Germanna was a German settlement in the Colony of Virginia, settled in two waves, first in 1714 and then in 1717. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood encouraged the immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony.EtymologyThe name "Germanna", selected by Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood, reflected both the German immigrants who sailed across the Atlantic to Virginia and the British Queen, Anne, who was in power at the time of the first settlement at Germanna. Though she was to die only months after the Germans arrived, her name continues to be a part of the area.HistoryAccording to encyclopediavirginia.org, as part of a series of land grants awarded to settlers to create a buffer against the French, the Privy Council granted Spotswood 86,000acre in the newly created Spotsylvania County in 1720, of which the Germanna tract was the first, while he was Lieutenant Governor and actual executive head of the Virginia government. He served in this capacity, between 1710 and 1722, and in 1716, he carried out his famous Blue Ridge expedition and promoted many reforms and improvements.Spotswood was replaced as the lieutenant governor by Hugh Drysdale some time in 1722. Historians suggest his removal may have been the result of years of disharmony between himself and the Council, as well as when he accepted such a large amount of land, that he showed a disregard for the Crown policy which held that no single person or family could claim more than a thousand acres of Virginia land.
