Kemper said,
"Spotswood had agreed with Graffenried to pay their passage."
The truth is there was no agreement, and Graffenried, in London, was at a loss as to what could be done for the Germans. Graffenried wrote that he advised the Germans to go home. The decision that Spotswood would pay a fraction of their transportation costs was made by Col. Blakiston, not by Spotswood, who was in the dark about the agreement.
Kemper also says that the Germans were to work the Governor's iron mines and build the iron furnace and make iron for him. Spotswood had no iron mines in 1710, 1711, 1712, 1713, 1714, 1715, 1716, 1717, 1718, or 1719. His first patent for land with iron on it was in 1720. It is a question that is not yet answered whether the Germans built the iron furnace. There is a good argument that they did not. The Germans might have made very limited quantities of iron in a forge.
Remember that Spotswood wrote to London in 1716 that the Germans had done no work for him (and his partners). The Germans were not located close to the eventual iron mine. The Germans said they worked at quarrying and mining from March of 1716 (NS) to December of 1718. In the early part of 1716 Spotswood was building a house at Fort Christanna (almost at the North Carolina border) and he was preparing to abandon Fort Germanna.
Kemper than arrived at another very strange set of conclusions with regards to the relationship between the First and Second Colonies.
First, he wrote,
"The remarkable thing is that these Reformed and Lutheran brethren were dwelling together in harmony."
He does not explain why it was so remarkable. There is no reason to doubt the harmony, but it does seem strange why he felt it was necessary to comment on the situation.
Then later he writes,
"Perhaps the antagonism between the Reformed and Lutheran broke out - our colony of twelve families went north 20 miles while the Lutherans moved west to the Robinson River. The latter seemed to have held onto the contribution from Europe. They built Hebron church and still have an organ and a communion service contributed by their European friends."
Kemper is not aware that the 1719 and 1720 appeal originated with the First Colony, and the Second Colony did not participate in it. All of the money raised by Zollicoffer went to the First Colony, while the Second Colony had their own fund-raising appeal, which was the source of the money for their church and later the organ. The reason that the Second Colony went to the Robinson River was that land was free in the Great Fork. The First Colony had purchased land outside the Great Fork before the free land became available.
Kemper adds,
". . . the differences in religious faith [was] undoubtedly the cause of the separation."
In saying this, he must have been unaware of the legislation which created Spotsylvania County, in which land was free.
(07 Aug 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.