GERMANNA_COLONIES-L Archives

From: John Blankenbaker <>
Subject: (177)Germanna Colonies, History of
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 16:25:55 -0400

The one hundred and seventy-seventy note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

One research source for answering some questions about our ancestors is the
data in the Virginia Colonial Record project. There is little genealogical
information as most of the data is of a general historical nature. You can
only hope to find your ancestor if he did something unusual which resulted
in his record being committed to the official files. In the case of
Germanna ancestors, they were involved in official or near-official acts.
Therefore, many incidents which affected them are recorded. (This is one of
the fringe benefits of getting entangled with the Lt. Gov. of Virginia.)

During colonial times, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many
records were made and sent back to England. Spotswood regularly reported to
the Board of Trade which oversaw events in the colonies including the
Caribbean area. Many of these records were bound into volumes and preserved.

Shortly after WWII, the Commonwealth of Virginia, in preparation for the
350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, sent crews to England to
examine and to make records, on microfilm, of these colonial records. They
limited themselves though to records which mentioned Virginia. Back at the
Library of Virginia, in Richmond, they prepared indices to these records
using several categories such as personal name, ship name or keyword.
These indices are now online and accessible via a computer. However, you
cannot obtain a copy of the record but only an abstract. The abstract is
often very useful and gives a good clue as to whether you might want the record.

As to how extensive these records are can be judged by the number of
different individuals in the index who surname starts with the letter "S"
and go up to Sands. The number is about 275. Many individuals are in the
index a multiple number of times. (Originally, I had intended to count all
the people whose name began with "S" but I grew weary with the task and
stopped at Sands.) The number of ships that are mentioned is large also.
There is no assurance that any particular ship or person will be mentioned.

Some people have said that the captain of the ship which brought the Second
Colony was Capt. Scott. Others have been inclined to be doubtful of this as
the only source record which hints at this says, "in Capt. Scott," a phrase
which does not inspire confidence.

I used the data in the Colonial Record project to see if I could find a
mention of a Capt. Scott as a person. I could find none close enough to 1717
who is listed as a civilian. There were many captains named Scott, but they
were too far away in time (twenty years or more) or were military men.
Failing to find a captain ("master") by the name of Scott, I tried to find a
ship by the name of "Scott." There was one not too many years from 1717 in
1724. And fortunately, the name of the master of it was given, an Andrew
Tarbett. A search for Andrew Tarbett in the records discloses another record
for him in 1717 when he was talking to Alexander Spotswood.

I have put this information together, with other information, and reached
the conclusion, which I believe is most probable course of events, that the
Second Colony came in the ship "Scott" of which Andrew Tarbett was the
captain or master. This information, in more detail, was reported in the
last issue of Beyond Germanna and will be covered briefly at my talks at
Hebron Lutheran Church on September 20.
John Blankenbaker
Beyond Germanna
PO Box 120
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
http://www.wp.com/germanna/
http://www.concentric.net/~sgtgeorg/germhist.shtm

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