Nr. 77:

Recent notes have talked about the purchase of undeveloped land from either the Crown or from Lord Fairfax, the proprietor in the Northern Neck.  There were several steps involved in doing this.

First, one had to locate land that was available, i.e., unclaimed land.  Usually this would be beyond the border or the frontier.  In seeking land on which to raise a family, one would be competing with the land speculators would try to claim land just beyond the frontier.  The group which comprised the so-called Knights of the Golden Horseshoe were probably land speculators who were looking for unclaimed land which would be attractive for resale.  Sometimes it was necessary to go quite a distance to find land.  The Second Colony members went out about 20 miles beyond the edge of civilization to find theirs.  After you found your land, you had to mark it so that others would know that it was being claimed.  Since it cost very little to mark a few trees, a lot of land was probably marked just in case some interest in it did develop.

Second, if you were serious about a permanent claim to the land, you had to secure rights for a survey.  These were the headrights or they were the treasury warrants.  One headright or five shillings in a treasure warrant allowed one to claim fifty acres.  If your tract contained more than 400 acres, than special permission had to be obtained from the Council and Governor.  If you think this democratic measure was to prevent a few individuals from taking up large parcels of land, than guess again.  In practice it appears to be a method of preventing individuals from competing with the Governor and his friends in securing large tracts.  Lt. Gov. Spotswood had no trouble in obtaining approval for a patent of 40,000 acres.

Third, one had to enter the location with the County Surveyor.  The man who held this job was officially appointed by the County Justices after he was approved by the College of William and Mary as being qualified.  After one had registered the general location with the surveyor, one could sell the land even though it was not yet surveyed.  When entered, one had to provide a broad description of the land including an exact specification of the number of acres to be surveyed.  Thus one should be an amateur surveyor to have just about the right amount of land.

Then one had to schedule a survey by the approved surveyor.  This required a payment to him for his survices.  Sometimes people would put off doing this in an attempt to stretch their money.  But it opened the door to lawsuits and arguments.  One other way that delaying the survey saved money was that the property did not appear on the quitrent lists (the property tax rolls).  One person delayed the survey for eighteen years.  The cost of the survey was a major part of the expense of obtaining the patent.

When the survey was complete, the surveyor had to make a plat of the land and give a copy to the owner.  The patentee had one year to submit the plat, surveyor's certificate, and other papers to the land office.  Finally, the land office who would issue a patent (for Crown lands) or a grant (for lands in the Northern Neck from the proprietor).

There was one final step in this process and, without it, you could lose the land.  It was requirement that one seat and cultivate the land.  Within three years, a structure had to be placed on the land and three acres of corn or tobacco planted for every fifty acres of land.  If this requirement was not met, the land could be claimed by someone else.  Many times the larger parcels, which had been patented in the hope of selling at a quick profit were in danger of being lost and the original patentee would repeat the whole process and repatent the land again.  Sometimes the patentees would play games and add some more land to the original patent and repatent the new combination.  One could use this ploy to overcome the time limits for seating land patents or grants.

To keep the land, one had to pay quitrents which were usually one shilling per fifty acres.  This was of the nature of a real estate tax.

Nr. 78:

The land patents (in the Northern Neck, they were called "grants") form an interesting study.  When a patent was issued, one copy went to the new land owner and another copy was filed in the record books.  The patents have been collected into a series of Patent Books and are available on microfilm.  In a momumental effort, Nell Marion Nugent abstracted those which went up to 1732 into three volumes of printed matter .  Since then, additional volumes have been added to extend the series up to 1749 (at least).  The volumes are called "Cavaliers and Pioneers".

First though, lets look at what a patent does say in the original.  A large part of it is "boilerplate" or standard language which emphasized that the grantor, say (King) George, has the rights to dispose of the land and that the grantee has paid for the land.  The interesting part is in the information about the grantee and the tract of land being patented including a description of an outline of the tract (the metes and bounds).  Very often, neighbors are named plus geographical features.

Here is the way one particular patent was abstracted:

Robert Tanner.  216 acs. (N.L.) Spotsylv. Co., in St. George's Parish, in the great fork of the Rappa. Riv; on N. side of the Robinsone Riv., adj. Jacob Crigoler; Jacob Broyle, Seriacus & Peter Gleshman; cor. on Smith's Island; 28 Sept. 1728, p. 96 (of Patent Book 14).

Except for the metes and bounds, this is about all of the essential information in the patent.

Going through this, one notes that an open imagination is required in the spelling of the names.  Though Pioneers and Cavaliers does have a good index, it pays to read and check interesting patents that look as if they might pertain.  In this case Crigoler for Crigler is not hard; finding Gleshman without an exhaustive search would not be easy.  The name Tanner is the English equivalent of the German Gerber but we are generally accustomed to this sort of substitution.

We know that this was new land (N.L.) never before patented.  We know Robert Tanner and the land are in St. George's Parish of Spotsylvania Co. in the Great Fork of the Rappahannock River.  The Great Fork is the area between the northern branch (Hedgman) and the southern branch (Rapidan).  Today this is equal to three counties but the patent does locate the tract of land more closely by telling us it is on the north side of the Robinson River by which it usually means it is beside the river.  The land is adjacent to land belonging to Jacob Crigler, Jacob Broyle, Cyriacus Fleshman and Peter Fleshman.

The patent was issued on 28 September 1728 though Robert Tanner had probably been living in the area and perhaps on the tract even before this.  No payment, in either the form of headrights or treasury warrants is mentioned, as this is some of the "free land" which has been mentioned here recently.

One problem in using the information of this type is that geographic names have changed.  Also, one geographic name might be used to describe more than one feature.  Reading the name "Beaverdam Run" only causes a groan because there were several of these.  But the biggest complaint is that the patent does not mention any neighbors or geographic features.  Thus one may be left with only the county to locate the tract.  Remember that many of the patents say Spotsylvania County at a time when Spotsylvania County included today's Spotsylvania, Orange, Culpeper, Madison and Rappahannock.

Nr. 79:

Continuing the discussion of the patent of Robert Tanner (Gerber in German), the patent tells us it is for 216 acres of new land in St. George's Parish of Spotsylvania Co., where Tanner also lived.  It was in the great fork of the Rappahannock River on the north side of the Robinson River.  It was issued 28 September 1728.

It began at a white walnut and a sycamore with a corner to Jacob Crigelor (Crigler).  From this point, one line ran north 15 degrees east (n15e) for 200 poles with Crigler's line at which point there should be three pines.  It was also a corner where Crigler, Jacob Broyles, Cyriacus and Peter Fleshman met.

The next course was s75e (south 75 degrees east) for 200 poles with the line of the said S. & P. Fleshman to a point marked by a pine and two red oaks which was also another corner of S. & P. Fleshman.

The next course was s40w for 100 p. (poles) to three white oaks.  The next course was s20w for 110 p to three white oaks and a corner of Smith Island line.

The next course was given in the patent as s50w for 60 p but the plot works better with s55w for 20 p at which point it reaches the river (Robinson).

The next course is up the meanders of the river to the beginning.  No angles or distances are given for this meander up the river which, as implied by the name, would take several parts to completely describe it.

All of this is embedded in a lot of boilerplate language as any transfer of property is.  If you wanted to see what the lay of the land was, you could plot it, preferably on tracing paper laid over a map of the area.  You need three tools, a protractor, a ruler, and a calculator to scale your drawing from the map dimensions to the patent description.  As you draw it, you could slide the paper around on the map to see if you could improve the fit.

It would help in locating the property, if you knew where the Fleshman, Broyle and Crigler lands were because they are adjacent properties.  So you might want to get the data on these patents and try plotting them also.  In turn they may name other neighbors and you might want them also.  Sometimes a patent will be very specific about a geographic feature and no recourse to other patents is needed.  These anchor stones are very helpful.

The frustrating elements are the lack of information to pin a plot down, an inconsistent description of a tract, and a lack of harmony to neighboring tracts.  One thinks that the patents would completely fill up a map very neatly but seldom does this occur.  They overlap in some cases or they leave voids in other cases.  Many times the description is erroneous as can be seen by looking at the data.  A course that should be s50w, is given as n50e which makes it exactly opposite to the intended direction.  When the Tanner patent above was plotted, a better fit to the physical conditions was obtained by changing one of the courses.

