The donation which Albrecht made in Siegen in 1711 is his last recorded appearance in the Siegen area. We do know that he was in London in May 1712 where he composed a shareholder's book for the mines. This original copy was brought to America, presumably by him, and is on file in the Spotsylvania Court House. [The document was not recognized for what it was because it was written in the German language and in German script. In modern times, a translation by Elke Hall has been published.]
Albrecht seems to have been growing impatient, for no orders to proceed to America were coming from Graffenried or Michel. How well informed Albrecht was about the events affecting Graffenried and Michel is not clear. The news from North Carolina would have been very bad. An Indian attack had practically wiped out the colony, and Graffenried was personally bankrupt. He had mortgaged his own farm, and the farms of the settlers, and was receiving no support from the company in Bern.
Wust says that Michel met with Albrecht in Holland and advised Albrecht to come over to America with one or two of the miners and see for himself. Graffenried admits that he had written the same thing with regards to the miners. Somehow, these instructions became a general invitation to a party of twelve families or individuals from the Siegen area to go to America.
Graffenried, now very broke, left the North Carolina colony to return to Europe, where he perhaps had hopes of obtaining the funding which had been promised. When he arrived in London, he was surprised to find the party from Siegen who expected him, Graffenried, to finance the balance of the trip to America. Graffenried wrote that he advised them to return home, i.e., go back to Germany. They felt that they could not do this and they volunteered to work four years to pay the part of their passage money that they did not have. There were no conditions attached as to whom the party had to be who financed the balance of their trip.
Graffenried helped them get temporary work and he looked for people who wanted four years worth of labor. His search brought him to Col. Blakiston, the agent for Virginia, who was aware that Alexander Spotswood was an investor in a mine thought to have silver ore. Though the status of silver mining in Virginia was very much in doubt, Blakiston believed the opportunity of obtaining labor to work this silver mine was too good to turn down. So he, Blakiston, committed Spotswood to paying the 150 pounds Sterling needed to complete the trip. Then Blakiston and Graffenried wrote Spotswood and explained that they had just spent 150 pounds of his money, which he would have to pay to the ship's Captain. In return the Germans agreed to indenture themselves for four years to Spotswood. [At the moment of their departure from England, probably in January, Spotswood was not aware that he was a party to a bargain which others had made in his name].
(14 May 03)
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.