In May of 1712, we know that Albrecht was in London, for we have a document written by him with that date, stating he was in London. By the first months of 1713, he must have been back in Siegen to execute the next phase as he saw it. As "Albrecht saw it" was not the way in which Graffenried said that "he saw it". This is a mystery to us. Graffenried said he had not advised them to come, certainly as a body, yet we do know that the "Siegen" Germans were in London, probably in the late summer of 1713. What happened?
We do know that Graffenried made an investment in a projected silver mine before Easter of 1713. His share was one-sixteenth. We also know that Alexander Spotswood, the Lt. Gov. of Virginia, had a one-quarter interest in this mine. We also know that Spotswood was very excited about the prospects for obtaining silver from it.
It may have been that Graffenried had written to Albrecht about this mine is such a way that Albrecht interpreted his remarks to mean that miners would be needed very shortly. Albrecht had been engaged in this project for almost three years and he was perhaps getting a bit anxious. Graffenried admits that he had written that one or two of the miners could come over if they wished to have a "look-see". If one considers how broke Graffenried was, it would be hard to envision that he had offered to pay anything towards their passage.
[When one reads the writings of Graffenried, one notes that he was not the best writer as far as clarity went. What seems like an obvious interpretation is not always correct.]
At the best, we might label the whole fiasco [there is no better word to describe it] as due to "communication error". At the worse, we could attribute ulterior motives to Graffenried or to Albrecht. The victims were the Germans, who acted in good faith, and closed out their lives around Siegen. But however we label the actions, had they not occurred, there would have been no Germanna Colonies. Period.
After the people found what the true situation was when they got to London, it is to their credit that they found the key to a solution to the problem.
But before continuing on, let's ask if we can assign any motivations that the Germans had for leaving. We know some general reasons, and that may be the best that we can do. We do know that it was a planned, not a spur of the moment, decision. There were too many interrelated families for that. It had been three years since Albrecht appeared at Siegen, so there had been some time to think about it. They must have seen better opportunities in America than in Germany. We do not know what Albrecht promised them. We have reason to believe there were economic problems around Siegen. Should we lean to the view that Albrecht had over-promised the rewards? Or should be lean to the view that conditions in Germany were so bad that anything would look better?
(02 Apr 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.