In the last note, the evidence for saying the Second Colony members came with Capt. Scott was examined. There were three very serious weaknesses in this. First, the record which is used to support this claim does not say "with" but rather it says "in". Second, the colonial records do not show ANY Capt. Scott in this time period who was a civilian. Third, the colonial records DO show there was a ship named the "Scott", which was engaged in the Virginia tobacco trade.
The record showing the ship Scott is in the Scottish Board Minutes of 29 September 1723 to 16 July 1725. On 15 Dec 1724, the Council considered the letters of officials at the Port of Glasgow, in the action of David Auchrealony and Robert McBriar, and found that both of them were guilty of accepting gold from Andrew Tarbett, the Master of the ship Scott, for allowing tobacco to enter Scotland without the payment of the import duties. There is even a hint that this was more than an isolated case, and had perhaps occurred on multiple occasions. The men who were charged pleaded guilty.
From this, we learn that the captain was Andrew Tarbett (at least in 1724). We also learn that Tarbett was not a very honest man. Or putting it slightly differently, his morals were flexible and low.
With this knowledge of his name, we can do a search in the colonial records on the name Tarbett. Another record appears, one in 1717, which shows that he was the captain of another ship in the spring of that year, the "Agnis". On 7 April 1717, he was taking a load of rum, sugar, molasses, and sundry European goods to Virginia, when he was intercepted by pirates off the coast of Virginia. They took off many of the goods he was carrying and sank the Agnis. After intercepting some more ships, they put the original crews on board of one and released them. The people made their way to Virginia, where they told their story.
In particular, we have a record of this because Tarbett was called on to give a disposition to Alexander Spotswood. This disposition is recorded in the records at the Public Record Office in Class C.O. 5/1342.
In the spring of 1717, Spotswood was just eight months past his exploration of the lands to the west of Fort Germanna. He had been looking for lands on which to secure his personal economic health. He had found them, and he, with his partners, had staked out a claim of 40,000 acres (which actually was closer to 65,000 acres). Because of the isolated position of this land, and the need for many settlers to seat it, plans were on hold. What Spotswood wanted was another group of Germans, much like the first group, which had secured the frontier around Ft. Germanna, and permitted him to take up land in that area. The problem was where to get the Germans. I am sure that Spotswood asked a few leading questions such as "Why aren't more Germans coming to Virginia?" He probably explained that he had a great opportunity for them and he would pay the transportation costs. No one made any promises to anyone. Tarbett did not even have a ship at the time.
(09 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.