He arrived apparently with 13 other families in the ship Scott with Captain Andrew Tarbett. This from John Blankenbaker. Germanna Record # 1, July, 1961-Huffman Tom Riley gives birthday as 1685/1690. Deathdate from C. Betts-likely incorrect-also noticed Henry's disfavor according to will. From eastern part of Siegen Parish near Caan. Catholic part of Siegen but family was protestant. Name derived from "heath". Probably a farmer according to B. Littlefield. Will dated 3-23-1772, proved 7-27-72. Mary Johnson found book by Dr. Lothar Irle in Siegen library stating Peter Heide, son of Jacob Heide of the farm Rehbach near Marienborn, emigrated from Trupbach to Va. in 1714 and called himself Hitt.

From MR Hitt, 4-9-93--born circa 1690 (subtracting 25 yrs from birth ofpresumed first child), died between 23 Mar. 1772 (when will was written) and 27 July 1772 (when will was proved), Fauquier Co. Va. {WB 1:200, Peter Hitt, ddtd. 1772 Fau. Co. Va.}. Married perhaps in Eng. presumedly just before embarking to Amer to Elizabeth perhaps James (according to Jesse Martin Hitt records, Olympia WA (an early family historian 1852-1931). Other wives attributed to Peter but not proved are Maria Elisabeth Freudenberg and Elizabeth Otterbach. Earl Hitt says b 1690, place unknown. Wife's family name unknown. Other immigrants in his party had been iron workers in Va. See Blankenbaker Notes for more detail. In his will he gives each living child a negro except Henry whom he cuts off with $100. After death of Elizabeth estate is to be divided among 5 excluding Henry. Harman and Joseph named executors.

One researcher discovered from a pastor at a protestant church, a village on the highway between Siegen and Musen, dating back to 1585 that while there were none in his parish, he knew that the German spelling for thename was Heide. He said there can be no name in German that has no meaning, and the meaning of this word is "a meadowman".

Gave up his headrights to Laus Crees of the second colony. Moved from Germanna to Germantown about 20 mi. northwest about 1718 with rest of the first colony. Logically, this move was probably in January of 1719 after the time of indenture to Spotswood (4 years) was completed, just months after the purchase of the land and after harvesting the crops from the Spotswood tract. Though January might be a cold wet time to move, they would want to relocate after the previous year's crops had been harvested and the butchering completed. Then, January thru March would have been spent cutting trees, clearing brush, and erecting dwellings prior to the spring planting. This second location used Rev. Henry Haeger as pastor of their German Reform Church. Haeger also served as pastor for the Lutherans at Hebron in Madison Co., because no one else had yet been hired.

Ferndorf, where he m Maria Freudenberg is about 6 miles north of Siegen. After the marriage in 1707, John Blankenbaker says he nor his wife is mentioned again. Headrights are one source of immigrant names. These were used at the time a land patent was taken from the Crown. In the last note, I gave forty-eight of these names, all of which seem to be members of the Second Germanna Colony. One can take the names from the land patents, and Nugent was very careful to give the names in her abstracts of the patents.

Normally though, the first step was to obtain the headright. The immigrant went to court to prove his importation and thereby set in motion the process. For example, on June 3, 1724, the following First Colony members all went to the Spotsylvania Court and gave evidence as to their coming: John Spellman, Harmon Fitchback, John Huffman, Joseph Cuntz, John Fitzback, Jacob Rickart, Milchert Brumback, Dillman Weaver, Peter Hitt.

The amount of detail that a man gave varied considerably. They usually gave the year and perhaps the month. The statement also said who came with the petitioner. These are not to be taken too literally. For example, John Huffman said he was accompanied by Katherina, his wife. You might assume that John was married when he came, but you would be in error if you did. She did come at the same time, but they were not married yet.

Not everyone took out a headright. After treasury warrants came in use, one could pay five shillings per fifty acres as an alternative. If you lived in the Northern Neck, as the First Colony did, you had to find a buyer for your headright, since you could not use it in the Northern Neck.

Alexander Spotswood complained that people were cheating the Crown by taking out multiple headrights. He set up a system of cross checks to prevent this, but it was not perfect. In fact, some of our Germanna people applied for and got headrights even though they were not entitled to them. Peter Weaver was one such person.

There is an account of the settlement at Germantown in: Landmarks of Old Prince William (Harrison, Fairfax) Richmond, 1924 Vol. 1, pp.207-221. The book Fauquier County in the Revolution cites this reference: "In 1718 a small group of German miners from the principality of Westphalia applied to Robert Carter, agent for the vast Fairfax Proprietary, for a grant of land on Licking run." (T. Triplett Russell and John K. Gott Willow Bend Books 1998 second printing) I have seen a plat of this land, I believe in the Fauquier County records.