Fortunately, computer programs exist [for example, DeedMapper (TM)], which make the plotting of deeds easier than the manual methods.  The pursuit of land records is fun and time consuming.  Perhaps nothing delights descendants more than locating the land of their ancestor.  But the results are not easily obtained.

Nr. 80:

A few notes ago, there was a mention of how some of the Second Germanna Colony members were related.  Earlier, a tentative list of the First Colony members was given.  There were several relationships in the group which were not mentioned at the time.  A few of these relationships, not an exhaustive list, will be given.

Melchoir Brombach (Brumback) was the son of Johannes Brombach of M�sen and Anna Margarete Kemper who was an aunt of John Kemper, another 1714 immigrant.  So Melchoir and John Kemper were cousins.  Melchoir probably married Maria Elisabeth Fischbach, see below.

Phillip Fischbach (Fishback) was married to Elizabeth (Elsbeth) Heimbach.  Their daughter, Anna Elisabeth, married Hans Jacob Richter (Rector) and all of these people moved to Virginia in 1714.  Another daughter of Phillip and Elizabeth was Maria Elizabeth who probably married Melchoir Brumback above.  The sons John and Harmon Fishback were bachelors when they came.  The daughter Maria Elisabeth (duplicated name) probably married John Spilman in Virginia.

Hans Jacob Holzklau (Jacob Holtzclaw and other spellings) married Anna Margaretha Otterbach, daughter of the immigrants Hermann Otterbach and Elisabeth Heimbach.

Johannes Kemper was a bachelor but related to Melchoir Brombach, above.

Jost Kuntze (Joseph Cuntze, Coons) was the son of Johannes Kuntze and Elisabeth Schuster, see mention of Schusters below.

This note is being written on the unproven assumption that the Johann Hermann Otterbach family is the "missing" First Colony family.  He married Elisabeth Heimbach, daughter of Phillip Heimbach and Maria Catharina Fischbach.  Hermann's daughter, Anna Margaret, married Hans Jacob Holzklau.  In Virginia, several of the other daughters married men of the First Colony.

Later immigrant Henry Huffman was married to Elizabeth Catherina Schuster so that Henry Huffman and his wife were both related to people in Virginia.  [A personal comment from the author: Though I have no ancestors in the First Colony, I am descended from Henry Huffman and Elizabeth Catherina Schuster.  As a result I am related to several of the First Colony families, including the Huffmans, Spilmans, Crims (a later family) and the Coons, all a result of relationships from Germany.]

While some of the families in the First Colony seem to be unrelated to the other families, the general rule was that many members of the group were related, in some cases quite closely.  This is not unusual fact; it is repeated over and over in the immigration patterns to America.  It holds true within the First and Second Germanna Colonies.  It also holds true that many of the later comers were related to the ones already here.

Because the Otterbach family appears to have had a relative in the group and because they disappear from the church records in Germany after 1713, it is logical that they are the missing family.

No guarantees are made about the information above.  Perhaps others can correct or add to the data.

Nr. 81:

The members, including one conjectured family, of the First Germanna Colony has been given.  A list of names which are the candidates for the Second Germanna Colony has also been given.  A few other families have also been mentioned in an incidental way.  It is the intention now to add to these names those families who came in the time up to about 1733.  I do not believe there were any additional Germans who were added to the First Colony in this period.  There were, though, several marriages to the people in the English community.

The frequency of mixed nationality marriages is very much a function of the size of the communities.  The Second Colony which has the largest number of Germans had the fewest marriages to the English in the early years.  The First Colony which had fewer Germans had more marriages sooner with the English.  There is another group of Germans, very few in number, who lived in the Mt. Pony area.  This group moved the most rapidly to become assimilated into the English speaking world.  They learned to speak English very quickly and adopted the Church of England as their church.  By the 1730's, Christopher Zimmerman, from the Mt. Pony group, was a Lt. in the militia.  At the other extreme, in the Robinson River community which had the most Germans, the elders forbid the pastor, William Carpenter, from speaking English in the community.  This was after the Revolutionary War, a full fifty years after the community was formed.

Several Germans probably came in 1719.  One who testified at his headright application that he did come then was Fredrick Cobler (Kabler) who came with his wife Barbara.  The Germanna Record (6) suggests that Nicholas and Christopher Kabler came also but the headright application does not support the idea.

Another, probably from that same year, was Johann Michael Willheit (Wilhite, Willhoit, etc.) with his wife Mary (Hengsteler) and children Tobias, John, and Adam who was born about the time of arrival.  No date exists to pin down his arrival except his land patent was 1728 while the people with the best claim to First Colony membership had their patents in 1726.

Other Germans who came early include William Carpenter and his brother John.  It appears that these Zimmermans found there was already a Zimmerman family here so William and John anglicized their name almost at once to Carpenter.  By 1726, William Carpenter used the Carpenter name in applying for his headright, saying he came in 1721.  William testified he came with his wife Elizabeth.  John Carpenter was not yet married.

Robert Turner or Tanner (Gerber) testified he came in 1720 with his wife Mary and children Christopher, Christiana, Katherine, Mary and Parva (Barbara).  Just recently we were looking at one of his land patents.

A John Broyles, supposed son of John and Ursula Broyles, who were Second Colony members, never existed, as is reported in the Germanna Records.  There was no such individual; the court records for a John Bell were misread as John Broyles (Briles).

Another individual who was granted land in 1728 was John Rouse (Rausch?).

Thomas Wayland testified in his headright application that he came with his wife Mary and children, Jacob and Catherine, but he did not give a date.  Like Michael Willheit and John Rouse, he too received his land patent in 1728 so he also may have arrived about 1719.

Christopher Yowell also got his land in 1728 so he is another candidate for arrival in 1719.

Perhaps because it does appear that several families came in 1719, there has arisen the idea there was a Third Germanna Colony of as many as forty families.  Probably it would be best to note that individuals did arrive that year but they do not seem to be an organized or even a connected group of people.  At this time, it seem best to drop the phrase, "Third Colony", and not to use it.

Germanna Record Six gives some individuals in the context that they were slightly later arrivals after the First and Second Colony members.  John Justus Albrecht (Albright) came with the First Colony as the "Head Miner".  The Folg family was represented only by children, and they came with the Second Colony.  They were stepdaughters of George Utz.

Nr. 82:

Probably all of the individuals who have been mentioned so far as members of the Germanna community came directly to Virginia.  The word "probably" is a necessity because we do not know the port of immigration of the majority of the people.  We are aware though that several of the people, starting about 1730, came through Philadelphia.  Some of them stayed for a while in Pennsylvania while others seemed to have moved immediately to Virginia.  The later we get in time, the better the odds are that the immigrant came through a port outside of Virginia, either Philadephia or Baltimore.

There is a reason for this pattern.  Pennsylvania had good opportunities for the Germans and that is where they wanted to go.  The ship owners and captains wanted to meet the needs of their customers.  So the majority of the ships and the people started coming to the colonies through Philadelphia.  But let it not be said that Philadephia was the only port.

One of the 1717 candidate families was Henry Snyder (Schneider) and his wife Dorothy.  In Germany, a daughter, Anna Magdalena was born in 1692 and she married, in 1712, Hans Jacob �hler (Aylor).  However, when the Snyders came, they were not accompanied by their daughter and son-in-law.  The Aylors remained in Germany where they had a family of their own: Anna Dorothea, 1713; Anna Barbara, 1715-1717; George Henry, 1718; and Elizabeth Catharina, 1720.  Not long after the last of these children, they came to Virginia.  Jacob Aylor, as he was probably known, died as a middle-aged man, before 1742.  His wife, Anna Magdalena, married John Harnsberger then.

The Aylors are a very clear case where a family was being reunited in Virginia.  One motivation for the journey to Virginia is clear; perhaps there are better reasons than we even know.  There is no record of Jacob Aylor in Virginia and it may be that Anna Magdalena was a widow when she came.

