John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 954

I decided there needed to be a better explanation of the Colonial Records and perhaps at the same time I could improve the treatment in the first paragraph of the previous note.  As the 350th anniversary of the founding of Virginia was approaching, the state decided to try and get a copy (microfilm image) of every document in Great Britain that mentioned Virginia, either explicitly or implicitly.  They sent a crew of people over to read all of the documents they could find and to make survey reports.  These survey reports specified which pages were to be copied and gave a summary of what the originals contained.  Back in Virginia, with their several hundred reels of original images, they stored them in a filing cabinet next to the microfilm readers.  They have since made computer images of the survey reports and one can download these reports.  In the process they created several indexes to these survey reports.  One is a personal name index.  One is a ship's name index.  One is a keyword index.  One is a survey number index.  One can either search or browse the survey reports.  When you locate an original document, which may be summarized in two or three lines, then you have to go to one of the approved libraries in Virginia to read the microfilm.  You cannot make a copy of this microfilm because the terms under which Virginia was allowed to film the documents required that no further copies be made.  Though the survey reports do not give much detail on a particular unit or document, one can fill in a lot of the gaps by using one's imagination.  Yesterday, I gave what the survey reports had to say about two documents.

We are looking at the Minute Book of the Board of Trade .  It is a record of what the Board of Trade did, plus some of the documents they received and sent.  The last note closed with the mention of a third memorial from Mr. De Graffenried and Mr. Louis Michel.  The original desire in the first memorial had been to establish a micro-Switzerland in the Shenandoah Valley, i.e., in the forks of the Potomac River.  Among the purposes of this was to have an outlet for the Anabaptists, which the Bern city fathers wanted to expel from Switzerland.  At this point, I am filling in with details which are NOT all in the original documents.  England objected and did not approve the concept of a foreign nation within their nation, so the first memorial had been tabled.  Graffenried and Michel changed tactics and merely asked for land where they could place some Switzers, who would live under the same laws as all other inhabitants of Virginia.  They emphasized that the Switzers would be a buffer between the French and English, and this appealed to the authorities in England.  Decisions were never reached immediately though.  It was better to get more opinions.  So the Commissioners arranged for Micaiah Perry, Mr. Hyde, and one or two other leading Virginia merchants to attend a future meeting together with Col. Blakiston to discuss the matter.

Merchants and traders in England carried a lot of weight with the English government.  Repeatedly, one sees that their opinions actually determined the laws, especially those which pertained to the colonies.  The Board did not have any items for Virginia for the next six days, and then, on 25 July, they approved a draft of a letter to Colonel Jennings, President of the Council of Virginia, and the head of the government there at the time, and ordered it to be fair copied.  This same day, the Commissioners signed a letter to the Earl of Sunderland, relating to the proposed settlement of Swiss on the Potomac River in Virginia.
(15 Aug 00)