Much of the land that we have been writing about came from the land patented and granted to Jacob Holtzclaw. The first patent to a German in the Little Fork was issued to him (Jacob Hulsclaw), for 680 acres, dated 27 Sept 1729. He had to pay nothing for this, as it was in Spotsylvania and fell under the "free land" clause in the legislation creating the county. Probably this was a major motivation for him, even though it was across the Rappahannock River (called many things, including Hedgman's River) from Germantown.
The second German to obtain land in the Little Fork was John Fishbey who obtained a patent for 400 acres, on 28 Sept 1730. John Fishback came with his father and mother in 1714. On 4 June 1748, when the land had been declared to be in the Northern Neck, Frederick Fishback obtained a grant of 790 acres, which included the 400 acres that his father, John, had taken. The county was now Orange.
Two days later, Jacob Holtzclaw obtained a grant of 1300 acres, which consisted of the original 680 acres above and the balance was a surplus. This is the land where so many of the later immigrants were settled. (Note the land is incorrectly described as in Prince William County, which was where he was living at the time.)
[The John Fishback above was the son of the immigrant Philip Fishback, who lived at Trupbach. His house location in Trupbach is known and a photograph of the exterior and the interior is shown on the CD, "Germanna Villages, A Photographic Essay." The house now is subdivided into two apartments. The lower apartment, which was originally the barn, has very low ceilings. The Fischbach family is associated with Seelbach and Trupbach, two of the villages that have been mentioned here recently.]
The lands of Frederick Fishback were adjoined on the north by more lands of Henry Huffman.
Frederick Fishback (son of John, grandson of Philip) had another, smaller tract, of 185 acres, for which he obtained a grant on 12 Feb 1747 (NS). It was located along the Hedgman River and straddled Negro Run. No other Germans adjoined this property.
Earlier, we had Jacob Fishback who came in 1734. His descendants lived in the Little Fork also and the story gets very confusing.
****** Eleanor and I wrote our annual letter and posted it on the
www.germanna.com
website. Help yourself.
(10 Dec 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.