The Germanna Foundation web site repeats the error of Rev. Stoever that the Second Colony came from Alsace (and other places). There is no known member of the Second Colony who came from Alsace. ( A region and former province of eastern France between the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains. Along with neighboring Lorraine, it was annexed by Germany in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War and returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles [1919]. ) This would have been much more likely had the Second Colony members been Anabaptists, as many Anabaptists from Switzerland lived there before going on to America. ( Alsace, or Alsace-Lorraine, is too far to the West to have been a place from which the Second Colony members came. )
The web page also says that Spotswood paid the passage of the Second Colony Germans. There is little doubt that the Captain extracted a payment from Spotswood. According to a letter based on the telling of two members of the colony, it would appear that the Germans had paid their passage money to the Captain. Thus, it appears that the Captain collected money from the Germans and Spotswood. Therefore, the money from Spotswood was hardly their passage money, but was a "bonus" to the Captain for bringing the Germans to Virginia instead to Pennsylvania.
The web page also expresses the idea that another group of approximately forty Germans arrived in Virginia in 1719. This is the result of the statement of Zollicoffer, who seems to have been using his imagination in order to improve the chances of collecting money in Germany.
The iron mine tract was patented by Spotswood's friend, Robert Beverley, on 20 February in 1719, according to the web page but this is very misleading, as the patents were written using the old style calendar. By the modern calendar, this would have been 1720. In other words, the iron mine tract was not patented until a year after the web page says that it was. This is approximately six years after the Germans came in 1714. The terms of their service were that they would work for Spotswood for four years to reimburse him for his payments on the transportation costs. The argument is, that by the time the iron mine tract was patented, the Germans had left Fort Germanna for Germantown. It may be that Spotswood delayed the patenting of the land but still it would appear that he would not want to make any significant investments until he had title to the land.
The web page quotes Sue Gordon that the Spotswood home was burned when melting lead to repair the roof. This may be true, but according to Dr. Frost, a Spotswood descendant, the family had moved out of the home before it was burned. They had transferred their possessions to other places. The recital of Sue Gordon's statement may imply that the family was driven out of the home by fire, but doesn't seem to be the case. Prof. Sanford, the modern-day archeologist on the site, also confirms the house was not occupied when it burned.
(12 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.