Another individual who received his land patent in 1728 was Mathias Castler.  Perhaps he too came about 1719.  He has been found in Germany under the name of Gessler.  He left no sons, and his descendants are though the Delph and Kl�g families.

Frederick Baumgardner arrived in Philadephia in 1732.  He was the nephew of Michael Willheit.  This is a clear case where Frederick was traveling with the objective of joining his uncle in Virginia.  He was in Orange Co. by 1736 when he received a land patent.  Later he was naturalized in 1742.  He died in 1746 leaving a widow Catherine, maiden name unknown, and several children.

The next man to be introduced may not be a German but it strongly appears that he married a German woman, a daughter of Robert Tanner.  Therefore, his children are entitled to membership in the Germanna community.  He was Richard Burdyne or Bordine (more likely the former).  He did live in the Robinson River community from an early date and he did contribute financially to the Lutheran Church.

Another early land patent in the Robinson River area was awarded to Lawrence Crees (Christ, Crest) in 1732.  The family has been found in Germany and the name there was Greys.

Nr. 83:

The order in which names are mentioned here does not imply the order in which they came though I am trying to keep some resemblance of time to the discussion and the time is approximately the early 1730's.  The family to be discussed next is well documented, perhaps the best of the Germanna families.  This documentation is basically due to the immigrant himself, Andreas Gar.  The information is reported in the "Garr/Gaar Genealogy" which was researched over a period of time spanning over forty years, from about 1850 to 1894.  The over 600 pages of the genealogy are, I believe, the largest of the Germanna genealogies and the earliest significant genealogy.

Andreas Gar lived in Illenschwang, Bavaria in 1732.  Desiring to emigrate to Pennsylvania, he sought letters of recommendation from his pastor and the mayor.  Both obliged him with letters of testimony, respectively on April 25 and April 26 of 1732.  These letters were preserved within the family and translations of them were published in the Gaar Genealogy.  At church, the Gars were faithful in the observance of the church rituals.  The mayor and council of Dinkelsbuehl acknowledged he was well-behaved citizen.  They also noted that he left no blood relations or debts behind and had on all occasions conducted himself praiseworthily.

The statement that no blood relations were left behind was not strictly true.  The importance of the statement though was that he left no children behind who would become wards of the state.  The state administration of Bavaria was Catholic and they required proofs that Lutherans (which Gar was) left no children.  Andreas Gar did leave relatives, specifically his father and some brothers.

Before he left, Andreas Gar paid three florins for a cross.  This cross was in case he died at an inopportune moment when he could not obtain a cross, say during the travels, on the ship and shortly after his arrival.

The trip of Andreas Gar, his wife Eva (Seidelmann), and five children, John Adam, Lorenz, Rosina, Maria Barbara and Elizabeth, went without loss of any of the family members though Maria Barbara, 5, died shortly after arriving in Philadelphia.  News of the trip was sent back to Germany in letters.  The eldest son, John Adam, wrote his godfather on 1 Feb 1733 from Germantown, Pennsylvania.  Actually, Andreas Gar had written sooner, on 18 Nov 1732, to the pastor.  Highlights of the trip were a long and dangerous voyage.  At Rotterdam there was a wait of six weeks for a ship because of the great number of people.  It took 18 days to cross to Cowes in England with a wait of 16 days there.  The trunks were inspected very closely because of the high tariffs.  The ship arrived in seven weeks and four days.  Six old persons and thirty-six children died of smallpox.

Andreas wrote,

"The wine is the life of man.  Nice flour, dried meat, and dried fruits are very good.  The land is good.  Plenty of apples, and better than in Germany.  One man preserved twenty-five barrels of apples.  There is plenty of fruit, but as dear as in Germany.  Cattle are twice as dear as in Germany.  There are plenty of forges, smelting-works, foundries, and mills.  Everything is free.  Anybody can hunt, wherever he wishes, bears, wolves, etc."

Nr. 84:

The last note ended in the middle of a letter from Andreas Gar to the pastor of the church he left in Bavaria.  It continues:

"I belong to Germantown, six miles from Philadelphia.  Am living with a weaver (Andrew Garr was a master weaver), and work this winter for half wages [the minister in Illenschwand added the note, "could have got full wages in Illenschwand"].  A good hired man earns 100 florins; a woman forty.  Have not yet seen any pine wood, but cedar wood.  The most is oak forests.  There came two ships with people, some in six weeks, some in eight weeks, and some in ten weeks, but the last one came in eighteen weeks.  They suffered great misery, and those that did not die on the sea are mostly sick.  I advise no people who have small children to come, as the voyage is too trying, but I do not regret it."

That we still have the letter of Adam Garr and Andrew Garr (or Gaar) is the result of the minister in Illenschwand copying the letters into the church books.  In doing the copying, the pastor added the comment as noted above.  He, the pastor, noted that he copied the letters in the month of January 1734 which is three months shy of the two years since the Gars left Illenschwand.  The letter written by Andrew was dated 18 Nov 1732 so either the pastor was tardy in copying the letter into the church book or the mail was slow.

Germantown, then outside Philadelphia, was the site of the first major German settlement in the colonies.  Mostly Mennonites were in the group.  They were not farmers, but were employed in crafts such as weaving and paper making.  This group grew but was not large.  It was surpassed in 1710 when many Germans came to New York and North Carolina.  Even in 1732, Germantown was no doubt one of the best locations for immigrants coming from Germany, and, being very close to the favorite port of entry into Pennsylvania, and perhaps the colonies in their entirety, it was a logical stopping point for a master weaver such as Andrew Garr.

At some point he heard about Virginia and decided to move there.  What his motivations were are uncertain.  In Virginia he probably devoted major effort to farming.  His patent for 250 acres was issued in 1734 so he must have decided after the first winter in Germantown, at half wages, to strike out on his own.

In Europe, the ancestry of Andreas Gar and his wife Eva Seidelmann have been worked out along several lines.

From Rupp's "Collection of Thirty Thousand Names of Emigrants to Pennsylvania", we have:

Recorded on 12 Sept 1732, from the ship "Loyal Judith" of London,
Robert Turpin, master, from Rotterdam, last from Cowes:

Andreas Gaar (first name)
Johann Adam Gaar (tenth name)

It would have been good to know what period of time it took to earn the 100 florins that Andrew mentioned.

Nr. 85:

The Christler family left Lambsheim in the Palatinate in 1719 and emigrated to Pennsylvania.  One son, Johann Theobald Christler, was ten.  In time, Theobald came to Virginia.  He married Rosina Garr but whether this occurred in Pennsylvania or Virginia is not clear.  It may be that they were married in Pennsylvania (he was 24 and she was 20 in 1733).  The motivation for his moving to Virginia seems to be clear; either a family alliance had been formed or was to be formed.  Theobald was deeded land in 1736.

Note that the date of the first land acquistion is not always a good clue as to when someone came.  The Christlers (Crisler or Cristler also) came to Pennsylvania in 1719 but Theobald did not have land in Virginia until 1736.  So far, several of the Virginia individuals came in 1719 and it appears to be a year of above average migration.

Frederick Baumgardner came through Philadelphia in 1732 from Schwaigern, the home of the Willheits and others.  It is not surprising that Frederick went down to Virginia; his uncle was Johann Michael Willheit.  Frederick had a younger brother, Gottfried, who settled in Pennsylvania.  Frederick had a land grant in 1736 on a branch of Deep Run, a Robinson River tributary.

Mark Finks was living in Orange Co. in the early 1730's.  He is an enigma as he was on the first grand jury impaneled Orange Co.  This suggests he was familiar with the English language and perhaps was even an English citizen.  This latter view is reinforced by the fact there is no naturalization known for him; however, the name Fink or Finks certainly suggests the German name Finck.

Lewis Fisher's arrival time is unknown but his oldest son appears to have been born about 1736 so Lewis probably arrived in the early 1730's.

All of the names that have been mentioned in the last few notes have lived in the Robinson River community where most of the Second Colony lived.  Additions to the original core were made starting at an early date.  One addition was from the First Colony as John Huffman moved down from Germantown to land next to his (second) wife's mother, Mrs. George Utz.  This occurred about 1729.

