Act III of Spotswood before His Majesty
Spotswood summarized his petition by:
1) reciting all of the good things that he had done for the King, and, 2) what it has cost him personally. He claimed that he not been reimbursed for twelve hundred pounds of expenses of his own money spent on behalf of the Crown. He claimed that he had added three million acres of land to the Crown's possession. Also, he had improved His Majesty's Revenue from the quit rents. He had also fulfilled the King's wish for the Plantations to produce naval stores, and this had been done at his own expense.
In return for all these good things that he had done for the Crown, he asked that the King grant him title to 86,000 acres of land that were in his possession now, and not claimed by anyone else. He added that the predecessors had granted much larger tracts than this to others upon fewer motives or considerations.
Though the petition of Spotswood was undated, it was filed at the Board of Trade next to a note from the Earl of Orkney, dated 5 May 1726.
So, what did the King do? The first thing he would do is to ask everyone to make a written report. A report from the Attorney General would be needed, and from the Treasurer, and from the Board of Trade. All of these people would have to hold hearings and invite others to testify before them. What did George himself do? He died in 1727. Back to square one for Spotswood.
It would be a few years yet before a final decision was reached.
In his petition, Spotswood placed an emphasis on the naval stores project. Gaining land and resources for the naval stores project was supposedly the reason behind the decision, essentially reached before the trip across the Blue Ridge Mountains, to acquire a large quantity of western lands. The trip across the Blue Ridge actually had as it main objective the exploration of the lands that Spotswood might take up. The decisions fell into place just before the Second Germanna Colony landed and were settled on the 40,000 acre tract, to pursue, among other things, naval stores. Actually, the decision was reached before the Germans arrived, but the lack of settlers delayed the project; however, Capt. Tarbett, aware of Spotswood's desire, was able to provide a shipload of Germans. With these people, the naval stores project was launched on the 40,000 acre tract, to which no one had even yet filed. To pay for the land, Spotswood dreamed up the idea of free land. He did not file on the land until five years (1717 to 1722) after the Germans had been living on it. He did not get a clear title for ten years after the filing.
[Final Curtain]
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.