Recently, several events in London have been related; let's tie these together with other events in London, on the seas, and in Virginia. The Earl of Orkney had sent a memorial to the Queen in Council pertaining to the ore in Virginia which had the semblance of silver in it. The Council had sent a letter dated 30 November 1713 to the Lord High Treasurer asking for his opinion. At this very time, there were forty odd Germans in London who expected to be going on to Virginia to mine silver for Graffenried; however, when the Germans and Graffenried came together in London, it was discovered that Graffenried was broke and could not possibly help the Germans.
Col Blakiston had been working with Spotswood, who had written as early as February of 1712 (NS) that Graffenried thought there was silver in Virginia. Not long thereafter, it was thought that a silver mine had been discovered. But, Spotswood, on checking the law on such matters, found that the Queen owned these entirely. As Spotswood pointed out, this was hardly encouragement for anyone to explore for and develop such mines. Without any development, the Queen herself would not profit. So, it was suggested that some arrangement, or profit-sharing scheme, would work to the mutual benefit of everyone. While this was being pursued, the Germans arrived in London. Why they should have come at this time is not known.
Graffenried, in an attempt to help the Germans, contacted Col. Blakiston, who was aware of the effort being put forth by Orkney. He was optimistic enough to believe that some decision was going to be reached, though things moved slowly in London. What Blakiston saw was an opportunity for Spotswood to get the labor that he would need when the question was settled. Certainly, the word from Virginia was very optimistic about there being silver. Prudence on the part of Blakiston would have prevented him from committing Spotswood, but Blakiston thought that several events could be overlapped and time could be saved.
On 12 Mar 1714 (NS), Blakiston testified before the Board of Trade that he thought anyone finding and developing silver should be given the sole benefit for 21 years. Just at this very time, the Germans were at sea and Spotswood was just hearing that he had become the master of the Germans. Though Blakiston, M. Perry, and Lord Orkney had all testified urging a resolution of this problem, and there is no known adverse opinion, a resolution was never achieved. Perhaps, it was due to the health of the Queen, for in the summer she died. Her successor, George I, had his own problems, as he was new to the country and to the language.
Though Spotswood urged a continuation of the efforts to get a resolution, none was ever made. The Germans in Virginia were in Fort Germanna protecting the frontier, but they were not permitted to develop the silver mine, which was about four miles from Germanna. Spotswood complained, after two years, that they had done nothing for him and his partners to repay the costs of settling them. That is not true, as the Germans provided the seating for his land patent which included Fort Germanna. The value of the land was more than the 150 pounds sterling that he had paid on their transportation.
(21 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.