John Kains or Kines patented 400 acres in the Robinson River area in 1736.  Later in his will, he mentions his friends Harman Spilman and John Stonecipher, Jr. who have names more commonly associated with the First Colony as they were from the Nassau-Siegen area.

Matthias Kerchler proved his importation in Orange Co. in 1736.  Peter Weaver used his headright in his (Weaver's) 400 acre patent in 1736.  Hardly anything more is known about Kerchler.

Jacob Manspiel patented 400 acres of land in 1734.

To summarize, there was a big growth in the Germanna community, both in the First and Second Colonies in the early 1730's.  The net of the growth of the original settlers and the influx of newcomers was that the Robinson River community reached a population of about 300 souls in 1736.  The very first settlement along the Robinson, probably in 1725, had perhaps one-quarter of this number.  So the community grew very fast in the first ten years.

Nr. 86:

A Jacob Miller had a patent for 47 acres in 1733 adjoining Adam Yager in the Mt. Pony area.  He paid for the land with his own headright.  The absence of other headrights suggests he came as a bachelor.  He was naturalized 24 Feb 1742/3.  Later he appears with a wife Rebecca in deeds.

A Joseph Cooper (Kooper) patented 400 acres in 1726 and in 1728 he patented another 404 acres in the Mt. Pony watershed.  He was associated with many known Germans and is thought to be German himself.  He married a Barbara and died very early.

A Jacob Prosie was the administrator of the estate of Barbara Cooper in 1735.  He might have been a German.

George Slaughter patented 300 acres in the midst of the Germans in the Robinson River area giving the names of his adjacent German neighbors.  In the tithe list of 1739 the name is given as Slater.  Since the tithe list was composed by English people, they tended to use English names which were approximate sound alikes to German names.  This confuses us today because it hides the German origins of many men.  In this case, Slaughter was probably a German family.

John Michael Stoltz patented 291 acres in Robinson River area in 1732.  There was an earlier patent in Hanover Co. in 1725 which could have been his.  His Robinson River community patent was forfeited, claimed by William Fowler and sold to Michael Utz.  Michael Stoltz died in 1741/2 and his administratror was a person of the same name.

John Caspar St�ver became pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Hebron) in 1733.  He did not live long in the community but he had a big impact as he headed the three person team which solicted funds in Europe.  St�ver came to the colonies through Philadelphia with his son of the same name.  Later the senior St�ver went to North Carolina and was living there when he joined forces with the Lutheran congregation in the Robinson River community.

George Teter had his origins in Schwaigern, the home of many other Germanna settlers.  He arrived with his family 1727 at Philadelphia.  He lived a while in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania where a son John George was christened in 1730.  He obtained a patent in the Robinson River area 10 Jan 1736(NS).  He died in Orange Co. in 1743.

John Paul Vogt (Vaught, etc.) was born in Frankfurt in 1680 and came with his family through Philadelphia in 1733.  On 10 Jan 1736(NS) he too (see Teter, above) had a patent for 640 acres.  He moved to the Shenandoah Valley in 1744.

Martin Walk is probably Hans Martin Valk who landed at Philadelphia in 1728.  He married Catherine,the daughter of Michael Clore.  Martin and Tobias Willhide had a joint patent of 400 acres on branches of Deep Run.  Martin moved to North Carolina.

Thomas Wayland (Wieland in German) came in 1719 and patented land in 1728.  He lost most of this land because it was in conflict with an earlier patent of John Broyles (Johannes Breyhel).

John Willer made a donation to the Lutheran church in 1734.  Most likely, he was not German but his wife was.

Johann Leonhart Ziegler came through Philadelphia in 1732 and moved on to Virginia where he married Barbara Zimmerman.  He appears to have lived in the Mt. Pony area outside the Robinson River community.

These additional names reinforce the idea that the community was rapidly growing.  Many of the individual stories show that Pennsylvania was the gateway.  In some of the cases, we understand why the person moved on to Virginia but in other instances we are left wondering.

Nr. 87:

Recent notes have examined the growth of the Second Colony.  Starting in 1719 several more families came and the external growth continued almost unabated into the 1730's.  During this time, the population doubled and quadrupled.

During this same time, the First Colony grew internally without the influx of new families.  The rate of growth was limited though by the natural birth and death factors.  But in 1734, several new families were added to the group.  Most of the new people were relatives of the people settled at Germantown but the newcomers had to settle at another location.  In part this is because land was not so readily available at Germantown except by purchase or lease from the existing owners.  The new location was at Jeffersonton (now in Culpeper Co.) across the North Branch of the Rappahannock River (Hedgman).  Jacob Holtzclaw had patented land in this area and he was able to supply the needs of several families and to allow a small enclave of Germans to form.  No doubt Jacob was working with the potential people in Nassau-Siegen to let tham know that land was available.  The new comers arrived through the port of Philadelphia on 23 Sept 1734 on the ship "Hope".

The group included Hans Jacob Fischbach, 30, and Catharina Fischbach, 28.  Jacob was a nephew of the 1714 immigrant, Philip Fishback.  His godfather was Jacob Holtzclaw which would usually mean there was a Holtzclaw-Fishback relationship.

Hans Hendrick Hofman, 22, and Anna Margaret Hofman, 20, were from Bockseifen in the parish of Freudenberg.  The mother of Anna Margaret was born a Spilman so the relationship seems to be with the Spilmans and not the Huffmans.

Johanis Jung (Young), 40, Anna Maria Jongen,32, Maria Gerderuth Jung, 5, Harman Jung, 4, Elizabeth Jung, 1, Elizabeth Catherine Jongen, 32, and Anna Cathrin Jongen, 20 were from Trupbach, now a subdistrict next to Siegen.  The two older women besides Anna Maria were cousins of John Young.  John Young, himself, seems to have been a son of Jacob Holtzclaw's eldest sister.  Hence John was a nephew of Jacob.

Johanis Nohe (Nay), 40, Maria Clara Nohe, 40, Gerderuth Nohe, 16, Anna Catherine Nohe, 10, Maria Clara Nohe, 5, Johan Jacob Nohe, 2, were also from Trupbach.  The mother, Maria Clara, was a niece of Herman Utterback of the 1714 Colony who was a father-in-law of Jacob Holtzclaw.

Johann Henrich Otterbach, 30, and Johann Heinrich Otterbach, 21, are the source of all of the Virginia Utterbacks.  There are some uncertainties, but the general relationship to the Utterbacks and the Nays seems obvious.

Joanis Richter, 26, died not long after he arrived, in 1742.  He left two heirs, John and Nathaniel.  The father, John, was thought to have been a nephew of the 1714 immigrant, John Jacob Rector, but the church records in Nassau-Siegen do not support this.  Certainly the name and the location do suggest some relationship between the two men.  The son, John, had been confused with another John Rector.

The overwhelming suggestion of these names and the relationships is that Jacob Holtzclaw had been writing letters to Germany and urging people to come.  He could promise them land and help in getting set up in the new world.  To provide mutual courage and support, several families banded together for traveling.

Nr. 88:

In the last note, we recognized a group of families from the region of Siegen who came to Virginia, through Philadephia, and settled in Culpeper Co. in a region called "Little Fork" (to distinguish it from the Great Fork of the Rappahannock).  The group arrived in 1734.  This note recognizes another group who arrived in 1738 by an even more circuitous route to the Little Fork.

The pastor at Freudenberg left the names of about 50 people who left to go to Georgia.  (The customary place for this is in the death register of the parish books.)  The pastor may have been mistaken about the location of Georgia or the ship may have gone to another port; in any case, there is no trace of the individuals in Georgia.

A list of the names has been published in the "Siegener Zeitung" of 16 Mar 1961, where it is said that the crossing from Southampton to Savannah took 134 days which is just shy of 20 weeks or a little over four months.  Of the names in the death register, five names appear in the Little Fork community within a short time.  Without any record of any of the names in Georgia, the other individuals may have moved to Pennsylvania.  The five names that appear in Virginia are:

Hermann Bach and his wife Anna Margaret Hausmann, with their daughter Anna Ella.  These names are taken from the death register, so caution must be exerted in saying that all of the individuals reached Virginia, especially after such a long voyage.

