The last paragraph of the previous note seemed to imply that Gov. Spotswood's home at Germanna was surrounded by a palisade. By this time the frontier had been pushed west by the Germans and there was no danger from the Indians. The statement confuses the palisade built in 1714 with the time of Spotswood's home which was built about 1722.
Schuricht says, "The relations between the governor and the German colonists were of the very best kind. They called Virginia in his honor: ‘Spotsylvania' and he was at home with them. He was so much charmed by this laborious and peaceable people, that he married a young German lady by the name of ‘Theke' and born in Hannover."
If relationships were so good why did Spotswood sue nineteen of the Germans? The Germans did not originate the name "Spotsylvania". This was the name given by the Burgesses in the act to create the county and it was Spotswood who laid the proposed legislation before the Burgesses. And the information about his wife is incorrect.
Schuricht may not be the original source of the following, but he repeats the assertion that Rev. Gerhard Hinkel was the pastor of the church at Germanna. Whether at Germanna or on the Robinson River, there is no known record of Hinkel as a pastor among the Piedmont Germans. This report has confused everyone who has searched for the man but it seems to be an error.
There is a complete mixup of the facts in Schuricht's statement, "The German inhabitants who were appointed overseers on Spotswood's plantations, or employed in his mines, finally had to claim large sums for unpaid wages and in place of payment he transferred to them large tracts of land on Robertson River, a tributary of the Rapidan, in the present county of Madison."
From the geographical locations he mentions, he appears to be writing about the Second Colony. They never worked in his mines and they never claimed unpaid wages (on the contrary he sued them), and he never transferred any land to them, period. They did obtain land on the Robinson River, but the procedure was that which was open to all residents of Virginia and he certainly never signed the land patents.
Again, I close this note with another Schuricht quotation in which he says, "The German colony on the Robinson River, west of the present town of Madison, prospered under the kind government of Sir Alexander Spotswood." We'll look more at this in the next note.
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.