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About

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This Website is owned and maintained by Second Colony LLC, a Maryland Limited Liability Company, dedicated to improving our understanding of the Second Colony of the Germanna immigrants and sharing that knowledge with others.

Who Were They?

The term “Second Colony” is usually taken to mean the families who were on the Sailing Ship Scott, arriving in Virginia in 1717. Other families soon joined them. Scholars believe that some later arrivals may have intended to travel with the Germanna families, but for one reason or another, did not board the Ship Scott. The later families joined the original Second Colony families in the Robinson River Valley where they built the Hebron Lutheran Church, and their stories become Second Colony stories. As Germans, these families were somewhat isolated from the colonial English culture and many of their descendants can claim multiple families as ancestors.

Second Colony Story

In July, 1717, 25 or more German families left their homes in southwest Germany to travel down the Rhine to Rotterdam, where they found a ship to London. In London, they arranged to travel with other Germans to Pennsylvania. But the journey did not turn out the way they planned. Instead were brought to Virginia as indentured servants. This was three years after Spotswood brought in a separate group of Germans, known as the 1714 First Colony, and this is the reason for the name “Second Colony”.