Johann Friedrich M�ller, his wife Anna Maria Arnd, and their son, Matthias.

Hermann M�ller, brother of Friedrich above, came as a bachelor and married Elizabeth Holtzclaw.  The Muellers were related to the Fishbacks.

Georg Weidmann, bachelor, is no doubt George Wayman here.  He was a cousin of Hermann Bach.

Johannes Hofmann was a bachelor when he left Germany, and evidently never married after arriving in Virginia; he died in 1741, with Henry Huffman as his administrator.  Perhaps the two men were cousins.

Other names on the death list from Freudenberg include:

Tillman Seelbach and his wife Anna Berta,

Tillman's daughter, Anna Maria, and son-in-law Gerlach Waffenschmidt, with four children.

Hymenaeus Creutz and his wife Elisabeth,
Tillman Steinseiffer (a bachelor),
John Heinrich Schmidt,
Johannes Klappert,
and Tillman Gudelius.

From Plittershagen:

Johannes Halm, his wife Anna Cathrin and two children,
Johann Heinrich Schneider, his wife Maria Catrin and two children,
Johann Georg Hirnschal, his wife Anna Cathrin and one child, plus his father Tillman.

From Anstoss:

Heinrich Schneider, his wife Anna Margaret and two children,
Hannah, widow of Johanna Schneider, with her son, Johannes, his wife and four children.

The names after the five original ones are included in case someone should recognize them.  If so, let me know.

With these two "colonies", one in 1734 and one in 1738, the First Colony grew significantly; however, the newcomers were nearly all settled away from Germantown in today's Fauquier Co.  Instead the majority were in today's Culpeper Co. in the Little Fork.  By 1740 there are four communities where the Germans were settled:

Germantown,
The Robinson River,
Mt. Pony,
and Little Fork.

Nr. 89:

Going back a bit in time from the 1730's of the previous notes, Alexander Spotswood filed a suit against Jacob Crigler for thirty-four pounds, eighteen shillings and four pence.  This was the first of many lawsuits brought by Spotswood against members of the Second Colony.  Spotswood maintained that the Germans had failed to satisfy the terms of an agreement "made by them in consideration of money advanced upon their transportation".

The Germans repeatedly asked Spotswood for a copy of the agreement but he steadfastly refused to give them one.  Most likely, there was no written agreement and there probably was no clear verbal agreement; however, this is the way in that Spotswood operated.  His word was the law and he expected everyone to accept his private version.  In recording land which he was leasing at the county court house, he did not provide a public description but refers to notes in his possession.

Poor Jacob Crigler must have been in shock when he heard how much Col. Spotswood was asking in his lawsuit.  He pleaded that he did not owe it and asked for an extension which was granted (this was 6 Sept 1723).  Then on October 1, Spotswood asked for an extension to consider Crigler's plea.  Finally, on 3 March 1723/24, with the consent of both parties, the case against Jacob Crigler was dismissed with the defendant agreeing to pay the cost of the suit.

To help put this in perspective, the amount which Spotswood originally sued for was equal to the personal property in the estates of many of our early ancestors.  He was suing in a county which was named for him and where he had his residence.  In fact, at the time of the suits, a room in his personal residence was being used as the courthouse.  The people on a potential jury would be people who would be working closely with Spotswood in the future.  If anything looked like a stacked deck, surely this was it.

I believe that approximately 18 members of the Second Colony were sued.  Being rebuffed by the county justices in their appeals for relief, two members, Cyriacus Fleshman and George Utz, on behalf of themselves and other high Germans, appealed to the colonial government.  The Council sided with the Germans and decreed that the deputy attorney for the king should represent the petitioners in the Spotsylvania court:

"On reading at the Board of Petition of Zacharias Flishman and George Ouds on behalf of themselves and fourteen other high-Germans, now residing in Spotsylvania county near Germanna, complaining that Col. Spotswood hath unjustly sued them in the Court for the non-performance of a certain Agreement pretended to be made by them in consideration of money advanced them upon their transportation into this colony, although they have heretofore performed, and are always ready to perform any Agreement they made with the said Col. Spotswood; but though they have often applied to him for a copy of the said Agreement they made with him, he hath refused to give them any such copy and therefore praying this Board to commiserate their condition as being stangers and to make such order as they shall think proper to have the Agreement produced; the Governor with the advice of the council is pleased to order as it is hereby ordered; That in regard to the petition, poor condition and ignorance of the laws of this colony, the person acting as Deputy Attorney for the King in he said County of Spotsylvania do appear for the Petitioners in the said suits brought against them in that court, that so the Petitioners may have the benefit of a fair tryal."

Nr. 90:

Continuing the lawsuits by Spotswood against some of the members of the Second Colony, the suits against Jacob Crigler, Andrew Ballenger, Michael Holt, George Utz, Michael Clore and Cyriacus Fleshmen were dismissed.  In some cases, the defendant agreed to pay costs.  But as we saw with Jacob Crigler, the original amount was over thirty-four pounds sterling, a very sizeable amount.  Just for fun, not as an authority, this might be equivalent to thirty-four thousand dollars today.  Yet this suit was settled for costs.  In the face of actions such as this by Spotswood, one finds it difficult to credit him as a noble character.

Suits which went to trial, the amount sued for, and the amount awarded include:

Phillip Paulitz, 18 pounds, 4 pounds
Conrad Amburge, 32 pounds, 3 pounds
Nicholas Jeager, 35 pounds, 7 pounds
Balthazer Blankenbucher, 11 pounds, 4 pounds
Hendrick Snyder, 18 pounds, 3 pounds
George Moyer, 24 pounds, 15 pounds
Michael Cook, 3 pounds, 2 pounds
John Bryol, 17 pounds, 8 pounds
Michael Smith, 14 pounds, 4 pounds
Michael Kaifer 11 pounds, 1 pound
Mathias Blankenbucher, 12 pounds, 7 pounds
Nicholas Blankenbucher, 9 pounds, 1 pound
George Sheible, 4 pounds, 2 pounds.

(In the amounts above, the shillings and pence were dropped.)

With the six suits that did not go to trial, this makes a total of 19 people who were originally sued by Spotswood.  (It is generally assumed that all of the people who were sued were Second Colony members.)

The basis of the suits by Spotswood has never been clearly shown.  Two ideas have been put forward.  One is that the suits were a harassment to keep the Germans from moving as soon as they wanted to or perhaps even to encourage them to remain indefinitely on Spotswood's land.  The second idea is that Spotswood was trying to recover the transportation costs.  It seems to me that both of these are weak arguments but still they might be true.  I have also put forth the idea that Spotswood had placed cattle with them in the beginning and he expected to get an equivalent number back plus half of the increase.  It is a known fact that he did place cattle on this basis with tenants.

Overall, the lawsuits are a blotch on the character of Spotswood.  He had greatly unrealistic ideas of what was due to him.  Never did he provide any written form of the contract; instead he expected the world to believe his version of the agreement.  Apparently he was trying to use the jurors in the newly created county of Spotsylvania to award him money at the expense of the Germans.

Nr. 91:

In 1720, Alexander Spotswood saw that his days as Lt. Governor were drawing to a close.  Before he lost this seat of power, he sponsored legislation to obtain new benefits from the Colony of Virginia besides protecting his current position.  Using a politically correct cause, "security of the frontiers of the colony", he called for the creation of two new counties.  These were authorized by the General Assembly on 2 Nov 1720 to become effective on 1 May 1721.

The new counties were to be called Spotsylvania (meaning in Latin, Spotswood) and Brunswick.  The name was unusual; prior to this all counties were named either for the royal family or English geographical landmarks.  More important to Spotswood was the availability of free land in the new counties and a relaxation of the public levies.  Also the restriction on the amount of land that an individual could patent was lifted.  Within 24 hours of the signing of the legislation, Alexander Spotswood filed for large tracts of land.  He also hoped that the legislation would cover his previous land acquisitions which just happened to be in Spotsylvania County.

