Between the time of Spotswood's arrival in Virginia in 1710 and the arrival of the First Germanna Colony in 1714, Spotswood met with Graffenried. Graffenried was excited about the prospects for silver. The writings of Graffenried and Spotswood imply that others were also talking about silver in the "back country", meaning toward the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Spotswood didn't want to miss the boat on this, but he was methodical enough to read up on the law pertaining to gold and silver mines. He was not pleased at what he found. It was normal for the Crown to reserve a percentage of the gold and silver which might be found. What Spotswood found was that no reservation had been specified on the lands of the Crown available to patent. He was concerned lest the Crown might retroactively make a claim and not limit it to the usual ten percent or so. This became a burning issue with him since he and others, including Graffenried, had identified a tract of land which was thought to contain silver. Larkin Chew patented the land and sold shares to the other partners.
Spotswood pushed Col. Blakiston in London to resolve the question of the Crown's rights to gold and silver. Progress was very slow in London and, in the midst of the attempt to get approval, forty odd Germans arrived in London expecting to go on to Virginia at the expense of Graffenried's company. The company and Graffenried were both broke and the company of Germans was stranded. Knowing that Spotswood was very anxious to start the silver mining operation, Col. Blakiston agreed to have Spotswood pay the additional one hundred and fifty pounds sterling that was needed on their passage money. Blakiston must have been optimistic about getting the Crown's approval for the silver mining operation; at least, Spotswood interpreted the action this way; however, approval was not forthcoming. Queen Anne died. George I was crowned and the arguments were renewed. In Virginia, where the Germans were by now, they confined their activities to raising and growing food.
In February 1715/16, nearly two years after the Germans had arrived in Virginia, Spotswood wrote to the Lord Commissioners that the Germans had done no work for him and his partners. He commented that the Germans wanted to explore more but he would not allow it. The silver mine tract has been identified and plotted in Beyond Germanna (v.8, n.1). It is only a few miles from Fort Germanna and very likely the mine had a considerable influence on where Fort Germanna was built. This is the mine that fascinated John Fontaine so much.
About this time, the Germans were set to searching for iron ore. As Spotswood explained it in a later letter of 28 March 1724 Nathaniel Harrison, he said that he had been approached by Sir Richard Blackmore, who, with partners, was interested in setting up an iron works and desired that a search would be made for the ore. Spotswood apparently became a partner also and set the Germans to work. From his standpoint, it put the Germans to work and it could supply the capital he needed but did not have. From the later testimony of J. Justus Albrecht and Jacob Holtzclaw, this work went from March 1715/16 until December of 1718 and consisted of mining and quarrying.
By the end of 1718, more than eight years after Spotswood arrived in Virginia, there was an iron mine.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.