To recapitulate some of the history of the Second Germanna Colony, they were in Virginia in spite of the agreement they had with Andrew Tarbett, the captain of the ship Scott , on which they had booked passage for Pennsylvania. In Virginia, they found themselves working for a man, (at least, most of them did) whose aims and objectives must have seemed confused.
They were set to making naval stores, probably pitch, tar, and hemp. Only, the instructions given to them did not work. Then another boss (Robert Beverley) wanted them cultivate grapes. They might have had more sympathy with this project than naval stores. But, while all of this was going on, they had to farm to have food to eat.
After a few years, Spotswood wanted them to make charcoal. They made some and took it down the river to the furnace site, but it was found that the journey was too long. So the charcoal-making sub-project ended. About five years after they came, lawsuits were filed against them by Spotswood. And the amounts were not trivial.
The Germans tried to obtain copies of the written contracts from Spotswood, but he never supplied any. Fortunately, they found a few friends in Williamsburg to help them.
Taken together, the first years could not have been very happy for them. There were lots of disappointments and frustrations. One can imagine there were a few sharp words among the members of the group. Apparently though, they survived all of this and went on to found a community that was more to their liking. But the assessment by Rev. Hugh Jones that their life was a "bed of roses", and this was while they were still at "New Germantown", does seem far too cheerful. Or, the Germans were better natured people than we can easily believe.
A discussion on the subject will have to wait, but some of the people who came in 1717 apparently left Virginia and did not stay. No doubt, they went to Pennsylvania where they probably had friends and relatives.
(24 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.