In this note, I will detour slightly, using information given by Klaus Wust in " The Virginian Germans ".
William Byrd had a large conditional grant from the Colony of Virginia. He secured the rights in 1735 to a 100,000 acre tract on the Dan River, on condition that, within two years, at least one family be seated on every 1,000 acres. Byrd felt this would be an easy condition to meet because he had contacts with a Swiss promoter, John Ochs. The first attempt to induce settlers to move to Virginia ended in failure in 1736.
Byrd then turned to Samuel Jenner of the "Helvetische Societät" in Berne. To promote the scheme, Jenner and Byrd put their efforts together and composed a booklet of information about Virginia and the adjoining regions. It appeared in Switzerland in 1737, under the title of " Neu-gefundenes Eden " [ "New Discoveries in Eden" ], which, while delightful to read, was not always truthful in describing Virginia. An appendix contained the sales contract for 33,400 acres of Wilhelm Vogel’s land (i.e., William Byrd’s land). Dr. Samuel Tschiffeli, the Virginia agent for the Helvetian Society, arranged this sale with Byrd in January 1737. Armed with a document showing the Swiss agents were serious, Byrd obtained an extension of the time limit.
Everything seemed perfect when news was received in November of 1738 that the ship was on its way with a considerable number of Switzers on board. The vessel arrived at Lynnhaven Bay on 3 January 1739. Before the vessel could discharge its passengers, a violent storm sank the ship with a great loss of life.
This ship was the Oliver, and, in addition to the Switzers, it carried several tens of people from Freudenberg; but the Freudenberg people were not to have been a part of the colonization project of Byrd. It just happened that, when the Freudenberg people arrived at Rotterdam, there was a ship going to Virginia. Most ships went to Philadelphia, and ships traveling to Virginia from Rotterdam was rare. Even though there were factors against the Oliver it was small and it was overloaded the Freudenberg people elected to go with it.
Altogether, more than two out three people on the Oliver perished, either due to privations at sea, or the storm off the Virginia coast. The ship had left Rotterdam for the first time in June.
(01 Nov 00)
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