Hans George Long (Lang), along with Christoph Uhl and Frederic Kapler, appeared on a petition in September of 1717 to the English government for funds to return to Holland from London. All three of these men, plus Christopher Zimmerman, were from Sulzfeld (Baden, Germany). We know that Zimmerman arrived in 1717 (or early 1718) in Virginia. Lang, Uhl (Yowell), and Kapler came to Virginia slightly later. Why did these three not get to Virginia in 1717 when it would seem clear that they wanted to go and had started on the way in 1717?
In the spring of 1717, Andrew Tarbett was the Captain of a ship which was lost to pirates off the coast of Virginia. He was called to give a report to Alexander Spotswood who was very active in stamping out piracy. The previous summer and fall, in 1716, Spotswood and others had explored the land from Germanna to the (Blue Ridge) Mountains. Spotswood wanted to secure large tracts of land in this region but needed settlers. Probably Spotswood let all of the ship Captains know that he wanted a shipload of Germans to be these settlers. It would appear that he found an eager ear in Andrew Tarbett, who needed to make a comeback from having lost a ship. Tarbett returned to England in 1717 where he found a ship, the Scott . In his circumstance, he probably had to take a small ship so he was limited in the number of people that he could carry.
I believe that the reason that Lang, Uhl, and Kapler could not leave London then was that the ship Scott was too small. Apparently, they were limited financially, since they petitioned for aid to return to the Continent. Whether they ever obtained this aid is not known, but I suspect that they did not. They remained in London and, when word was obtained that the 1717 departees had gone to Virginia, these stragglers sought transportation to Virginia.
On the petition list, the names Christoph Uhl, of a party of eight; Frederick Kapler, of a party of three; and Hans George Long, of a party of four, were consecutive names. All of these men have been documented in the Church Records of Sulzfeld.
One other name on the list was Hans Martin Volck, in a party of seven people.
There is a question which is raised by this petition list which shows the people had started in 1717 for America. Should they be counted as members of the Second Germanna Colony? Or maybe we have gone overboard in trying to classify the Germans.
(30 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.