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.

As part of a series of land grants awarded to settlers to create a buffer against the French, the Privy Council granted Spotswood 86,000 acres (350 km2) 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.

[citation needed] Spotswood established a colony of German immigrants on the Germanna tract in 1714, partly for frontier defense but mainly to operate his newly developed ironworks.

[3] The Foundation maintains a research library, a memorial garden, and plans interpretive walking trails to various historic and archaeological sites.

The first colony consisted of the family surnames: Albrecht, Brombach/Brumback, Fischbach/Fishback, Hager, Friesenhagen, Heide/Heite/Hitt, Heimbach, Hofmann, Holzklau/Holtzclaw, Huttmann, Kemper/Camper, Cuntze/Koontz, Merdten/Martin, Otterbach/Utterback, Reinschmidt, Richter/Rector, Spielmann, Weber/Weaver[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]