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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