Recently the question was asked whether we knew which ship brought the Second Colony members. I believe that I know the answer, so I will go through the thought process which led me to this conclusion. First, credit must go to James E. Brown, now deceased, for his part in the investigation.
Much earlier, A. L. Keith who wrote about the Second Colony in " The William and Mary Quarterly " said that the colony came with Captain Scott. This was repeated by B. C. Holtzclaw in writings published by the Germanna Foundation. The only factual piece of evidence which bears on this subject appears in the importation hearings, in the Spotsylvania Courthouse, in the statements of the Broyles family, the Yager family, and the Paulitz family. They all say the same thing. The duplication is clearly a case of copying, since they all appeared on the same day, the second of May in 1727. The records do NOT say " with Capt. Scott", they DO say " in Capt. Scott".
That, of course, is a strange thing to say. First though, we will look at the possibility that " in " was an abbreviation for " with ". This can be discounted because the statements do contain, in another location, the word " with " which is not abbreviated.
It is safe to say that the Germans did use a word much like " Scott ", but the exact context or meaning of the word was not clear to the English-speaking clerk. Very likely, they were referring to either the captain or to the ship. So the next two questions become, "Is there a captain named Scott in that period?" and "Is there a ship named Scott in that period?"
There is one set of data that can help us, though it is admitted it is not 100% proof either way. The English have been big on maintaining records. In 1958, the state of Virginia sent people to England to look at these records and to photograph all of those which pertained to Virginia. Back home, they compiled an index, and one can search by a personal name, by a ship's name, or by a keyword, though the last case the emphasis is on "key". The card catalog, or index, is now on a computer, and one can search through the card index from home. But like all card catalogs, this is not the record itself, but only a pointer to the record. If you find something, you must go to Richmond and read the microfilm.
A search on the personal name Scott does not disclose any civilian captains in the period from about 1700 to 1740. There are some military captains, but these can be discounted. A search on a ship of the name of Scott discloses there was one, engaged in the Virginia tobacco trade, in 1724. This is close enough to 1717 to qualify. The record also tells us the name of the captain of this ship and it also tells us a lot about his character.
The Germans, when testifying in court, probably gave an answer, using the word order in their sentences which is peculiar to them. The clerk misunderstood what they intended, and confused the ship with the captain.
(to be continued)
(08 Aug 00)
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.