The first Spotsylvania County Court was convened at Germanna on 7 Aug 1722 in a room of Spotswood's own home.  The six justices who were sworn in that day had been selected by Spotswood (as Governor) in July.  Before the Fall season was over, three more justices had been appointed.  Basically, this was the court which tried the Second Colony Germans in the lawsuits by Spotswood; however, not all of the justices were sympathetic to Spotswood.  Some of them actively opposed him.  Terms of service were two years when the sitting justices nominated individuals for the next term.  Spotswood seems to have been able to influence the process for a number of years.

County courts in Virginia were authorized to try all civil cases and all criminal cases except felonies and except those involving the death penalty for white people.  If the county court felt that probable guilt existed, they referred the execeptions to the General Court in Williamsburg.  For slaves, the county courts could inflict any sentence, including the death penalty.

Many matters before the county court were more mundane.  Citizens petitioned for new roads, bridges and ferries.  They also filed grievances against each other.  Indentured servants would run away and be caught and tried in the court.  One case that comes close to home was that of Joseph Bloodworth, a runaway manservant, who was apprehended and on 7 May 1723 was sentenced to double the time for the 78 days of his absence, and to twenty-one months for the seven pounds expended in catching him.  In addition, because he took some axes when he left, the Sheriff was ordered give him fifteen lashes "well laid on his bare back".

It is of interest that Joseph Bloodworth (Bludwert?) had been in the employ of Alexander Spotswood and the Iron Mine Company.

Let it not be said that life was easy then.  Incidentally, Joseph Bloodworth was to acquire 400 acres by patent on 13 Oct 1727.  This was on Potato Run on the southeast of Mt. Pony.  Perhaps he taken the axes and absented himself to go and stake out his patent.

Nr. 92:

The previous note recorded the punishment handed out by the Spotsylvania Court to Joseph Bloodworth.  In a similar vein, on 8 July 1724, Edmund Like, for "his impudence and speaking contemptuously of the court and his refractiousness to his master" was sentenced by the court to have the sheriff "carry him to the common whipping post and there give him twenty one lashes on his bare back well laid on and that he be remanded to his said master's service & in case he remains so refractious & impudent to his said master Coll. Alexander Spotswood, he may keep and secure him in irons".

Elizabeth Cole, an unwed mother, didn't fare much better.  She was turned over to the court by John Waller, one of the church wardens of St. George's Parish, who also happened to the Clerk of the Court.  On 2 March 1726(NS), condemned by the church, Elizabeth acknowledged her transgressions and identified Samuel Buxton as the father of her child.  Neither of the wayward parents was able to pay the fine or give security but, in the end, only she would be asked to answer for the breach of conduct and morality.  The unsympathetic court ordered the sheriff to "inflict on the said Elizabeth Cole's bare back twenty five lashes at the publick whipping post, for committing the said offence & afterwards be discharged".

Joseph Marsh, an indentured servant of Alexander Spotswood, was convicted of stealing hogs and suffered the painful and permanently disfiguring penalty of having to stand two hours in the pillory with his ears nailed, and then cut loose.

The many cases brought before the court by Spotswood over a period of years frustrated the justices who voiced their displeasure with the demands, delays, and duplicities of some of Spotswood's minions.  We saw here recently that the justices could only partially side with Spotswood in his suits against the Germans.

(The above material has been supplied by James E. Brown, who has written several informative and interesting articles for Beyond Germanna.)

Nr. 93:

One of the most troublesome features of life to German immigrants was the unavailability of pastors or religious leaders.  The problem originated in Germany where the central organization of the churchs was not responsive to the needs of the German speaking citizens in America.  The typical attitude was to enter the names of the emigrants from Germany into the death register and that became the end of the support for them.  When Henry Melchoir M�hlenberg came to Pennsylvania in 1742, he found the Lutheran Church in disarray and without any organization.  There were a number of Lutheran pastors but they operated independently of each other.  The credentials of some of the pastors were weak.

Among our Germanna colonists, there was an unusual situation.  When the First Colony came in 1714, they had with them a German Reformed pastor.  This unusual situation may have been the result of Henry H�ger, the pastor, already having a son, another German Reformed pastor, in New York.  The father's motivation may have been as much to see the son again as to minister to his congregation.  But whatever the motivation, the existence of a pastor was noteworthy and very unusual, especially one that was as well educated as he was.

When the Second Colony came without a pastor, they were typical of the larger body of immigrants of the Reformed and Lutheran faiths.  They had no minister.  During the approximate one year that the two Colonies were both in residence at or near Germanna, Rev. H�ger surely ministered to both colonies.  After he moved to Germantown, the Second Colony may have invited him to conduct services for them on special occasions.  In spite of his advanced years and frail health, he lived until the early 1730's.  After he died, the First Colony was without a minister.  In this situation, they did what most Germans did; they had a lay member read services.  In the case of the First Colony, this was Jacob Holtzclaw, the school teacher.  For the Second Colony, Michael Cook was reader at least part of the time.  The two Colonies together placed an appeal for a minister in German newspapers about 1720 but apparently nothing came of this.

On some occasions, the English church provided services for the Germans; however, they had a problem similar to the Germans in that they did not have enough ministers and control of the church resided in England.  Later when the Second Colony was to have a pastor, the Rev. Kl�g, he performed services for the English.  In recognition of his efforts, the Assembly of Virginia voted him a significant monetary award for services to the English community.

The Second Colony, after they had moved to the Robinson River and were relatively independent, sent two of their members to Europe to try and obtain a minister.  Probably as a result of this visit, the church does have pieces of the communion service with the inscription, "A gift from Thomas Giffin, London, May 13, 1727".  Other pieces have a similar marking.  When one considers that the King of England was German and maintained a German chaplain, it is not so unusual to have the communion pieces; however, the trip was unsuccessful in its ultimate purpose and the members came home without a minister.

Church officials, when they did arrived from Europe, were amazed at what the local lay people were doing on their own.  One can see, in these efforts, the beginning of the attitude that Europe was not necessary.

Nr. 94:

In the last note, I mentioned the reluctance with which the European churches passed control to the churches in the colonies.  This was brought home by a comment in the book, "Understanding and Using Baptismal Records" by John T. Humphrey which I was reading last night.

"The Church of England kept the centuries-old tradition that the bishops should perform the rite of confirmation.  This position had significant implications for the Anglican Church in the American Colonies prior to 1787.  Simply stated, before 1787 there were no Anglican bishops in the Colonies who could confirm church members.  Any member of the Church of England who desired confirmation had to journey to England for its administration.  Thus, no pre-1787 confirmation records exist for members of the Church of England in American record depositories."

While we are interested in the German churches, this was a typical behavior pattern.  To overcome such limitations, our laymen ancestors proved imaginative in finding solutions on their own.

In the Robinson River Valley, probably in 1732 but perhaps in 1733, a school teacher by the name of Johann Caspar St�ver passed through, going from North Carolina where he was teaching, to Pennsylvania, where a son, of the same name, was a pastor.  Whether this was the preferred route for travel or whether he wanted to visit the German community there is unknown.  He was probably aware of the community.  Any outside stranger who brought news was welcome; this was the principal means by which news was disseminated.  The leaders of the Lutheran church, such as it was, made an offer to St�ver.  Come and be our minister, they told him.  Though St�ver was an educated man with university training, he was reluctant as he felt he needed more theological training.

The community did succeed in getting him to accept their offer.  In order that he might begin his duties as soon as possible, they sent him with one of the older members of the congregation, George Sheible, to Pennsylvania where they found a Lutheran pastor who was willing to ordain St�ver.  Whether this ordination met all of the specifications normal to the situation is debatable.  The congregation was willing to accept the fact that he was ordained.

To support St�ver, the congregation agreed to make a fund raising effort, to procure a farm for him and to supply him with a house.  Andrew Kerker was elected as treasurer and he kept a set of books for this period which have been preserved for us.  A few years later, Kerker died and he may have been holding some of the funds.  To make a public accounting and to clear his estate of any obligation, this account was filed in the Orange Co. Court House and has been preserved for us.  Genealogically, the document is a bust but it does say a lot about life in those times.  We will look at some items in it in the following notes.

