How can we tell if someone is a member of the Second Colony?
First, we would need to define whether we meant by "Second Colony member" a person who left Germany in 1717, or a person who arrived in Virginia in 1717 (ignoring for the moment whether by the new calendar they did actually arrive in 1717 or in 1718). For example, was Johann Michael Willheit a member of the Second Colony, where I mean for this discussion that he arrived in Virginia in 1717.
Next, we have a list of people, from the Gemmingen Church Records, who left in 1717. The writer was very specific about when they left and who they were. The odds would be that at least some of these made it to Virginia in 1717.
Next, we have a list of the head rights that Alexander Spotswood used. This gives us 48 names. Now, the majority of the people on the Gemmingen list show up in this head right list. Therefore, we are inclined to believe that all of the people who were in the head right list were members of the Second Colony.
Then we have the people who were sued by Alexander Spotswood. This includes a few people who were not on the head right list, such as George Moyer; however, we understand that Spotswood bought out some, or all, of his partners in the land enterprise. One of these partners was the heir of Robert Beverley, the historian. In doing so, Spotswood acquired the contract of the people who had been sponsored or had their passage paid by Beverley.
Next, we have the dates that the people acquired their first land patent. For the people who settled in the Robinson River Valley, this date was 1726; however, some had their patent in 1728, but the land was outside the RRV. Christopher Zimmerman was one of these people and probably the surveyor did not get to that area (southeast of Mt. Pony) until then. The date 1726 adds no new information, but the absence of the date 1726 in the RRV is meaningful.
We also have the proofs of importation which sometimes give an arrival date; however, these are the least trustworthy because the information was taken down by an English-speaking clerk who was taking the testimony of the German-speaking individuals. This is how we have statements such as "in Capt. Scott" where the name of the ship was "Scott" and the captain was Andrew Tarbett.
By none of the tests above, does it look as if Johann Michael Willheit arrived in 1717. The only test, not mentioned above, that he does pass is that he does not appear in the German and, in particular, the Schwaigern Church Records after 1717. We now know there were several individuals who left in 1717 but did not arrive in 1717.
(to be continued).
(30 Dec 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.