The unnamed author in the last note, who wrote the history of a Germanna family, wrote:
"These colonists [First Germanna Colony] were induced to leave their homes in Germany by the Baron de Graffenried, acting for Governor Spotswood, who was making preparations to develop his iron mines in the vicinity of Germanna and this business enterprise was the sole cause of their coming to America and Virginia."
The source cited for this is W. W. Scott, in " History of Orange County, Virginia ". W. W. Scott literally copied this statement from Willis Kemper, in the history of the Kemper family. Scott failed to give credit to Kemper as the source, and later people have assumed that Scott was the original source of the statement, which he was not. Kemper was also the original source for the statement that Spotswood found iron near Germanna. It is important to note when Willis Kemper is the source, because he is not a reliable historian.
The Germans were recruited by an agent of George Ritter and Company. Graffenried was a principal in this company, but he had not been to Siegen himself. It is not clear who specifically invited them to leave Germany in 1713. Graffenried denied that he had issued an invitation. The agent for Graffenried was Johann Justus Albrecht. The purpose was silver mining, apparently, in the upper reaches of the Potomac River, possibly into the Shenandoah Valley. So, on nearly all points, Scott and Kemper are in error.
The Germanna Foundation makes almost the same claim on their web page as Scott and Kemper did, and, so, they repeat the error once again. [They fail to say that Scott and Kemper are being quoted.] In the Summer issue of " Germanna ", for 1997, published by the Germanna Foundation, the claim is made that Graffenried recruited the Second Germanna Colony, and this is also false.
The author of the family history says that the First Germanna Colony sailed up the Rappahannock River to Spotswood's plantation at Massaponnox. The source for this is " Germanna " loc cit. The error is that Spotswood did not have property at Massaponnox until about 1722.
Another claim is that Spotswood, about 1716, established an iron furnace thirteen miles southeast of Germanna on the Rappahannock River. This is false, as Spotswood's own writings show that a search for iron ore was not undertaken until well past this time. His iron mine patent for the land was not until 1720 (new style calendar). It is 1723 before Gov. Drysdale reports the iron furnace of Spotswood in terms which make it clear that it was a novelty. Documents from the House of the Lords show that the first pig iron (15 tons) was shipped to England in 1723.
Germanna Foundation Record Number 7
is cited as the source for the 1716 date. It might be noted that since the furnace was not built until 1722 and 1723, the First Germanna Colony had left Spotswood's employment and gone to Germantown before it was built.
(11 Nov 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.