Nr. 95:

The church account starts with January 1, 1733.  The Germans were used to the new style calendar so this date represents the beginning of the year for them.  (The English would have been still calling the year 1732.)  During the year of 1733, a total of 56 pounds, 7 shillings, 2 � pence was received.  Most of the money was obtained by the collectors who were members of the church and who were paid for this at the rate of 20%.  That is, they were allowed to keep one pound for every five they collected.  Two of the collectors were the respected members, Ziriachus Fleischmann and Michael Smith.  Some of the money was collected at the church services.  The first service mentioned is the Second Sunday after Trinity at the first Communion.  Presumably by this time, St�ver had been ordained.

Other offerings were collected at church during the year including one at the Christmas day service.  Christmas services were typical regardless of the day of the week that Christmas fell on.  Not all of the money came in the form of gifts of cash.  Some people donated wares which were sold to the Minister, to Shibley, to Fleischmann and to Kercher.

To better understand the monetary sums to be mentioned, during 1734 the church paid John Hoffman one pound, two shillings, and six pence for nine days of carpentry in building the minister's house.  Since a pound contains 20 shillings and a shilling contains 12 pence, John Hoffman was being paid two and one-half shillings per day for skilled work.

Expenditures during 1733 included six shillings to inquiries for a Minister in Pennsylvania (it is not clear how they advertized).  After they found a minister who would ordain St�ver, George Sheible and St�ver went to Pennsylvania.  Sheible was paid 17 shillings for his expenses.  Sheible was also reimbursed one pound and three shillings which he had paid to the Rev. Shultz in Pennsylvania to ordain St�ver.  St�ver's expenses on this trip were one pound and nine shillings.

Urban (Robert) Tanner was paid 12 shillings for going to Williamsburg on church business.  (Tanner traveled more economically than John Fontaine who went from Williamsburg to Germanna.)  On the second Sunday after Trinity, when the first communion was held, they used two quarts of wine which cost 12 shillings (therefore one quart was six shillings or more than two days labor for a skilled workman).  Communion was held three more times in 1733, including at Christmas, and the wine for these communions cost 1 & 8, 3 shillings, and 1 & 9 which probably represents one quart, two quarts and one quart.

William Carpenter sold land to the church for the minister's farm.  Apparently when the deal was closed, Mrs. Carpenter provided drinks all around and she was reimbursed 18 shillings and 6 pence for this.  During 1733, they built a kitchen and a hen house on the minister's plantation for which they paid 2 pounds and 15 shillings.  An item reads, "By paid freight for our Minister moveables".  Logically these were St�ver's personal effects which were being moved from North Carolina to the community.  Legal fees or court costs took 1 pound, 1 shilling and 3 pence to have the deed to the farm recorded.  Twice Cook and Smith went to court, perhaps for the deed recording, and they were reimbursed a total of one pound.

Nr. 96:

Continuing our discussion of the Hebron Church account in 1733, one person gave the Minister a piece of linen which was valued at just pence less than one pound.  This was almost the wage of a carpenter for eight days.  Seems expensive though we do not know the size of the linen.  A purchase of 10 quire of paper for the use of the church was made for 12 shillings and 6 pence.  My dictionary gives two definitions.  Using the older definition, one quire was a sheet folded twice to generate eight writing surfaces.  Thus, one surface cost about two pence.  Or our carpenter friend could have purchased 15 writing surfaces, about eight pieces of paper, for his day's wages.  One didn't want to make any mistakes.

For unexplained reasons, Michael Willhite was paid one shilling as was John Raussen.  A deed for the minister's land cost ten shillings.  Michael Cook sold a table for the Minister's house for two shilling and six pence.

The contributions of a few individuals in the neighborhood were specifically noted.  They seem not to have been members themselves but may have been married to a member or just wanted to support a church in the neighborhood.  John Willers gave two and six, i.e., two shillings and six pence, a day's wages.  John Hoffman gave five shillings, two days' wages.  His wife was a Lutheran though their children seem to have been raised in the Reformed religion.  Richard Bordine also gave two and six (some believe he had married a Tanner girl).

Someone made a contribution of 55 pounds of tobacco which was legal tender in Virginia.  Fleishman bought money scales (for four and six) for use by Smith.  This would have been useful in evaluating gold and silver coins, probably from Mexico.  Michael Claur made a "present" valued at 18 and one and a half.

On the 24th of September in 1734 the books were examined by Michael Cook, Michael Glore, Michael Smith, Andrew Kercher, Hans Zeuche and John Caspar St�ver, Minister.  Probably the books were balanced at this time because St�ver and two members of the congregation were going to Europe on a fund raising trip.  If so, then St�ver actively ministered to the congregation for about a year and a half.

Disbursements during 1734 included Andrew Kercher, Michael Claire, George Utz visiting Fredericksburg for settling accounts and visiting the Court.  Their expenses were 12 and nine.  Throughout the period, there were purchases of wine for communion services.  Blanchenbuchler was repaid for sending a letter on Church business in the amount of 3 and 4.  That is, his cost in sending a letter was more than a day's wages.  A major expenditure throughout this period was the payment to William Carpenter for the land purchased of him.  The total was twenty pounds for the farm.  The next largest expense was to have planks sawed for the minister's house.  This cost six pounds and five shillings.  Taxes (quitrents) had to be paid on the minister's house of four and eleven.

At the raising of the minister's house, Michael Clore was paid for two quarts of brandy in the amount of two and six.  Apparently wine was more expensive than brandy but the item following the note on the brandy purchase says, "By paid for the same for the use of the same", for seven and six.  (Maybe two quarts were not enough and they had to purchase six quarts more?)

Interestingly, the accounts were kept on an accrual basis, not a cash basis.  To get the books to balance, it was necessary to note that Christopher Uhl and Frederick Cappeller had not paid their subscription.

The account was translated into English by James Porteus and upon motion of John Carpenter, administrator of Andrew Kercher, dec'd, was recorded at the Orange County Court on the 24th day of August 1738.

Nr. 97:

Tobacco was the crop of Virginia.  To facilitate trade, tobacco, or tobacco receipts, were acceptable and legal mediums of exchange.  To translate this into the equivalent currency amount requires a knowledge of the world price in tobacco.  The price fluctuated depending on the size of the crop and the size of the market.  The market size could change drastically since a large fraction of the tobacco shipped to England was re-exported to other European countries.  If England was at war, this reduced the market.  Like nearly all agricultural markets, an abundant crop was often accompanied by lower prices.

Rev. St�ver wrote once that his salary was 3000 pounds of tobacco (I assume this was an annual salary).  In 1738, the average price of Rappahannock tobacco was 14 shillings per hundred weight.  The church account (of the last few notes) valued 55 pounds of tobacco as just slightly more than 15 shillings per hundred weight, but his was in 1734.  Thus, St�ver's salary was approximately 22 pounds in Virginia currency.  We saw that a carpenter, John Huffman, earned two and one-half shillings per day.  Working six days a week, this would be 15 shillings per week or about 39 pounds per year.  St�ver had other fringe benefits.  He probably could keep his wedding, baptismal, and funeral fees.  These would have been significant.  Also, he had the benefit of a farm supplied by the church.

In the previous paragraph, I used the phrase "Virginia currency".  This was distinct from the sterling currency of England.  Though the Virginia currency was meant to reflect the English sterling money, it sold at a discount.  A pound in Virginia currency was not worth as much as a pound sterling.

The Church of England was the official church of the colony.  It received the support of the colonial government.  In return, it was to perform certain services for the State.  Births were recorded by the church.  The church was responsible for the poor and those unable to care for themselves.  Each parish was administered by the vestrymen.  They met and set the budget for the next year as a number of pounds of tobacco.  Then they divided the expenses by the number of tithes in the parish.  This was how much tobacco that each tithe had to pay during the year.  If there were large expenditures, such as a church building, the cost could be spread among three years.

These tithes had to be paid by each eligible tithe in the parish.  The Lutheran people had to pay the same tithe to the Church of England as the Anglicans did.  Then if they wanted their own church, they had to pay for that in addition.  In the Robinson River community, they felt they could not support both churches.  So they decided to try to raise money in Europe.

