We do not know, but it is more than likely that the adventures of the son in America prompted the father, although then 69 years of age, to think of America, and his neighbors, deGraffenried's Virginia colony of iron-workers, just at that time starting for America, gave him the opportunity of going; at any rate he made application to 'The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" in London to be sent to America as a missionary. Whether he made this application from Oberfischbach, or whether he was with the colony in London at the time, is uncertain, but on October 2, 1713, the following appears upon the minutes of the society: "Reported from the committee that they had taken into consideration the petition of Mr. Hager father of the Societies missionary among the Palatines in the Province of New York, to them referred, and they agreed in their opinion that the case of said Mr. Hager does not properly lie before the Society." No doubt because the man was a German Reformed minister, and refused to be ordained in the church of England, and the colonists were members of the German Reformed church. So the old minister was compelled to go with his family to Virginia at his own expense. And go he did, with his wife, and in the colony went also his daughters ELIZABETH, and AGNES and ANNA CATHARINE; and in April 1714, this little flock with its minister, already old, numbering about 30 persons, was set down in the Virginia wilderness. Until lately there has been considerable uncertainty about the names of the families composing this colony, but a few years ago there was discovered in the back of a will book, among the records of Spottsylvania County, VA, a number of affidavits and court orders, which have set the matter at rest (When the Kemper genealogy was published in the fall of 1899 it was stated that the UTTERBACK, WAYMAN and HANDBACK families were three of the 12 families of the Germanna colony. The statement was made upon the authority of Rev. James KEMPER, who wrote from recollection, and 125 years after the event. The Utterback family was at Germantown in later years and the Handback and Wayman families were in Culpeper, but they were not members of the Germanna colony; as the affidavits and court orders clearly show. These documents were discovered long after the Kemper genealogy was published.). In Virginia at this time, the law was that any person who brought an immigrant into the colony was entitled to 50 acres of land. This law was liberally interpreted, for land was plenty and colonists were wanted, and the 50 acres were allowed for infants and for the party himself. The record is as follows; SPOTTSYLVANIA COUNTY, WILL BOOK A, page 69 "At a Court held for Spottsylvania County on Tuesday the 7th day of April 1724, John Fishback in order to prove his right to take up land according to the royal charter, made oath that he came into this colony to dwell in the year 1714 and that he brought with him AGNES his wife, and this is the first time of proving their said importation, whereupon certificate is ordered to be granted him of right to take up 100 acres of land." There are similar affidavits for: HARMAN FISHBACK and KATHRINA his wife. JACOB HOLTZCLAW and MARGARET his wife and JOHN and HENRY his two sons. JOHN CAMPER (KEMPER) and ALICE KATHRINA his wife. JOHN JOSEPH MARTIN and MARIA KATRINA his wife. JOHN SPILMAN and MARY his wife JOHN HOFFMAN and KATHRINA his wife JOSEPH CUNTZ (COONS) and KATHARINA his wife and his son JOHN ANNALIS (sic) and KATHRINA his daughter. JACOB RECTOR and ELIZABETH his wife and JOHN his son. MELCHERD BRUMBACK and ELIZABETH his wife. DILLMAN WEAVER and ANNA WEAVER his mother. PETER HITT and ELIZABETH his wife. (See the Early Westward Movement of VA, VA Historical Magazine, Vol. XIII, No. 4, page 367 et seq.) TO BE CONTINUED