The eleven hundred and twenty-first note in a series on the Germanna Colonies

The Germanna Colonies came into existence as the result of the desire by Christoph von Graffenried and Franz Michel to recruit miners for a silver mine in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. These two men, then in London, were working for George Ritter and Company, a stock company headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. They hired another man, Johann Justus Albrecht, to do the recruiting and instructed him to go to Siegen in Germany where he was to purchase tools and to hire miners.

Albrecht seems to have gone to Siegen very promptly but he encountered some difficulty in recruiting the miners. As a promotional tool, he signed an agreement with the Protestant pastors in Siegen in which they were to receive monies from the mines. Presumably, in return he expected their help in finding and encouraging people to go.

Within the year, Albrecht was back in London where he wrote a charter for a mining company to find and produce silver and gold in America. Apparently he was trying to sell shares in this venture even though it is not identified as associated with George Ritter and Company. Communication with Graffenried, who was in North Carolina, was probably slow and erratic and perhaps less than clear. Either late in 1712 or early in 1713, Albrecht went back to Siegen and suggested it was time to go to America. The forty-odd Germans that he assembled paid their own way to London but they understood that funds would be available there to finance the rest of the trip.

In the late summer, or perhaps the early fall of 1713, the Germans were in London but Graffenried, who was to have the funds to pay for the rest of the trip, was not there. In the face of his uncertain arrival, the Germans sought work to support themselves. Perhaps about October, Graffenried did arrive in London. There was a mutual surprise by each of the parties, Graffenried and the Germans. Graffenried wrote that he had not asked them to come to London. The Germans were sorely disappointed that Graffenried was not able to live up to his word.

Graffenried's initial reaction, in his own words, was that he advised them to go home. The Germans saw it differently because from their standpoint they had no homes to which they could return. In their minds, they had to go on as they saw no future in England. With just their own money, they did not have the necessary funds to pay their transportation to America. But they did volunteer that they would work for four years to pay the part of their transportation that they could not afford.

With this as a bargaining tool, Graffenried visited people in London including Nathaniel Blakiston who, as the agent for Virginia in London, was well acquainted the Lt. Gov. in Virginia, Alexander Spotswood. He knew that Spotswood had a fractional interest in a mine that was thought to contain silver. Spotswood had not proceeded with this mine because the share that was to go to Queen Anne had never been specified. Blakiston, on the assumption that this question would be resolved shortly, decided to commit Spotswood to paying the 150 pounds sterling that would be required, in addition to what the Germans would contribute, for their transportation costs to America. -- John Blankenbaker

The eleven hundred and twenty-second note in a series on the Germanna Colonies:

When the people from Siegen arrived in Virginia in 1714, Spotswood had already been told they were coming. He paid the one and fifty pounds sterling and put a plan into action that he had formulated a couple of years earlier when the Indian unrest in North Carolina had left an uneasy feeling in Virginians. Spotswood put the Germans into a simple fort that was beyond the frontier of English civilization. By this means he was providing a barrier to Indian incursions in this region. Because of the public duty the Germans would be providing, he obtained the Council's approval to defray some of the expense. He did not publically enter into the record that this location, in a horseshoe bend of the Rapidan River, was about four miles from land in which he owned a fractional interest. This land was on Mine Run on the south side of the Rapidan River. Mine Run derives its name from the fact that the land along it was thought to contain silver ore. Spotswood did not give the Germans permission to dig at the site because the rights of the Crown were not defined. For at least two years or longer, the German farmed and built roads and bridges.

Spotswood was looking for ways to establish his personal economic base. An Indian trading company was established and he was an investor in this but it was not of a significant size. As he looked around, he saw that the basis of wealth in Virginia was land as the Byrds and Beverleys had shown. Robert Beverley even invited him to join a land partnership. With the intent to acquire land, Spotswood set up a western exploration trip in 1716 to explore land to the west of Germanna up to and beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains. The trip was even set up as an official venture of the colony so that costs could be reimbursed. As a consequence, Spotswood and Beverley identified and staked out land amounting to more than 60,000 acres.

Because of the exposed position of this land, a large group of people was needed to settle as a body on the land. The Germans at Germanna had been a success, a very good success, as keepers of the peace. Spotswood wanted to duplicate this on the 60,000 acres but the Germans were not coming to Virginia. He started talking to the captains of the ships which called at Jamestown and in the spring of 1717 he had an occasion to talk to Andrew Tarbett. Tarbett who at the time had no ship as the pirates had taken and burned his ship. When he got back to England, he became the master of the ship Scott. Very shortly thereafter, a group of Germans appeared in London looking for transportation to Pennsylvania. Tarbett promised to take them as they wished but, knowing there was a need for the Germans in Virginia, he took them to Virginia against their wishes. In this way these Germans became the indentured servants of Spotswood and his partners and they were settled on the 60,000 acres. Among the projects they were given was the raising of naval stores which were needed in England.

