The Skaggs-Files

[Kellie Crnkovich.ged]

Robert Beverley, Jr., historian of Virginia, the second son of Major Robert Beverley, was "born on his father's dwelling plantation in Middlesex Co., and was sent thence, for education, to England, being there at the time of his father's death in 1686."
He inherited the "Poropotank" plantation, in Gloucester Co. and "Beverley Park", in King and Queen Co., upon which basis he served as Clark for that county. He owned considerable other property and was well off.
He was interested in agriculture, especially in the growing of grapes for wine and thought that the production of wine should be developed in America as one of its industries, and he did some experimental work on that subject.
He is best known, however, for his "History of the Present State of Virginia", which for many years was used in the schools and had six editions in all---one being translated into French, followed by two 'pirated' editions of the French translation.
(from _The Beverley Family of Virginia: Descendants of Major Robert Beverley (1641-1687) and Allied Families_ compiled by John McGill (Deceased 1951), The R. L. Bryan Company, Columbia, SC, 1956.)

The second Robert Beverly (1673-1722), in 1705 published his _History and Present State of Virginia_, which included an unbiased account of his father's career. The work has survived for two centuries, because of its originality, shrewd observations, and humorous comments. (p. 453 but of what book?)

The eleven hundred and eighty-fifth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies:

About 1710, Robert Beverley, the historian, had marked 13,000 acres beyond the frontier which he proposed to patent. The size of the tract alone tells us that he was beyond civilization. Otherwise, it would be impossible to find a tract of that size in one piece. We know where the land lay; it was stretched out on the south side of the Rapidan River above (to the west) of where the future Fort Germanna would be built.

Just a slight discourse here on the procedures that were involved. First, one had to find land to which no one else had any pretensions. What constituted a pretension? Some markers with your name on them. A common form of marker was to shave a spot on the side of a tree down to the wood and then to carve one's initials into this. When an area was rapidly developing and several people might be looking for land, there could be an element of compromise. Legally, one should file for a patent on the land as soon as possible. This involved getting the land surveyed which cost money. Then one paid the fees to the colony which might be in the form of head rights or cash. Once the patent issued, your pretensions were now embedded in law. Still, it paid to keep your boundary markers in place so that all comers would know the extent of one's claim. The more expensive part of proving up the land was the requirement that it be developed with a certain amount of land cleared, an orchard planted, and a house built.

When a person set his initial boundary markers, he had in mind that he wanted a certain number of acres. But when he set his boundaries, he had only a crude idea of how much land was included. The rule was probably to be generous to yourself and set the boundaries a little bigger than for the
number of acres you had in mind. When the surveyor came, you might tell him that you wanted 400 acres surveyed and he would find that amount in your claim. Probably though there would be a little extra left over in that your initial claim was larger than the surveyor would measure out. Just because your initial estimate was oversize, one did not retreat to the surveyed boundaries. One left the original markers and told everyone who inquired that these markers were your boundaries even though you did not have a legal claim to the extra land.

Later when you were a little better off financially, you might call the surveyor in again for a resurvey that was made to the extent of the original markers which you had been claiming even though there was no legal title to this extent. The term that the surveyors used was "on a resurvey surplus land of xxx acres was found." On occasion, 400 acres would blossom into something like 800 acres as the surplus land was included.

Robert Beverley had probably ridden over the land he was interested in. He had a surveyor mark the boundaries taking into account other claims that might exist. The normal next step would be to pay his fees at the rate of 5 shillings per 50 acres. This would have given him a temporary title to the
land. Then he would have settled a number of people on the land and prove it up. If the land were not proven up, the title could revert to the crown. Until the land was proven, the title was only temporary. If the colony took the land back for failure to prove it, they did not refund the monies which
had been spent.

John Blankenbaker

The eleven hundred and eighty-sixth note in a series on the Germanna Colonies:

Robert Beverley had his 13,000 acres laid out and perhaps he had even had a surveyor go over the land and mark the boundaries. His next step would be to pay his fees to the colony at the rate of five shillings per fifty acres or one shilling per ten acres. Thus his fee would be 1,300 shillings or 65 pounds sterling. Then he had to think to about where he was going to find people who would be willing to live on this land. This land was to the west of Fort Germanna and the fort had not even been built yet. He very correctly came to the conclusion that he should hold on to his 65 pounds and wait until his chances of getting settlers would be better. (Meanwhile his markers would discourage anyone else from claiming the same land.) This was about 1710 or the time that Alexander Spotswood arrived to take up his duties as Lt. Gov.

Probably in the first year that Spotswood was in Virginia, Beverley approached him and discussed what they might do on the western lands. Beverley said that they might form a partnership with his land and some more land. However, this did not solve the question of where they were going to find settlers. The dangers of settling on the frontier were brought home with wars in North Carolina between the Indians and the whites in 1711. Indirectly this led to a solution of where the settlers were to be found. Christoph Graffenried proposed to move his North Carolina colony to Virginia where it would be safer. Spotswood, on mulling this over, came up with the idea of settling these Germans and Swiss on the frontier to serve
as a barrier between the Indians and the Virginians. When another group of Germans landed on his doorstep in 1714, he settled them at the place now called Germanna which served two purposes. The official purpose was to be a barrier to the Indians in that part of the country. The off-the-record reason was his proposed silver mine which was only a few miles from Germanna (and adjacent to the Beverly 13,000 acre tract).

Very quickly, Spotswood, Beverley and all of the large planters in Virginia saw what the impact of the Germans would and could be. The land out to Germanna became very attractive and beyond was a possibility. In 1716 several of the people who were interested in land organized an exploration beyond Germanna. Again, there was an official reason and there was an unofficial or real reason. To the people back in London, the reason given was to see the pass over the Blue Ridge Mountains. This was described as a measure of defensive action against the hated French.

The real reason for the trip was to scout for land to satisfy the appetite for it. Barely was the trip over when Spotswood was having 40,000 acres laid out that stretched from almost Germanna to beyond the present day courthouse in Culpeper County. (The 40,000 acre tract was an understatement for, when plotted, it shows about 65,000 acres.) This included the 13,000 acres of Beverley. Spotswood claimed still other people joined in the enterprise though their names never seem to have been recorded.

Though the land was laid out, there were still no settlers for it. Within eighteen months, Spotswood had that problem solved.

John@Germanna.com

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