After the Germans agreed to serve for four years in America in return for their transportation, Graffenried went to work for the Germans to find someone who would take the other side of the bargain. His search brought him to Col. Blakiston, agent for Virginia, who was thoroughly familiar with Spotswood's hopes for his silver mine. Though Spotswood and Blakiston had not been able to get the Crown's share of gold and silver mines determined, Blakiston saw the Germans as an opportunity not to be missed. Therefore, Blakiston committed Spotswood, without having Spotswood's approval, to paying the one hundred and fifty Pounds needed for the Germans' transportation. The Germans were on the sea and nearing Virginia before Spotswood knew that he was the their employer.
Both Blakiston and Graffenried wrote to Spotswood and broke the news to him, that he was now the employer of the Germans. Graffenried, in his letter, suggested, "These good people should be sent as a colony to the land, which we conjointly own in Virginia situated not far from the place we found raw minerals (by which we presumed we had silver mines there) . . ."
Willis Kemper, while noting the above, made no comment about the mention of land that Spotswood and Graffenried owned together which was thought to be associated with silver. Kemper insisted throughout his book that iron was the reason the Germans went to Virginia, and this piece of evidence did not agree with his presentation, so he skipped over it. And, since Kemper seems to be unaware that silver was the primary interest of Graffenried and that he initiated the recruiting of miners in 1710 for this purpose, he completely missed the reasons behind the emigration of the Germans.
Kemper insisted strongly that the reasons for the miners leaving were completely different from the reasons for the large scale emigration of 1709. He put it as, "Our Colony did not leave their homes not knowing where they were going, nor because they were compelled to. They were engaged to go, and knew where they were going, and what they were to do. No doubt they went to better their condition, but they were not indigent or homeless." If one looks in on the Germans when they were in London, they were in trouble, lacking funds and any semblance of a permanent home. Their condition at this time approached the problems of the 1709ers. Despite the extreme difficulty they were in, they hung together and found a solution.
They did have a reason and a purpose in mind when they left Germany, but Kemper failed to find what this reason was. They left expecting to mine silver for George Ritter and Company, as represented in person by Johann Justus Albrecht, and by the letter proxies of Graffenried. This was their reason in leaving.
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.