It is sometimes said that the First Germanna Colony worked at mining from March of 1716 to December of 1718. The termination date is clear but the starting date is ambiguous. On the Old Style Calendar there was a March which started in the year 1716 and ended in 1717. In the year prior to this, March started with the calendar showing the year as 1715, and March ended this same year with the calendar showing 1716. This shows how unclear the Old Style Calendar could be and how careful one must be in specifying dates. To say March of 1716 is unclear because there are two sets of days, a year apart, which meet this requirement.
I finally obtained the statement in the Essex County House so that I would have a clear idea of just which of the two possible months of March is the correct one.
In Will Book 16, page 180, the statement reads:
"The Honable Alex Spotswood His Majesty's Lieut. Governour & Commander in Chief of Virginia did put under my command Eleven Labouring men to work in the Mines or Quarries at or near Germanna, and we began to work March One Thousand Seven Hundred and 15/16 and so continued til Dec. One Thousand Seven Hundred & Eighteen.John Justice Albright
What is subscribed above by the Hofman is true, for I kept the accounts for him & was one of the men.
Hs. Jacob Holtsclare"
At a Court held for Essex County on Tuesday the 17th Day of May 1720:
Then sworn to by the above names John Justice Albright and Hans Jacob Holsclare & ordered to be recorded.
Capt W. Beverly, Clerk"
The mining "at" Germanna was probably the silver mine. John Fontaine, in August and September of 1716, seems to imply that the Germans had been working at the silver mine. Spotswood, in his letter to Col. Harrison, puts the start of the search for iron at about the time the Second Colony came, but I suspect that the search for iron ore started sooner than late 1717. This is probably the mining that qualifies as "near". (The eventual mine was thirteen miles from Germanna.) Notice that I imply that the iron had to be found. Spotswood did not discover any iron ore. The idea that he had discovered iron is a piece of fiction.
(29 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.