[Spotswood's petition to the King continues.]
That not only such Discoveries, made at your Petitioner's Sole-Cost, may be deemed a Public Benefit but also ye _____ of his labor are found to be valuable to ye Nation: and his _____ iron has ______ ______ ______ Iron-Masters in England who have hitherto made trial thereof, and now Hemp is proved to be considerably Superior to the best Russian, _____ ______ ______ with the best Riga Hemp as may appear by the Report from ye officers at Woolwich yard ____ _____ of your Maty Navy.And your Petitioner is _____ed under the _____ _____of Representing that, according to the Plan laid down by ye aforesaid Partners for carrying on so extensive a Design, there had been Taken up, Surveyed, and Patented considerable Tracts of some remote and ungranted Lands in which no other subject, than your Petitioner, has at this time any pretense of Right; yet for certain Formalities omitted in passing ye Patent He finds his Title to part of those lands may hereafter be controverted, without your Majesty's special Grace in now confirming them all to him.
And to the end your Petitioner may appear ____ _____ object of your Royal Justice & Favour on this occasion, He humbly begs leave to observe, That he has already very dearly purchased those lands from his Partners, & fully complyed with ye law of ye Colony in _____ sufficient Improvement _____: That they being such lands which for their Remoteness & dangerous Situation, nobody had before dared to venture upon, your Petitioner has been obliged to Seat with a formidable Strength, & so run a mighty Risque, as well as been at an extraordinary charge, in maintaining Possession of them, until he happily obtained of the Five Nations of Indians to relinquish their pretensions thereto: and that to accomplish this point, he Travelled twelve Hundred Miles,& not only underwent the Fatigue of a Three Months Expedition, but also have Six hundred Pounds of the Expense thereof, which he has never yet been reimbursed, or in any wise _____ considered ____.
That he moreover remains to this day in disburse the like sum of Expenses, for his performing ye Conditions of certain treaties made in the year 1713 with Three Nations of Indians, and being laid before Her late Majesty, approved of, & assurances then given that the charge thereof should be defrayed by the Crown.
[It would have been appreciated if Spotswood had taking English 101; some of his sentences are atrocious.]
[The tract he is principally talking about is the 40,000 acre tract, which he describes as remote and dangerous. This is where the Second Colony was settled in 1717.]
(28 Sep 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.