William Byrd attended a meeting of the Board of Trade and Plantations on 13 Mar 1717 (NS) and gave testimony to the effect that there was excellent iron ore in Pennsylvania and in Virginia. He was in a position to know Virginia, as there was a sizeable deposit of iron ore on his property along the James River, just below present day Richmond. This deposit had been known for a hundred years,and, ninety-five years previous to his testimony, an iron smelting furnace had been built there at the considerable cost of about 5,000 pounds sterling.
When Alexander Spotswood wrote to England a few months after he started on the job in Virginia, he said he would submit a proposal for the development of iron mines, which were newly discovered. Later writings indicate that this "newly discovered" iron ore was Byrd's ore, and knowledge of the existence of it was more than a hundred years old! Spotswood simply erred when he said it was newly discovered. The original comment of Spotswood has been interpreted, by some, as evidence that he had found iron ore, which was another error. He was referring to Byrd's property and the iron ore on it.
In his testimony at the Board, Byrd made no mention of iron furnaces, in either Pennsylvania or Virginia. There were none to mention. There was an iron furnace at Saurus, Massachusetts, but it was not technically advanced, nor was it a financial success. If Spotswood had an established furnace in Virginia at this time, Byrd would have mentioned it, as one of his objectives in being in England was to testify against Spotswood. He would have used every opportunity that he could to put Spotswood behind the eight ball.
In 1717, Spotswood was thinking of establishing his economic future on land devoted to naval stores. There was concern in England about the necessity of purchasing naval stores from the Baltic countries, and it was hoped, from the King down, that production of naval stores in the North American colonies could be increased. Spotswood was planning to procure large tracts of land in the western regions to be used for naval stores. He hoped to mask the size of the planned land purchase by the use to which the land would be put, namely the production of naval stores.
Already, he had made an exploratory trip into the area, where he might obtain this land, when he crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains. His purpose on this trip was hidden behind the facade that he was studying the possibilities of establishing western defenses at the passes over the Blue Ridge. Of course he was interested in this in order to know just how safe his proposed lands would be, but the real purpose of the trip was to find the land. He was very successful in this, as he staked out about 65,000 acres in present day Orange and Culpeper Counties.
With the land identified, Spotswood was in need of a large group of people to seat the lands. Since they would be providing their mutual defense and the road building for the area, he needed a large group that he could settle simultaneously. He did not have the answer to this question just yet.
(28 Aug 00)
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.