"Therefore, being essentially a man of action, he [Spotswood] went into the iron business when circumstances seemed favorable for production and the market was promising in England and America."
Now, what would you conclude about when Spotswood built his iron furnace? To those people who believed (falsely) that Spotswood had iron mines before the Germans came, they might conclude that the circumstances were favorable when the Germans arrived. To those who observe that Spotswood was acquainted with the trade laws affecting the colonials, they might conclude he postponed any action until the climate was more favorable with respect to the trade laws.
Cappon correctly observes that Spotswood's interests were land speculation and iron mining. His priorities were in exactly that order, land first, iron second. Cappon comments:
"Only after ten years of persistent planning and opportunism stemming mostly from frontier circumstances did the iron venture begin to show some favorable results. Even then its success remained in doubt for some time and brought better returns perhaps to his children and grandchildren."
Cappon is among those who believed that Spotswood did not have a furnace in 1716.
After these correct observations, Cappon goes astray in his thinking. He repeats the erroneous statement to the effect that:
"Some time before the spring of 1713, evidently in the course of the Governor's survey of the frontiers for adequate defense against the Indians, valuable iron deposits were discovered in the wilderness above the falls of the Rappahannock."
This claim can be traced, not to any evidence, but to the brazen claim of Willis Kemper, which was repeated unquestioningly by later historians. Cappon fell into the same trap. He also repeats the claim of Kemper, who said that Graffenried recruited miners for Spotswood from Europe. I have examined how Graffenried's own comments show that this was false. And, Cappon seems to be unaware that Graffenried was engaged in a pursuit, since 1710, which did involve these miners. Cappon notes that Spotswood was surprised and off guard when he was notified that forty odd miners were being sent to him. If he was recruiting labor, why should he be surprised that someone was hired?
Cappon as a writer alternated between differing views without resolving the conflict. Cappon correctly saw that the iron furnace produced few results until after Spotswood's return from England about 1730. The primary purpose of the trip to England, besides finding a wife, was to settle the land question, the most important part of his economic program at this time. Not until the 1730's did the iron furnace come into being as a profitable business.
(13 Jul 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the [email protected] 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.