The proceedings in London between the North Carolina proprietors, Michel, Graffenried, and the other interested parties (investors) went on for a year. A formal agreement was not reached until 18 May 1710, almost a year after the first Germans had started to arrive in London. On the date just mentioned, Graffenried and Michel signed an agreement with Georg Ritter and Peter Isot, by which they became members of the Georg Ritter Company.
Michel and Graffenried had been acting on their own without a formal agreement with the Georg Ritter Company. Michel had, since the first trip he had made to Virginia, been aware of the proposal for a colonization company. Now that the colony members were identified (the Germans and Swiss), and there was a place for them to go (North Carolina), and a means of transportation, it was necessary to formalize the agreement among the parties. The Georg Ritter and Company was a stock company, with twenty-four shares of stock which were to be sold for 300 hundred pounds sterling each. No one person was to hold more than one share.
Michel was given one share for his work and the discoveries he claimed to have made. He had purchased 2500 acres from the North Carolina proprietors and he turned this in. Graffenried was given a share for the 5000 acres he turned in (the basis of his barony) and for the work he had done with the Palatines in the previous year. Georg Ritter had a share for his early expenses. Of the remaining 21 shares, only one was paid up and that was from Albrecht Graffenried. It is not clear that there was much cash in the bank and that was one of the major problems. Apparently several shares were sold on a deferred payment plan and were never paid up.
The grant from the Queen for land above the falls of the Potomac, which is where the mines were thought to be, was assigned to the company also. A rather complex section of the agreement covered the mineral rights. Graffenried claimed the company had an agreement with Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania for mining rights, but only Carolina mining rights are known. It was agreed that Baron de Graffenried and Mr. Lewis Michel were to have a lease for thirty years of all royal mines and minerals in the Province of Carolina that they should discover. They were to be totally responsible for the expenses. The produce of the mines was to be divided into eight parts. Four of the eight parts were to be paid to the Lords Proprietors. The other four parts were to go to Graffenried and Michel for five years after the mines were opened. After five years, the division was five to three in favor of the Lords Proprietors. It was not all profit to the Lords Proprietors as they had to pay the Crown the fourth part (apparently of their half), so the Crown was to get one-eighth of the total.
In the division between Michel and Graffenried, Michel was to have all of their joint share for three years. After this time, the investors were to receive a share of the profits.
In the other colonies, besides Carolina, the agreements are unknown. There is even a reason to be suspicious that there were agreements for the other colonies, because in one of them, Virginia, the crown's share was not even defined. This was to be a problem for Alexander Spotswood for a number of years in his supposed silver mine.
(20 Aug 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.