In 1974, Woodford B. Hackley wrote an update to the 1932 history of Jeffersonton Baptist Church. He had to admit there were many questions pertaining to the earliest history of the church which could not be answered. There were more unknowns than knowns. Some facts, though they tended to be conflicting, can be gleamed from the Association minutes. A major question was the role of John Pickett at the church. Though he has been described as their preacher, it seems more likely that he was only an occasional speaker (and a co-founder), not a regularly elected minister.
The Little Fork region has a history of many years prior to the JBC. The Little Fork was the region between the Rappahannock (also called the Hedgman River) and Hazel River, which has had many names itself. Incidentally, there is not even an agreement on how Hedgman is to be spelled with some favoring the addition of the "e" as in Hedgeman . Though Hackley spelled it consistently with the "e," good friends of mine insist the "e" should not be there.
The land in the very point of the fork was patented by Robert Beverley in 1719, not long after the trip across the Blue Ridge Mountains where the division of the Piedmont land was discussed. His son, William, had the next patent to the north in 1722. These tracts were called Elkwood and Ursulana [derived from his mother's name], respectively, and constituted a total claim of 6,500 acres. This was not land on which the Beverleys expected to live; this was an investment, though perhaps of a speculative nature. So far I have seen only a few other patents during the 1720's, and these were to Isaac Bledsoe and Jacob Holtzclaw (Hulsclaw). Jacob's land was taken in the period when land in Spotsylvania County was free. This was also before the land was declared to be in the Northern Neck. It appears the primary purpose for purchase of this land was altruistic speculation. Jacob wanted to invite friends and relatives to come over from Germany and he needed a place for them to live. He expected to sell the land, hence the speculative part. [In the Holtzclaw patent Major Henry Willis's line is mentioned.]
None of the people who have been mentioned so far expected to live on the land. To all of them it was speculative. So who was the first settler? It is hard to say. The first names mentioned in the patents were not settlers. (There was a similar story in the Robinson River Valley. The Germans were settlers on their own land. Simultaneously, there were patents being taken in the name of English patentees, but it isn't clear as to when their land was settled.)
Another early German was John Fishback (Fishbey), who also got his land for free in 1730. Technically, the offer of free land had expired by then but his application may have made the deadline.
The settlement pattern looks very thin in these early years.
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.