Alexander Spotswood was very pleased with the performance of the Germans at Fort Germanna. They stayed in place and maintained the peace on the frontier. When he, with others in 1716, was planning the acquisition of large tracts of land on the western frontiers, he undertook to find the settlers for these lands by advertising his desire for Germans among the ship captains who called at Virginia ports. He needed a whole shipload to meet the need for a strong force to be settled on the land to be acquired. One of the captains, Andrew Tarbett, when he was in England late in the summer of 1717, found a group of Germans who wanted to go to Pennsylvania. He agreed to do so but in the end he delivered them to Virginia.
The emigration from Germany in 1717 was much larger than in the previous years, excepting only the mass exodus in 1709. Klaus Wust estimated that about one thousand Germans left in 1717. In answer to a question of why so many left that year, he said, "War." Those that were taken by Tarbett came mostly from the Kraichgau, a region of weak political leadership. This area included territories ruled by minor Princes, and by the heads of Wuerttemberg and Baden, and the Bishops of Speyer. Geographically, the area was about thirty miles or less south and southeast of Heidelberg.
From documents in the Public Record Office in London, we now know that not all of the individuals who left their homes in 1717 made it to Virginia immediately. Some of them were delayed by two years before they could arrange for transportation. Thus, in defining the members of the group we would have to say whether we are counting those who left their homes in Germany in 1717, or we are counting those who arrived in Virginia in 1717 (on the OS calendar).
Most of the members were of the Lutheran faith. The first group of Germans had been members of the Reformed faith. Together they make up a group called the Evangelische, which we would interpret as Protestant.
For a subset of the people, we know that their motivation in going to America was to improve their economic well being. To infer the same reason to all of the individuals would be reasonable. Historians tell us that the incomes and the sizes of land ownership were low in the region from which they came. There was a strong motivation to improve life for their children if not for themselves.
Though economic improvement was the major factor, we know that they tried to provide for their spiritual life.
(17 Nov 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.