Nr. 98:

The Lutheran Church members in the Robinson River decided to send Rev. St�ver, Michael Smith, an elder, and Michael Holt, a member of the congregation to Europe to solicit funds.  The trip was not expected to be short.  This must have been a hard decision, especially for Smith and Holt who were leaving their family and farm behind.  To finance the trip, it was agreed that the solicitors would be allowed to keep one-third of the funds they raised.

It is always better to travel with letters of recommendation.  The group wanted to secure the Governor's blessing but he did not know them.  So they went first to the Spotsylvania Court with a petition which they asked the judges to affirm.  On page 337 of the Order Book for 1730 to 1738, it reads:

"On the petition of Michael Holt, Michael Smith & Michael Clore in behalf of themselves and ye rest of the Germans, seated by the great Mountains on the Robinson River, in this County, setting forth that they have a Minister, (Ye Rev. Augustine Stover) who they accommodate, pay and satisfy his salary at y'r own charge, and have already purchased a Glebe & built a house for the use of Y'e S'd Minister.  And also that they are building a Church for Y'e congregation, but being of low circumstances (& obliged to pay levies in the Parish where they live) and not being able to go through the charge, are sending home to Germany y'e Rev. Augustine Stover, Michael Holt & Michael Smith in order to get some relief & assistance toward Y'e building of said Church & maintenance of y'e s'd Minister.

"Humbly desiring this Court to recommend the same to his Hon. the Governor in order that they might get a certificate of him to testife the truth thereof; is granted and ordered that ye same be certified according to petition.

"At a Court held in Spotsylvania County on Tuesday September 3rd 1734.  Teste: T.A. Harris clerk."

With this certificate from the court they applied to Governor Gooch, who certified to the truth of what they had already done, their need of help, and also that his written testimonial was given, that full credence might be given the commissioners in Germany in all their endeavors and undertakings.  The seal of the colony was affixed.  Signed by William Gooch, September 18, 1734.

The collectors went first to England where they were kindly received by the German Lutheran ministers in London, Rev. Frederick Michael Ziegenhagen, court chaplain; Rev. Henry Alard Butjenter, court preacher at the German court chapel of St. James; Rev. D. Henry Walther Gerdes and Rev. Henry Werner Palm, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Savoy.  Here they received not a good contribution, but also a letter of recommendation from them to Holland and to Germany.

From England they proceeded to Holland where they began their collections in Amsterdam about the first of August, 1735.

(The quotation of the petition above is from "History of the Hebron Lutheran Church, Madison County, Virginia" by Rev. W.P. Huddle, with an epilogue by Margaret Grim Davis.  For more information contact the church at P.O. Box 100, Madison, VA 22727.)

Nr. 99:

From Holland, the trio of collectors passed into Germany.  In general, they headed for the northern tier of Germany where the Lutheran religion was the strongest.  Towns they visited included Oldenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Lubec, Kolberg, Koslin, Stolp, Lauenburg, and Danzig.  They had reached here by 11 Jun 1736.  They stayed two months.

Some events occurred then which are not too clearly illuminated in the records.  The net result was that Mr. George Samuel Kl�g was engaged as an assistant pastor to Rev. St�ver.  About this same time, Michael Holt started home to Virginia.  From the comments of St�ver, it appears that he had come to regard Michael Holt unfavorably.  There is a suggestion that Holt had been the one who was responsible for hiring Kl�g.  Also, St�ver appears to have been unfavorably inclined toward Kl�g.

St�ver and Smith continued on visiting Elbing, Marienberg, Thorn, Konigsberg, Neu-Brandenburg (31 Jan 1737), Luneburg, Hanover, Leipsic (24 July), Altenburg, Weimar, Eisenach, Eisfeld, Coburg, Strassburg, and Frankford-on-the Main (25 Nov 1727).  Periodically, the money collected was forwarded by draft to London.

As collections were made, a record was made in a book of 179 pages.  This book is now kept in the bank vault in Madison, Virginia (ibid. Huddle, p. 27).  This record is not exhaustive.  There were other records, now lost.  It has been said that the equivalent in English currency of the money collected was nearly three thousand pounds, a very princely sum.  A number of books were given or purchased.  In Plymouth, England, on the way home, they bought one hundred pieces of cut-glass for the windows of the church and three hundred pounds of putty to hold the glass.

While they were still in Germany, St�ver studied theology for about six months to prepare himself for the task of preaching.

Early in 1739, St�ver and Smith started on their return voyage to Virginia.  At sea, St�ver became critically ill, and, realizing the end was near, he wrote his will.  The will was proven in Philadelphia on 20 Mar 1739(NS) and recorded there.  A translation exists in the Orange Co., VA court house.  Though St�ver labored six years on behalf of the congregation, his time with them amounted to only about a year and a half.  But as a result of his work, the church was richly endowed and able to build a church building, to buy a farm to support the minister, and to buy slaves to work the farm.

Why St�ver was sometimes called Augustine is a mystery.  On occasion he was called this but he signed his name as John Caspar.

The Rev. Kl�g had already arrived in the community before Michael Smith arrived back home with the sad news of St�ver's death.  Though there had been opposition to the hiring of Kl�g, it is fortunate that he was taken on.  The church was able to proceed forward with Kl�g in the pulpit.

Nr. 100:

The extant Hebron Lutheran church building was built in 1740 using a portion of the funds raised by the solicitors in Europe.  By coincidence, the 1739 tithe list for the part of Orange County which includes the Robinson River community has been preserved.  This gives us an excellent reading on who was living in the community and who might very well have been present at the dedication of the building.

In James Pickett's Precinct, which was south of the Robinson River, there were: Michael Holt, Lau: Crees, Cortney Browel (Conrad Broyles), George Lung (Long, Lang), John Hoffman, Jon Carpenter, Mathias Castler, Michael Cook, Henry Snider, Robert Tanner, George Tanner, Lodowick (Lewis) Fisher, George Teeter, Adam Carr (Garr), William Carpenter, Nicholas Yager, Daywall (Theobald) Cristler, Adam Yager, Matthew Smith, Henry Crowder (?Krauter?), Christley Browel (Broyles), John Hansborgow (Harnsberger), Michael Smith, Daywat (Theobald) Cristler, Michael Keiffer, George Moyers, John Rowse, Thomas Weyland, and Mark Finks.  There were groups of English names mixed in with this sequence of names.

In John Mickell's Precinct, which was north of the Robinson River, there were: Tobias Wilhite, John Stolts, Frederick Bumgarner, Christopher Moyers, Peter Weaver, Mitchell (Michael) Wilhite, George Woods (Utz), Pals Plunkabeaner (Balthasar Blankenbaker), Ludwick Pfisher (Lewis Fisher), Mathias Plankabeaner (Matthias Blankenbaker), Nicholas Pluncabeaner (Blankenbaker), George Shively (Sheible), Conrat Pater (?), Jacob Broil (Broyles), Zacharias Flefhman (Cyraicus Fleshman), Richard Birdine (Burdyne), John Wilhide (Willheit), Michael Claur (Clore), David Ouell (Yowell), John Thomas, Henry Sluter (Slucter), John Zimmerman, John Full (John Paul Vogt), Christian Clemon, and Jacob Manfpoil (Manspiel).  Again several English names occurred among these names.

Over in the Mt. Pony area, the 1737 tithe list shows Frederick Cobbler and Christopher Zimmerman.

There are some problems in these names.  Note that Lewis Fisher occurs twice.  Theobald Crisler also occurs twice.  By the usual genealogy, we would have expected Conrad and Jacob Broyles.  We have these but also Christley.  The name Crowder is an unknown to us as is the name Conrad Pater.  The identity of George Tanner is unknown; he appears to be in the family of Robert Tanner.

Two families are missing, probably because the head of the family is dead.  The two families are the Criglers and the Barlows.  Perhaps John Jacob Aylor should also be in this category.  Other families which present a mystery include Matthias Kerchler (his importation was proven in 1736 in Orange Co.), Paul Lededer (came in 1733 and was in Orange Co. by 1735), Jacob Miller (grant in 1733 adjoining Adam Yager), Leonard Ziegler (came in 1732, died in 1757) and Martin Walke (came in 1728).

On the whole though, the count of families in 1739 is approximately equal to the number 62 that had been given in a 1735 petition.