The German "miners" who were stranded in London appear to have told Graffenried that, having come to London, they were going to go on to America. They were even willing to work for someone in America to help pay for the trip. The arrangement that was worked out was that the Germans put up as much money as they could spare. They were short about 150 pounds and by the rates generally in existence this seemed to work out to be four years of service.
Graffenried had the names of several people that he should talk to (some probably furnished by Spotswood) and thereby he came into contact with Col. Blakiston, who lent a receptive ear. Spotswood had been very excited about his silver mine and, should the royalty question be settled, he would need miners. Normally, the sequence would be to solve the royalty problem and then look for miners. But Blakiston was willing to take a gamble. It was not his money; it would be Spotswood's. And so a deal was cut. Spotswood would pay the 150 pounds and the Germans would work for him for four years. Some merchants in London would advance the money to the ship's captain and Spotswood would pay the ship captain who would reimburse the London merchants. Spotswood was not a party to the agreement in advance of its being executed. Blakiston and Graffenried both wrote to Spotswood telling him what his obligations were.
Blakiston's letter to Spotswood got to him before the Germans did. When the Germans arrived in Virginia, Spotswood was aware that they were now his employees. The silver mine was beyond civilization by about fifteen miles. This was also a part of the frontier where there was no protection from the Indians. A couple of years before this time, Spotswood had already formulated a plan to settle Germans on the frontier, between the Indians and the English. This is the plan he put into effect and won the support of the Council for the Colony to finance it. He put it forth as a low-cost plan to protect the English from the Indians. He did not happen to mention that the fort which the Colony built for the Germans was only about four or five miles from his silver mine.
Spotswood had been rather happy about the plan that had been put into execution by Blakiston. He wrote Blakiston that he didn't think Blakiston would do such a thing unless there was reason to believe the royalty question was to be solved soon. Spotswood was now inclined to believe that was the case (based on Blakiston's actions) and at the same time he had the miners that he would be needing.
The Germans were probably informed that their future would involve mining. But they were told by Spotswood there would be no start to the mining until the royalty question was solved. They were told to settle down and start clearing land so they could plant gardens and crops. They also started building roads to the fort.
(05 Oct 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.