into an argument over the passage money. Slaughter implied this was the First Colony but the circumstances seem more appropriate to the Second Colony. As to the landing at Tappahannock, where it was said that Gov. Spotswood happened to be, this was very unlikely, as the Gov. stayed in Williamsburg except when duty took him away, and Tappahannock was not a likely place for him to be.
Up to about 1900, the history of Germanna was very confused and incomplete. The origins of the Germans and their motivations in coming to Virginia were completely misunderstood. Slaughter even speculated, though he really did not believe it, that the Germans might have come through North Carolina. He gave Oldenburg, a town in the far north of Germany close to Bremen, as their home. His source for this statement leaves us mystified.
Slaughter and Green are almost silent as to what the Germans did for Spotswood. It is noted, quoting from a letter of Spotswood, that the Germans were miners and that they had examined the purported silver mine. Beyond this, they say very little.
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.