[Trying to extend the work of A. L. Keith]
We were counting candidates for inclusion in the 1717 colony, and we were up to about 63. We had arrived at this number by counting the men, and their families, who were sued by Spotswood, and by adding eight people who had excellent credentials, such as appearing in the Gemmingen emigrant list. There is another group with good documentation, namely those who said they came in 1717 in their proofs of importation. This would add Christopher Barlow (2), John Harnsberger (3), Andrew Kerker (3), perhaps George Lang (2), and Christopher Zimmerman (4). It should be noted that Matthew Smith appears in this group also, but we had already counted him. All of these names, without George Lang, add twelve names, bringing us to 75 names.
The John Thomas family has been omitted with its four names. This would bring the total to 79, which is in the range of Spotswood's seventy-odd and the German's eighty. The Mihlcher family of five was on Spotswood's list, and on the Gemmingen list, but in no other way. It was omitted in my count. There is another family of four on the head right list, the Wegmans, but they do not appear in any other way. It too was omitted. The net result is that the count stands very close to 80.
Johni Cerny and Gary Zimmerman give a few more probable 1717 immigrants. These include the Willheits, two Uhl families, the Stoltz family, the Castler family, and the Beyerbach family.
Keith remarks that John Broyle, Jacob Broyle, and Nicholas Yager proved their importations on 2 May 1727, stating they had come to this country about nine years since with Capt. Scott. As we have seen, these importation records do not say "with Capt. Scott", but say "in Capt. Scott". Whether Keith is the source of this erroneous report is unknown. Certainly he was a very early writer and perhaps those that came after him were simply copying him.
If we went back about nine years from 2 May 1727, we would be near to the end of 1717. Remember, that by the calendar then in use, the new year started on March 25, so 1727 was less than two months old. If we were thinking of the end of 1717, it would be reasonable to say about nine years.
As I have said here before, I am not convinced that the colony of 1717 actually arrived in Virginia before 31 December 1717. If we were to give dates in terms of the modern calendar, it might be more truthful to say 1718. But as Klaus Wust has said, "There are too many stones carved with 1717. It would be too much work to redo them."
(26 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.