When Alexander Spotswood wrote to Col. Harrison to explain his land acquisitions (in 1724), he said there were two events that occurred at about the same time. One of them was the arrival of the seventy-odd Germans who made up the second group of Germans, later known as the Second Colony. We know the time of this event very closely, it being either very late in 1717 or early in 1718.
The second event in Spotswood's own words was:
"In Feb. 1717 [this would be 1718 on the modern calendar] Sr. Richard Blackmore writes to Mr. Secretary Cock to engage me to favour a design, which he, with several other considerable men at home, had to set up iron works in Virginia, and desires people might be imploy'd to find out the oar, and some thousands of acres taken up for that purpose. Accordingly I set my Germans to work to look for such oar, whc. search cost me upwards of three score pounds: But about two years afterwards I recd. a letter from Sr. Richard telling me he had at length considered that he was advanced in years, that his health was of late impaired, and that the undertaking was too great a distance, and therefore he was determined to drop the project. Whereupon, rather than enter into a contention for my reimbursements, I chose to joyn in with several Gentlemen here, who were willing to carry on the project, and bear their proportion of the charges I had already been at; and so the mine tract, consisting of 15,000 acres of land, was in 1719 [by the modern calendar 1720] taken up by nine or ten Adventures [i.e., partners]."
Spotswood's position in early 1718 was that he was committed to a course of action involving land. He and his partners had taken up the 40,000 acre Spotsylvania tract and had sought and secured Germans to settle on it. This was the kingpin in his personal economic plans. The work with the iron was not launched and the iron mine tract was still two years into the future.
Spotswood emphasizes that the idea for the iron search came from England, not from Virginia. He mentions "several other considerable men" who had joined Sir Richard in the enterprise.
I do not have proof but I believe the first Germans had found evidence of iron ore by 1718, which they had brought to Spotswood's attention. No work was done because of the trade laws and the expense which would be involved; however, the support, both political and financial, which Sir Richard and his partners could provide, changed Spotswood's outlook, at least to the extent that he was willing to explore more, especially if someone else was willing to pay. Spotswood was a believer in using "other people's money".
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.