The close of the last note was the account of Rev. Hugh Jones, who described the iron furnace in the future tense (at least, the hopes for it), in 1722. That this was a significant year is confirmed by the purchase of Spotswood of a 2,000 acre tract on the Rappahannock River below the falls. On this land, he constructed a warehouse and a wharf for shipping the products that he was producing. Without the warehouse and wharf, he was at a disadvantage in shipping, as there were no public facilities to speak of. He needed to store his products somewhere until the next ship came in. The ship also needed a place to dock when loading. So, it appears he could start shipping naval stores and iron in 1722 or 1723 from his own wharf.
In the year 1723, Lt. Gov. Drysdale, who had replaced Spotswood as governor, wrote to the Board of Trade and Plantations:
"I judge it part of my duty to inform your Ldspps. of an affair, that is at present the common Theme of peoples Discourses, and employs their thought. Coll Spotswood's Iron workes: he had brought itt to that perfection that he now sells by public auction at Wm:burgh, backs and frames for Chymnies, Potts, doggs, frying, stewing and baking panns . . ."
Evidently, the "iron works" was still something of a novelty. Spotswood shipped fifteen tons of pig iron to England that year (1723), his first shipment to England. The next year, 1724, he shipped more than 200 tons of pig iron to England. This is the year that he went to England himself, so it appears that he was remaining in Virginia until the furnace was producing significant quantities. [He told the Board that he would have come to England sooner had it not been for the danger from pirates. Perhaps he was using this as an excuse while he was delayed working out the problems at the furnace.]
Based on very good evidence, it appears that the iron furnace was not running before 1722, that small quantity production commenced in 1723, and that in 1724 the furnace was in more consistent operation. If anyone wishes to look up the quantities of iron shipped to England from Virginia, information on this is in the House of Lords for the period up to the end of 1749. When Spotswood went to England at the end of 1724, he had good hopes that the iron furnace would be practical and profitable. But at this point, he had no profits nor would he have for several more years.
Spotswood's commitment to acquiring large tracts of land was made before the expedition across the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1716. The major purpose of this trip was to explore the land with an eye toward acquiring some it. A little more than a year later, in early 1718, he was settling Germans on the tract which he (and others) were to formally acquire in a few more years. The fact that he was placing the Germans on this land shows that he had plans to acquire it even before they arrived. This was before he had made any kind of commitment to iron.
(05 Oct 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.