So in 1718, Spotswood's personal economic base was to be founded on land. Already he knew that the first group of Germans would be leaving as their four years of service would be up in 1718 and they had purchased land elsewhere.

The eleven hundred and twenty-third note in a series on the Germanna Colonies: The first group of Germans had been looking around in the district surrounding Germanna. They found iron ore and brought it to Spotswood's attention. At about the time the second group of Germans came, Spotswood received a letter from Sir Richard in England who wanted Spotswood to search for iron ore with the objective of establishing an "iron works." This would have been about the beginning of 1718 (NS). Spotswood replied that he would have his Germans look and, of course, it was not difficult to find something of which they were already aware. Still, Spotswood did not deviate from his main thrust which was to acquire land. He added iron as another possibility, but only as a possibility.

The first group of Germans left Germanna about January of 1719 (NS) to go to their own land in the Northern Neck which became known as "Germantown." With money from partners and with labor that probably came from England, Spotswood built an iron furnace but it did not go smoothly. William Byrd could tell the Board of Trade in November of 1721 that iron could be cast in Virginia but that they could not make bar iron. A small shipment of cast iron was sent to England in 1723 and a more significant shipment was made in 1724. By then Spotswood felt confident enough that he could go to England to pursue the titles to his lands and to find a wife. Before he left, he gave instructions to his agents to continue the lawsuits against the members of the second group of Germans to recover the monies he had spent on their transportation. Spotswood remained in England about five years while his iron furnace was sending a modest stream of iron to England.

Probably in 1725, the second group of Germans left their homes along the north bank of the Rapidan River just above Germanna and moved to land of their own. Most of them went to the Robinson River Valley but a few moved only a few miles to the southeast of Mt. Pony. They obtained a generous quantity of free land as a result of the legislation that had been by initiated by Spotswood to reduce his own costs of acquiring land.

By 1725, most of the Germans were living on land of their own and were independent of Spotswood or others. They viewed one of their most pressing problems as obtaining ministers. While the first group had brought a minister with them, the Rev. Häger, the second group was located at some distance from him. Rev. Häger was old and the number of years remaining for him could not be many. So all of the Germans felt the need for ministers. As there were few ministers in the colonies who could speak German, attention was focused on Germany. The second group went so far as to send two of their members to Germany to seek a minister but they were unsuccessful.

Even before the second group had moved to their own lands, they were joined by friends and relatives, usually from the same villages as the original group had come. This same phenomenon occurred also with the first group but it did not commence until later. Whereas the second group had been given as about 80 people in 1717/18, it had reached the number of 300 by 1733 by new people from Germany as well as by more births than deaths within the group. Apparently, both groups were feeling better about the situation in Virginia.

The eleven hundred and thirtieth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies: In the Siegen area in 1709, a significant number of people left for America. Everyone who remained in Siegen was perfectly well aware of the event. It did not take a newspaper, radio, or TV to inform them. By word of mouth, everyone knew and the pros and cons were debated.

One year later, a man appeared in Siegen who said that he wanted to hire miners to work in America in silver mines. We have no knowledge of the terms that he offered. Again, his presence would have been known throughout the district within weeks even though we assume that he was a stranger. And the company he was working for, George Ritter and Company of Switzerland, was totally unknown. So Johann Justus Albrecht had a tough sell to interest people in this American mining adventure.

Two factors helped him. The departure of so many people the previous year did create the sense that it could be done. Here was another opportunity. The fact that so many had left, the previous year indicates the economic life was poor. So at least a few people listened to what Albrecht had to say.

Albrecht overstated things to the extent that he was not always believable. His statements seemed so dubious that the agent of the Emperor (as in Holy Roman Emperor) had the man arrested. It is said that he was released only with the intervention of the English ambassador. Why the English ambassador should have been involved is not clear except the proposed work was in the American colonies.

Albrecht changed tactics. He signed a "contract" with the Protestant pastors in Siegen in which he promised a payment from the mines to the pastors in return for their help in recruiting the miners. This was in 1711. By this means he was enabled to get tentative agreements from a number of people. Albrecht then returned to London where we find him in May of 1712. He was engaged in writing a promotion for gold and silver mine(s) in South Carolina. He described himself as the head miner who completed his work in South Carolina by 5 January 1709. One sees, when reading his language, why he may have fallen in trouble with the agent of the Emperor.

What is not clear is why he was writing this document. It appears that he was trying to sell shares in the venture. It does not appear that George Ritter and Company was involved in this and they were his nominal employer. Nowhere is this company mentioned.

Apparently Albrecht was proud of his document for he brought it to America. It found its way to the Spotsylvania Court house, and the officials not knowing what to do with this fancy document in German, simply put it in the back of the Spotsylvania Court Order Book for 1724-1730. It probably remained untouched until Elke Hall translated it for publication in Beyond Germanna. She admitted to some difficulties because there were more pages than sentences.

OVERALL SOURCE: Hitt, http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jbh&id=I76