*[Ich mag rot sehr gerne.]
Alexander Spotswood had to explain his land acquisitions which had been called into question. He wrote a long letter to explain them and a major part of it was reproduced in Beyond Germanna (v.5, n.6, p. 296ff). It is appropriate to the recent discussion here and I quote from his letter.
". . .until an opportunity hapned of freeing a considerable number of German families imported in 1717, when [Robert Beverley] invited me to become a sharer in the land, and at the same time admitted in some other partners, to the end we might all joyn our abilities to make a strong settlement with a body of people at once. Accordingly I came into the proposal, as judging it no ways unbecoming to me, in the station of Governor, to contribute towards the seating of H.M. [His Majesty's]lands; and paying down the passage-money for 70 odd Germans, we settled them upon our tract as freemen [not servants] in 20 odd tenements, all close joyning to one another for their better defence, providing them there with a stock of cattle and all other things necessary for their support, without receiving (even to this day) one penny or penny’s worth of rent from them. The tract then consisted of about 13,000 acres, but afterwards understanding that many others of the Germans, who had been sold for servants in this Colony, designed when the time of their servitude was expired, to come and joyn their country-folks, we thought it needful to inlarge the tract; and I finding, by the care which the Lords Commissioners of Trade took to send over the methods for making hemp and tar, that the Ministry at home was for encouraging the Plantations to raise Naval Store, judged it convenient to take in a large quantity of piney lands, which lay contiguous and fit for tar and masts, and so it was increased to a tract of 40,000 acres.”
It seems to me that Spotswood is saying:
1. Seventy-odd Germans came in 1717,
2. Other Germans came in the following years and worked for other people.
Forty-eight of these Germans had their transportation paid by Spotswood. About thirty more had their transportation paid by partners of Spotswood in the Spotsylvania Tract. And “many others” came later and had their transportation paid by others.
It seems to me that an attempt is being made to include some of these “many others” into the Second Colony. Distinguishing whether someone came in 1717 or 1718 or 1719 is difficult, if not impossible. I incline to call all of these as Second Colony members, where I define a Second Colony member as someone who came in 1717 to about 1720.
*[I like red a lot.]
(10 Feb 07)
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.