When Alexander Spotswood scheduled the trip across the Blue Ridge, he invited Robert Beverley to join the party. The motivation for the invitation is clear. Spotswood wanted to see the land along the south side of the Rapidan, on which Beverley had a reservation . The number one priority of the whole trip, for several of the participants, was to look for land they could "take up".
As Spotswood traveled from Williamsburg to Germanna, he stopped with his traveling companion, John Fontaine, at Beverley's home, Beverley Park. Fontaine merely tells us that they were well entertained, and spent the night there. The entertainment was perhaps along the lines of Fontaine's visit a year earlier.
"We drunk very heartily of the wine of his own making, which was good." (Though the wine did not appeal to Fontaine's taste.)
From his trip to Germanna, in 1715, Fontaine told us that Beverley had a vineyard of about three acres, where he grew an assortment of vines. That year, he made four hundred gallons of wine. He had a large bet with several other planters that he could, within seven years, make seven hundred gallons of wine in one year, and Fontaine fully expected him to win the bet. For making the wine, he had a cave and a wine press. All of this had cost him a fair amount.
On this same trip, Fontaine tells us something about the life style of Beverley.
"This man lives well, but has nothing about his house, but just what is necessary, tho' rich. He had good beds in his house but no curtains and instead of cane chairs he hath stools made of wood, and lives upon the product of his land."
Beverley tells us, at another time, that he spent no money. A coin in his pocket was apt to remain there for months on end. "Be self-sufficient" might have been his motto.
Even though he had enough for his needs and the needs of his one son, William, he was aggressive about adding to his estate. As a consequence, he had started to acquire 13,000 acres, but he stopped short of paying the patent fees because of the lack of potential settlers for the land. The visit of Spotswood was very important to Beverley because he was hoping that one outcome would be a workable plan for obtaining settlers. His desires coincided with Spotswood's. Spotswood, though, wanted to see the land, and to look for more land to add to that which Beverley had, and was willing to put into a partnership.
Though Fontaine was discreet enough not to say so, this was the major purpose of the expedition, which had been cast as an official trip of the Colony of Virginia. The trip was very successful in locating land, and within eighteen months, Spotswood had found the settlers. And, so, Robert Beverley, the historian, became one of the sponsors of the Second Germanna Colony.
(20 Oct 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.