To Col. Blakiston, 1 December 1714, Sir:
- - - - together with my repeated acknowledgments for your endeavour in relation to the Affair of the Mines. At the same time I hope you will pleased to renew your instances to His present Majesty, with whom, (as being a Prince of more knowledge in the nature of Mines than I believe any in Europe,) it may be much easier to prevail, and perhaps to obtain as moderate Terms as the Adventures in his own Territorys of Germany had. It may be also some Consideration with his Majesty that these Mines are to be wrought by persons of the same Nation and Religion, as I am sure it ought with us; that they will be a vast charge without any prospect of benefit till they can be set to Work. I have obtained for them from the Assembly an Exemption of all Taxes for seven Years, which may be an encouragement to others of the same Country to come over, but I hope their passage will be at their own charge. - - - -
To ye Lords Commissioners of Trade, 27 January 1714 (1715 by our calendar), My Lords:
- - - - Provision is made in this Law for erecting a Company, who are to have the sole priviledge of the Indian Trade for twenty years, unless his Majesty shall think fitt to dissolve them sooner. This Company are to contribute towards erecting a Magazine for his Majesty's Stores of War, and to take from thence all of the Powder used in the Trade, delivering in at ye same time a like quantity of fresh Powder, whereby the Powder belonging to his Majesty will be preserved from decaying. They are also to erect at the New Settlement of Christ-Anna, and after two years' time to take upon them the whole Charge of maintaining the fortifications of that place, and a guard of Twelve men and an Officer, which at present is maintained at a considerable charge to ye Country. [More explanation of this Indian Trading company follows in which Spotswood was an investor and has such high hopes for the profitability of the company that he started to build a home at Christiana. This Indian trading company was the second of his hopes to build his retirement plan (after the silver mining venture).]
- - - - The Act for the exempting certain German Protestants from ye payment of Levys, and is made in favour of several Familys of that Nation, who, upon the encouragement of the Baron de Graffenried, came over hither in hopes to find out Mines, but the Baron's misfortunes obliged him to leave the Country before their arrival. They have been settled on ye Frontiers of Rappa [Rappahannock or even more exactly the south branch of it which was renamed the Rapidan] and subsisted since chiefly at my charge and the Contributions of some Gentlemen that have a prospect of being reimbursed by their Labour when his Majesty shall be pleased, by ascertaining his Share to give encouragement for working these Mines, and I hope the kind reception they have been found here will invite more of the same Nation to transport themselves to this Colony, which wants only industrious people to make it a flourishing Country; - - - -
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.