Recently in these notes, I wrote of the need of Spotswood for money to finance his many activities. In the years around 1720, he needed money to pay for his land acquisitions, his home, and iron operations. Seeing that his job as a governor was coming to an end, he decided to use his office to obtain another and perhaps last round of benefits.
In November of 1720, when the House of Burgesses convened (it was a Legislature, much like the House of Commons in England), it created two new counties, King George and Hanover. The Burgesses then took up a measure which had been introduced by Spotswood. Under the guise of securing the frontier, two more counties were to be created. There was a difference though, in the second pair of counties, in that land could be acquired in them for "nothing down and no payments for ten years." More exactly, the act stipulated that settlers in the new counties would be " free from publick levies " for ten years. Now this was an ambiguous provision for it did not make it clear whether public levies were the annual quit rents (real estate taxes), or the initial purchase fee (the head right fee). No size limit was placed on the amount of land that one individual could take up. And, the act was silent on land that had already been taken up. As unusual legislation, approval from England was necessary but the Virginians were hoping for a very liberal interpretation. If it was interpreted liberally, the biggest beneficiary would be Alexander Spotswood.
The Burgesses named the new counties Brunswick, to the south, and Spotsylvania to the north. The latter county included all of present Spotsylvania, Orange, Culpeper, Madison, Rappahannock, and even over the Blue Ridge to the river on the other side. The law creating Spotsylvania and Brunswick was to take effect on the first of May in 1721. But, as soon as the Governor signed the measure in December of 1720, the Council (the upper house and advisory body to the governor) began approving land applications. Ten were submitted, the smallest of which was for 3,000 acres and the largest for 20,000 acres. The governor himself did not appear as an applicant as he always used a cover, or a front, for his applications. Only 3,000 acres were in present day Spotsylvania County, while 88,500 acres were to the west, in the area which had been explored during the trip across the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1716. It is clear that there had been some advance planning.
Spotswood did not approve the applications immediately because of the special features of the legislation which needed approval in England. He was not sure that the legislation would be approved as the law would cost the Crown thousands of pounds in lost quit rents. Also, the law was ambiguous and needed clarification. The official date for the creation of the county came, but no word was received from London (ships could hardly have made the round trip by then). A year later, in 1722, as Spotswood was preparing to attend an Indian conference, he decided that it would be best to take action. Rumors said that he would be replaced and his replacement might balk at approving the applications. In May of 1722, he moved to issue the land patents even though no clarification or approval had been received from London.
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.