*[Sie ist sehr gluecklich.]
Recently, in connection with the Second Colony definition, we discussed the Headright List of Alexander Spotswood. One of the things that interested me about this is that the forty-eight names that he gives as Headrights never lived on the land that was being patented. They instead lived on the “40,000” acre Spotsylvania Tract in the Great Fork. The land being patented in which they appear was south of the Rapidan River. There was no requirement that the Headrights be related in any way to the land being patented.
When Spotsylvania County was formed, the legislation contained clauses saying that the land in it would be free of the purchase fees and quit-rents for ten years. This was very unusual legislation and it required confirmation from London. There were several uncertain conditions. For example, some of the land had been settled with patents issued before the county was formed. Was this land included under the free clause? The Germanna tract was patented about 1716. Would the people who patented it be entitled to a rebate on the “purchase price”? These questions persisted for many years. The Germans were able to go ahead and take up the free land in the Robinson River Valley (RRV). They were never questioned. But Alexander Spotswood had so many uncertainties in his land titles that his claim was clouded for many years. This was one of the reasons that he went back to England in 1724. He needed to get these claims settled. It required him to appear before the King to get the questions answered. In the end he had to pay something. Whereas earlier he may never have had any intention of using the Headrights of the Germans, when it was found that he had to pay something, he used the names of the forty-Germans for which he had, directly or indirectly, paid the transportation.
Cary Anderson found it strange that the Blankenbaker families in the Headright List were not listed together. I don’t think it is so unusual. The families were independent. It is true that they probably wanted to be on the same land together but there no reason that their names should appear consecutively in the list. It is more significant how their own Land Patents lay. In the RRV we find a continuous sequence of Blankenbakers, Thomases, Scheibles, and Fleshmans, and I believe all of these were related.
I do find it interesting that Hans Michael Schmidt and his family were there, but that his brother Hans Matthias Schmidt was not there. Thinking that related families would try to stay together, it has always surprised me to find Michael there but not Matthias. But to carry this thought a bit further, there was very little interaction between the families of Michael and Matthias in the succeeding years.
*[She is very happy.]
(28 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.