When one studies what things cost in Spotswood's time one wonders where he was getting his money. His salary as Lt. Gov. was not sufficient (this salary was the result of splitting the usual salary with Lord Orkney, the Governor, who remained in England). Spotswood was retired from the Army, but retirement pay has never been a gold mine. About 1720, he was building his house at Germanna, building his iron furnace, and buying out his partners in the Spotsylvania Tract. There is no doubt that he was using "other people's money". He must have been seriously in debt to be undertaking all of these things at approximately the same time.
He attempted to raise some money by suing the members of the Second Colony [for "money advanced them" when they came]. The first of these originated on 6 Sep 1723, in a suit against Jacob Crigler, for almost thirty-five pounds, before Spotswood had gone to England. Since Jacob Crigler is usually considered to have been a bachelor, thirty-five pounds does not seem to have any relationship to Crigler's transportation costs. The defendant pleaded that he did not owe the money and asked for an extension. Then Spotswood was granted an extension to consider Crigler's plea. The following March, both parties agreed to drop the lawsuit and the defendant agreed to pay the cost of the suit (this in itself, sounds like coercion).
Zacharias Fleshman and George Utz filed a petition with the Virginia House of Burgesses, and the Germans were granted [by the Council] the right to be represented by the King's deputy attorney in the lawsuits.
The suits against Michael Holt and George Utz were dismissed when the plaintiff failed to appear to prosecute his cases. The suit against Michael Clore was dismissed when he agreed to pay the costs of the sheriff and the clerk. The amounts in these three suits are unknown. Altogether, the known amounts that Spotswood sued for totaled more than 243 pounds (including Crigler). The amount that Spotswood was awarded by the juries in the cases that went to trial was approximately 65 pounds or, roughly speaking, 25% of what he asked for.
Was Spotswood to be entitled to anything? By my understanding, the Germans were essentially indentured servants, and indentured servants did not pay for their transportation. At the end of their service, they could depart free and clear. On the contrary, many times the contracts provided that the servants would be given new clothes and a small sum of money at the end of their service.
Speaking of contracts, the Germans repeatedly asked Spotswood for a copy of the contract that applied to them, but he would never give them one. In some of his testimony to London, he said the Germans were free men (I presume as opposed to servants); however, he used their names to pay for land, a procedure more typical of servants than free people.
The lawsuits by Spotswood reflect very negatively on his character.
(23 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.