Arthur Leslie Keith wrote a series of articles in 1917 on " The German Colony of 1717 ", which appeared in the WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY . That he chose to write in this year is understandable; it was the two-hundredth anniversary of their arrival (maybe). In re-reading some of his opening remarks, I was struck by several items which I thought I would comment on.
"Twenty German Lutheran families from the Alsace, the Palatinate, Hesse, and vicinity, seeking to escape the persecutions of the French, secured passage on a boat bound for America."
I do not know of any authority for the number twenty. Lt. Gov. Spotswood referred to twenty-odd tenements , I believe, and he referred to the number of people as seventy-odd . The Germans themselves, in later writings, put the number at eighty . The points of origin in Germany are simply not correct, but Keith did not make these names up. He was quoting from Rev. Stöver, and the mystery is why Rev. Stöver gave these geographical origins. The Palatinate was the source of a few families, but none came from the Alsace or Hesse regions. Probably, their motivation to come to America was economic.
"Their boat was detained in England for some considerable time for the reason that its captain (Captain Scott?) had been thrown into prison for debt."
Notice that Keith did not wholeheartedly accept the Capt. Scott thesis, as he questions it. I do not believe that we have any evidence as to the length of time that the Capt. was in debtors’ prison.
". . . . [Spotswood] established them at or near Germanna where the 1714 colony was already located. Here until 1724 they worked for Spotswood as indentured servants."
Keith was correct on the settlement location. Note that he did not say they were at the mines [which did not exist then]. Technically, the Germans were working for a partnership, of which Spotswood was only one partner, albeit, the largest one.
"In 1724 they seem to have attempted to escape his bondage, but Col. Spotswood sued them and compelled most of them to serve another year."
The language in the courthouse (Spotsylvania) does not support Keith. The first lawsuit was brought by Spotswood in 1723, and he sued only on the question of money and not on the period of service. The period of service probably did extend to 1725, but only because the seven years of servitude were not up until then. It is doubtful that they had arrived before December 31 of 1717, and it is very unlikely that they were in their new homes before 1718.
(21 Sep 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.