Comments of Edward Porter Alexander in " The Journal of John Fontaine " include:
"Fort Christanna was situated on the south side of the Meherrin River. Its site is about one-quarter miles east of the monument erected by the Colonial Dames of Virginia at Fort Hill in Brunswick County on Route 686 southwest of Lawrenceville, the county seat. Governor Spotswood made a treaty with the Saponi, Stenkenocks, and Tutelo at Williamsburg on Feb. 27, 1713/14 by which they agreed to live on a six-mile square tract on the Meherrin protected by the fort and twelve rangers and an officer. That spring Spotswood laid out five large log houses as bastions connected by a curtain of wooden palisades and earth and with a great gun of about 1400 pounds at each house. The fort contained a trading post of the Virginia Indian Company which had a monopoly of the Indian trade for twenty years. It was ultimately to maintain the garrison of the fort and a school for Indian children. Spotswood took a large land grant to help support the school and paid 50 [pounds] from his own pocket to Charles Griffin as teacher. In 1716 Spotswood was reported building a house for himself worth 500-600 [pounds] sterling and hoping to attract other settlers.
"Many of the members of the Council of Virginia were already engaged in the Indian trade, and with the help of British merchants who disliked the monopolistic aspect of the arrangement, they managed to secure the disallowance of the Indian Company Act in 1717 by the English authorities in London. Spotswood then tried without success to persuade the Assembly to assume the cost of the fort. He argued that the frontiers were being protected economically and that the Indians had never been so peaceful. Mr. Griffin was instructing and catechizing 78 Indian children including 11 hostages from the southern tribes. [These hostages were the children of the tribal leaders and their retention at Fort Christanna was intended to secure the cooperation of the southern tribes.]
"But Spotswood's efforts were in vain. Mr. Griffin moved to the College of William and Mary in 1718 to tech Indian lads at the Brafferton school, built and supported by the chemist Robert Boyle's foundation. Spotswood abandoned his house and allowed his land grant to lapse. Iroquois raiders in 1719 ravaged the cornfields of the Christanna Indians and lay in ambush before the gate of the fort. Still, Spotswood's treaty with the Iroquois in 1722 was largely effective, and it was really the white man's encroachment, rum, and diseases that ruined the Indians. They abandoned Christanna about 1740."
[References for Alexander’s remarks are "
Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies
1714-1715, nos. 188, 320, 449; 1716-1717; nos. 146, 243, 452; 1717-1718, no. 699; 1719-1720, nos. 357, 535i; 1724-1725, no. 210"; Rev. Hugh Jones, "
Present State of Virginia
", pp. 12, 59, 162-63, 167.
(01 Sep 05)
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.