Later in the year, on 20 Dec 1740, after the letter to Henrick Haeger, William Byrd (II) wrote a letter to Dr. Zwiffler, which sheds more light on the recruitment of Germans to settle on Byrd’s land:
“Sir, Several months ago I wrote to Mr. Henrick Haeger concerning the land I have to dispose of upon Roanoke River. I coud dispose of it to Irish men, but I chuse rather to have a colony of Germans to settle that frontier. I have a fine tract on the south branch of Roanoke River, which I discoverd when I ran the line between this colony, and North Carolina, and have since purchast it of His Majesty. It contains in all 105000 [one hundred and five thousand] acres besides the river, which runs through the length of it, and includes a large quantity of good land with abundance of rivulets and creeks that empty themselves into Roanoke on both sides, so that no land can be better watered. It lyes in a mild and temperate clymate, about 36 ½ [degrees] where the winters are moderate and short, so that there will not be much trouble to maintain the cattle. The woods are full of buffalo’s, deer, and wild turkeys, and the rivers abound with fish and wild fowl. It lyes 40 miles below the mountains, and a very levil road from thence to water carrage. It is within the government of Virginia, under the king where liberty and property is enjoyd in perfection, and the impartial administration of justice hinders the poor from every kind of oppression from the rich and the great. There is not the least danger from Indians or any other enimy, and we all know of war, is by hearsay. The quit rents we pay to the king are no more than two shillings for every hundred acres, and our Assembly hath made all forreign Protestants that will come and inhabit this land, free from all other taxes for the space of ten years, reckoning from the year 1738. And last winter the Parliament of England past an act to naturalize all strangers that shall live seven years in any of the British plantations, so that expence will be saved. The happiness of this government appears in nothing more evident, than in its having gold and silver enough to supply it occasions, without the vexation of paper mony. The people too are hospitable to strangers, nor is there that envy and aversion to them that I have observed in other places. Besides all these recommendations of my land, there is the cheapness of it, which makes it convenient to poor people. If any person or number of persons will purchase 20000 acres in one tract, they shall have it for three pounds the hundred, of this currancy. Whosoever will purchase under that quantity, and above 10000 acres shall have it for four pounds a hundred of the same mony. But if they will buy under that quantity and buy only smaller tracts they must pay five pounds the hundred of our mony, because of the trouble there will be in laying off such small quantitys. There will be no charge about deeds of conveyance, because I have caused a great number to be printed, unless they will have them recorded, and then there must a small fee to the clark.”
[There is more to the letter. I have no idea who Dr. Zwiffler is.]
(19 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.