In the last note, I mentioned, in passing, "convicts" who were shipped to Virginia from England. In two cases, either the convict himself, or his descendants, married into Germanna families which seems to have harmed no one. In fact, the general result was quite good. Let's look at the two.
In 1715, George Hume, his father Sir George, and Sir George's brother, Francis, were captured at Preston by the English for espousing the cause of James Stuart. The father was pardoned from a sentence of hanging and quartering because of his age, but he did have to forfeit his estates. Francis Hume was saved from the gallows, but not from transportation to Virginia (a euphemism for sending convict labor to the colonies). Francis Hume was to be sold as a servant, but a kinsman purchased his freedom. This "kinsman" might have been Spotswood who was a cousin of Francis; however, Spotswood would not want to be associated with someone who was convicted of treason. It didn't look good for a Lt. Governor of his Majesty's colonies to do these things. This was in 1716, and Francis was sent to Germanna to be the supervisor there in the wilderness. This did not last too long as he died in 1718 and was buried along the Rapidan River.
George Hume, the son, was initially imprisoned, but then was placed on a Glasgow slave ship. Capt. Dandridge, of another ship, took him on board and put him ashore at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1721. George's timing was bad. He was hoping to obtain help from Lt. Gov. Spotswood, who was a second cousin, if I remember correctly, but Gov. Spotswood lost his job just about then.
George went to the College of William and Mary and was accredited as a surveyor, a profession which came to him easily as he had been trained as a mathematician in Scotland. From the bleak outlook when he landed, he rebounded quickly and became an important surveyor. He laid out the town of Fredericksburg and was the surveyor for the counties of Spotsylvania, Orange, and Frederick. He ran a line for the Northern Neck (still used today), and was appointed a Crown surveyor in 1751. At one time he had an assistant by the name of George Washington.
As he roamed over the countryside, he spotted good tracts of land and invested in them. To the end of his life he worked as a surveyor, even though the work was hard, and many times involved sleeping under the stars. In 1748 he wrote that he intended to give up "taking long tedious journeys where we are obliged to go perhaps several months without seeing a house, and living altogether on wilde meat . .". He complained that it was harder to walk the mountains.
In 1727, he married Elizabeth Proctor, the daughter of George Proctor of Spotsylvania County. He was appointed a Lieutenant in the Militia in 1729. And, later, he appointed a Justice of the Peace so he went a full circle, from being a rebellious citizen against the English crown, to being a supporter of the crown. His last home was in the area which became Madison County. He and Elizabeth had six sons and no daughters.
(04 May 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.