When the people from Siegen arrived in Virginia in 1714, Spotswood had already been told they were coming. He paid the one and fifty pounds sterling, and put a plan into action that he had formulated a couple of years earlier, when the Indian unrest in North Carolina had left an uneasy feeling in Virginians. Spotswood put the Germans into a simple fort that was beyond the frontier of English civilization. By this means he was providing a barrier to Indian incursions in this region. Because of the public duty the Germans would be providing, he obtained the Council's approval to defray some of the expense. He did not publicly enter into the record that this location, in a horseshoe bend of the Rapidan River, was about four miles from land in which he owned a fractional interest. This land was on Mine Run on the south side of the Rapidan River. Mine Run derives its name from the fact that the land along it was thought to contain silver ore. Spotswood did not give the Germans permission to dig at the site because the rights of the Crown were not defined. For at least two years or longer, the German farmed and built roads and bridges.
Spotswood was looking for ways to establish his personal economic base. An Indian trading company was established and he was an investor in this, but it was not of a significant size. As he looked around, he saw that the basis of wealth in Virginia was land, as the Byrds and Beverleys had shown. Robert Beverley even invited him to join a land partnership. With the intent to acquire land, Spotswood set up a western exploration trip in 1716 to explore land to the west of Germanna, up to and beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. The trip was even set up as an official venture of the Colony so that costs could be reimbursed. As a consequence, Spotswood and Beverley identified and staked out land amounting to more than 60,000 acres.
Because of the exposed position of this land, a large group of people was needed to settle as a body on it. The Germans at Germanna had been a success, a very good success, as keepers of the peace. Spotswood wanted to duplicate this on the 60,000 acres, but more Germans were not coming to Virginia. He started talking to the captains of the ships which called at Jamestown, and, in the spring of 1717, he had an occasion to talk to Andrew Tarbett. Tarbett, at the time, had no ship, since the pirates had taken and burned the one he had. When he got back to England, he became the master of the ship Scott . Very shortly thereafter, a group of Germans appeared in London looking for transportation to Pennsylvania. Tarbett promised to take them as they wished, but, knowing there was a need for the Germans in Virginia, he took them to Virginia against their wishes. In this way, these Germans became the indentured servants of Spotswood, and his partners, and they were settled on the 60,000 acres. Among the projects they were given was the raising of naval stores, which were needed in England.
So, in 1718, Spotswood's personal economic base was to be founded on land. Already he knew that the first group of Germans would be leaving, since their four years of service would be up in 1718, and they had purchased land elsewhere.
(22 Mar 01)
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.