There were three William Byrds. The one that we know the best is William II. His father was the founder of the family fortune in Virginia, and he sent William II to England for schooling at an early age and training. William II returned to Virginia after his father died, where he became very active in politics and extended the family's fortunes. William III was not as much a credit to the family as father and grandfather. The letters of the three Williams have been collected into a two-volume book. These came from the Byrds' own letter books, and from the collections of the people to whom they wrote. I thought we might take a look at a few of the letters of William II.
Writing to John Bartram, a Philadelphia-based botanist, on the 30th of November in 1738:
“. . . I expect everyday the arrival of a little ship with Switzers and Germans to settle upon part of my land at Roanoke. But they have been now 13 weeks at sea, so that I am under great apprehensions for them. They have purchased 33000 acres only in one body so that there are 72000 still remaining, to which your friend Gaspar Wister [Pennsylvania glassmaker] is very welcome, if he or any of his countrymen are so inclined. I am greatly obliged to you for your good character, and by the grace of God shall endeavour never to forfeit it upon any temptation of advantage. The land is really very good for so large a quantity, the clymate moderate and wholesome, the river navigable to the great falls, and the road to James River very dry and level. Besides I have now a bill depending before our Assembly, to make all foreigners that shall seat upon our frontiers, free from taxes for seaven years, which I have reason to believe will pass.”
“If these, and many other advantages which I have not room [to] mention will tempt any of your Germans to remove hither I shall be very glad, upon the easy terms mentioned in my paper. And if you will be so good as employ your interest and kind offices with them for that purpose, it will be an obligation ever to be acknowledged by him who wishes every thing that is good to you and your household, and is without guile / Sir your hearty friend and / humble servant / W. Byrd”
Among the Germans on board this "little ship" were fifty emigrants from Freudenberg in Nassau-Siegen. The ship was the Oliver and her story was told by Klaus Wust in Beyond Germanna .
The
Oliver
was "really" a little ship, intended primarily for coastal trading. She was leased by a Swiss organization to transport Swiss citizens to Virginia, to settle on land which Byrd was attempting to populate. At Rotterdam, it was decided to take on an additional fifty people, Germans, perhaps because of the similar destination, Virginia. This was a mistake, as the ship was not capable of transporting about 300 people across the Atlantic Ocean.
(17 Sep 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.