I concluded a 300-year history of St. Mary's Church in London in the last note. Previous to that series, I had given some of the names of the 1717 emigrants in the records for St. Mary's. To tie in the connection between the German Lutheran Churches in London and the 1717 emigrants, I will give the contents of a letter written by Johan Caspar Stoever, when he, Michael Hold, and Michael Schmid were in London on their fund-raising trip. The letter was written to the Lutheran Clergy in London in December of 1734. The original of this letter is entitled, " Brief von Johann Caspar Stoever an die Geistlichen der deutschen lutherischen Gemeinden in London ". The original is found in Francke-Nachlass der Staatbibliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Microfilm No. 18, 363-365. The letter was translated by Andreas Mielke and published in Beyond Germanna, vol. 15, n.1. Andreas thanks Petra Stallboerger, Dipl. Bibl., for her assistance in finding this letter. The letter reads:
"Highly Honorable, Highly Learned, in particular, Most Highly Honored, all Reverend Clergy and Pastors at the Protestant [evangelisch] Lutheran German Congregations in London.
"Seventeen years ago, a small group of Protestant Lutheran people from the high principality of Wuerttemberg, and Qualtzbach [unidentified] and the Electorate Palatinate arrived here in London, and had themselves transported to Virginia on their expenses. Before their departure, however, they consulted with the Reverend Protestant-Lutheran German preachers then present here regarding the future care of their souls. To this they added the most obedient request to be so inclined and assist them in this matter by sending a pastor and by organizing a Christian contribution toward a divine service, the construction of a church, and such. To this, the above-mentioned Reverend Clergy also showed themselves not only to be inclined but, with the distribution of the Holy Communion, obliged them very sternly and according to duty to remain most constantly with the Protestant-Lutheran truth. They assured them after the news had been received of their fortunate transfer they would grant them their petition.
"After arrival of these people in Virginia [and] as soon as it was possible after surviving the hard Servitude (to which most of whom who go there have to submit themselves because they are unable to pay their transport), they settled as feudal tenants on the then Governor Spotswood's land."
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.