Before we go into the discussion of what "generally" might mean, I will give the exact quotation from Lt. Gov. Spotswood pertaining to the "miners". Spotswood wrote to the Lord Commissioners of Trade on 21 July 1714, one year after the Germans came:
"There are generally such as have been employed in their own country as Miners, and say they are satisfyed there are divers kinds of minerals in those upper parts of the Country where they are settled, and even a good appearance of Silver Oar, but that 'tis impossible for any man to know whether those Mines will turn to account without digging some depth into the Earth, a liberty I shall not give them until I receive an Answer to what I represented to your Lo'ps concerning y'r Ascertaining her Maj't's Share, which I hope by y'r Lo'p's interposition be speedily signifyed."
This is a weak statement which doesn't quite say they are miners. They "look" something like the people who have been employed as Miners in Germany. I agree with the Andreas that Spotswood is using diplomatic language to promote the idea in the heads of his readers that they are miners though he himself knows better. In this particular case the readers are the Lord Commissioners. Spotswood is trying to get them to work on the royalty sharing. By using the testimony of the Germans, he is trying to make the silver mine look real, so it becomes important to make the Lordships think there is an expert opinion.
Let's run through the "miners" individually and see what we find.
Rev. Haeger was a minister.Jacob Holzklau was a schoolteacher.
Jacob Richter was admitted in 1711 to the Guild of Steelsmiths and Toolmakers. Now it is true that some of the tools and implements might have been used in the mines, but that does not make Richter a miner.
John Hofmann was only 22 years old when he came. He seems to have been a carpenter in training for he was hired as a carpenter in Virginia. (His brother Henry became a member of the carpenter's guild.) John's brother Wilhelm in his diary shows no inkling that he was employed in a mine.
Philip Fischbach was living at Trupbach in 1713. The history of this village shows that it was primarily an agricultural village with a few craftspeople in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, extensive mines were developed at Trupbach but in 1713 the closest that the inhabitants generally got to the mines was that they grew wood (oak) used in making charcoal. So I believe there is no evidence as to the occupation of Philip but the history of the village would not suggest that he was a miner.
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