First, I give some of my commentary on what we have seen at the Board of Trade. When Lt. Gov. Spotswood arrived in Virginia in 1710, he was approached by William Byrd to develop Byrd's iron deposits. These were proven deposits, and, about 90 years earlier, a furnace had been built on the future Byrd property. This was overturned by the Indians, who killed all of the workers. Thereafter, iron was a dead topic for another century. When Spotswood came to Virginia, Byrd tried to get him behind the development of these deposits by the colony of Virginia. This was the "newly discovered" iron that Spotswood mentioned. Both of these men knew that an iron furnace in Virginia would probably upset the merchants, manufacturers, and traders in England. As we have been seeing in the Board Minutes, these were powerful people who could overturn the laws of Virginia. When Spotswood wrote to the Board about his proposals for iron (this was in 1710), he was warned by the Board that it should contain a suspension clause. That is, any investors in the Iron Works, even the colony of Virginia, should be aware that the whole thing might be overturned and declared illegal.
Spotswood turned his attention to Indian trading, and had an Act passed for a monopolistic company for that purpose (he just happened to be an investor). We saw in the last note that this was overturned in England. But Spotswood was not stupid; he saw the importance that was placed on naval stores by the King, Council, and the Board of Trade. (The King even sent a message to Parliament encouraging them to enact legislation for encouraging the production of naval stores in the American Plantations.) So Spotswood changed tactics and made land the kingpin of his personal economic future. He used naval stores as the cover for the large amount of land that he wanted to procure. And, he would say that this was only what the King wanted done.
In 1717, the Board told all the Governors in H.M.'s Plantations not to pass any legislation that would "affect the trade or shipping of Great Britain". This was a very powerful statement. It was best to go with something that seem to have strong approval in England, like naval stores. Spotswood started down this path when he led the group to the western regions in 1716 to have a look at the possibilities for land there.
8 August 1717. The Board of Trade had to deal with the Commissioner of H. M. Customs who was complaining about the poor quality of tobacco from Virginia. On 8 August 1717, Col. Spotswood sent the Board a letter complaining about Col. Ludwell, Deputy Auditor, who had replied to the Board about Spotswood's charges against him without sending a copy of his reply to Spotswood. On August 23, Mr. Blathwayt, the Auditor General of H.M.'s Plantations on the Continent of America, sent a copy of his authority to appoint Col Ludwell to be his Deputy in Virginia.
Carolina and Virginia could not agree on several things. One thing they did not agree on was where the boundary line between them was located. On 29 August, the Board sent proposals to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina to settle this dispute.
(31 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.