Keith:
I'm not sure Nelson is entirely correct, but again that is part of the
confusion. Here is the language from Henings creating Brunswick and
Spotsylvania Counties.
"Inhabitants of the said counties are made free of publick levies for
ten years, from the first of May, 1721...Because foreign Protestants
may not understand English readily, if any such shall entertain a
minister of their own, they and their titheables shall be free for ten
years, from the said first of May 1721."
This language is written specifically for the so-called 2nd Germanna
Colony, the first wave of whom came over in 1717 as indentured
servants of Gov. Alexander Spotswood (much against their will, by the
way.) As the first sentence says, ALL inhabitants were exempt from
"publick Levies for 10 years. As I understand, "publick levies" were
those poll taxes used to support the Colonial government. Nothing is
said about county levies. Did those come under the term "public
levies?" It could hardly seem so, in that the new county had to funds
from which to operate, although funds were appropriated in the
legislation for building a court house, church, and jail (which became
a matter of bitter acrimony in 1724.)
The second sentence is much more vague. It does not, as Nelson says,
exempt them from parish levies, just "their titheables shall be free
for ten years." The inference, of course, is that they are exempted
from parish levies. They were already exempt from "publick levies"
just as was everyone else. (At this time, they were still indentured
to Spotswood and without this clause he would have had to pay their
tithes.) Considering the connection in the 2nd sentence to religion,
it implies they were to be exempt from parish levies. (By May 1721,
the First Colony of Germans had moved to Fauquier County where they
established Germantown. They were no longer concern of Spotswood's.)
This question aside, the other question still remains: Were German
protestants, such as those who moved to Fauquier County, or later ones
who came to the Shenandoah, exempt from parish levies if they had
their own church and minister? It has been stated by someone on
another list who claims to be an authority that all the Germans of the
First Colony were compelled to attend services at a Church of England
church after many of them moved from Germantown to Jeffersonton in
Culpeper County (this was long after the ten years had expired for
Spotsylvania County). I find that very hard to believe. It has been
my understanding that "dissident" religions were allowed their own
minister's as long as that minister was licensed by the Colony (and
perhaps ordained by the Bishop in England).
Ah, all these pesky little details.
Craig Kilby
Nothing is said about county levies.
On Sep 7, 2009, at 10:54 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> There is a good short discussion of these issues in John K. Nelson,
> A BLESSED COMPANY: PARISHES, PARSONS, AND PARISHIONERS IN ANGLICAN
> VIRGINIA: 1690-1776.
>
> In summary:
>
> Thus, for example, Nelson notes "Foreign Protestants in Spotsylvania
> and Brunswick Counties who were able to secure and willing to
> support a minister of their own persuasion were granted a ten-year
> exemption from parish levies [in 1720]." (Nelson, p. 283)
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