It has been rather widely reported that the First and Second Colonies made an appeal in 1719 to friends in Europe for help in securing funds and a minister. This appeal was carried to Europe by Zollicoffer. It is said that the petition was presented to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel(SPG) . There is a statement in the Letter Book of the Society which purports to be the appeal from the Germans. The text in the Letter Book may be read in Willis Kemper's " Genealogy of the Kemper Family ".
Andreas Mielke found a true copy of the appeal made by Rev. Haeger, Johann Jost Merdten, and Hans Jacob Richter. The latter two were described as Elders. The document that they wrote bears no resemblance at all to the document that is quoted in the Letter Book of the SPG. The actual appeal is very religious in nature. In no uncertain terms it is an appeal for the Reformed Church, not the Anglican Church, or the Lutheran Church. It expresses concern at the state of Christianity around the Germans and states the use of the German language is a necessity.
The actual German copy was reproduced in Beyond Germanna (page 819) and Andreas provided an English translation (page 818). The original German appeal was placed in the Frankfurt newspaper, Reichs-Post-Zeitung , by Zollikoffer. A report which was based on this appeared in an 84-page pamphlet, along with the original appeal from Germantown in Virginia, and letters of recommendation from the elders of the Reformed Church in London and from the Lutheran pastor, Balthasar Mentzer. This report had not been circulated in the Germanna community.
What has been reported about this appeal is incomplete and inaccurate. The appeal, as it originated in Virginia, was made by the Reformed people (the First Colony) without any participation by the Lutheran people (Second Colony). The elements on the number of Germans who were in Virginia was added by someone who had incomplete knowledge.
Even though the appeal is clearly made by and for the Reformed people, a letter of support was obtained in London from a Lutheran pastor. The attempt was to make the appeal as broad as possible to encourage the widest support in Germany. (It is noted that there were Lutherans also in Virginia.) It appears also that the original text was changed in an effort to make the appeal more appealing to the SPG.
(05 Apr 04)
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.