There was some discussion a few weeks ago about Maidstone. Willis Kemper thought that Maidstone was where the First Germanna Colony had spent some time, in particular the winter of 17131714. Maidstone is a city about 25 miles southeast of London.
John Rector in Virginia first named a town that he laid out as “Maidstone”. Kemper thought this might be evidence that Maidstone may have been a place in England where the colony lived, and, in particular, he thought that John Rector was born in Maidstone in England. We now know that John Rector was born at Trupbach outside Siegen in 1711. So, the evidence that Kemper thought he had (it originated with a statement made by a descendant in the Rector family) did not support his argument.
Had Kemper put together the evidence that was available, scanty as it was, he would have seen that it was inconsistent with the conclusion that the colony had lived for any length of time at any place outside London. The First Germanna Colony probably left their home in the summer of 1713. I believe there were some exit visas which helped to provide a time of departure. The trip to London would have taken a month to six weeks. Their arrival in London may be taken as late summer or early fall. Certainly they were there before Graffenried arrived from New York.
We know that Graffenried left Virginia just after Easter in 1713. He rode a horse back to New York City, where he found a ship to England. This ship did not go to London, but stopped at one of the northern English ports. Graffenried says he rested two weeks there. Then he went down to London. Again, his arrival in London might be taken as summer to early fall. He says that when he arrived there, he found the Germans were there.
It seems that he arrived back in Switzerland in early December of 1713. On more than one occasion he mentioned his desire to be home in Switzerland before winter set in. He could have left London in early November and been home a month later. We do not know how long he was in London, but he says that he was going from person to person to find transportation and work for the Germans. If we gave him a month for this activity, then he arrived in early fall. The Germans were probably there for several weeks before this.
Graffenried says that the Germans left London in January of 1714 (NS) which is a date that is very consistent with their arrival in early spring in Virginia, since ocean voyages often took ten weeks in the west-bound direction. After Graffenried left the Germans, about the first of November, they probably stayed close to London in anticipation of leaving. Before Graffenried arrived, the Germans probably stayed close to London to intercept Graffenried. I do not see there was any chance for them to absent themselves from London. I would doubt that they stayed in any other city in England besides London.
Any contrary views would be welcomed.
(04 Jan 02)
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.