The first phase of Spotswood's involvement with mining related proposals ended rather quickly. The House of Burgesses declined to act on the proposal for an iron works. Spotswood's suggestion to the Board of Trade that Queen Anne might like to sponsor the activity fell on deaf ears. These proposals constitute what I call the public iron works phase.
His next phase of mining proposals seems to have originated with Christopher de Graffenried, who passed through Virginia in 1710 on his way to North Carolina. Graffenried called on Spotswood and presented his letter from Queen Anne which instructed Spotswood to grant land to Graffenried's colony. The colony was not formed yet, as it was to consist of miners from Siegen and the recruiting of them had barely started. From Graffenried's memoirs, it seems that he was not reticent about telling people what he hoped to accomplish in Virginia, namely mine silver. He had a set of reasons to believe that silver existed somewhere along the Potomac River.
In 1712, Graffenried came back to Virginia to look for (a) the silver mines and (b) to find a place for the survivors of his failed North Carolina colony to live. On this survey trip up the Potomac River, Spotswood sent a company of militia commanded by Larkin Chew to protect Graffenried. Spotswood had no illusions about the safety of Europeans deep in Indian country. Graffenried returned to North Carolina, but came back to Virginia in 1713. In the spring of 1713, Larkin Chew patented 4,020 acres around Burr Hill, in today's Orange County. Within a month, he had sold a quarter interest in this land to Spotswood, a sixteenth to Graffenried, and a sixteenth to Orkney, the nominal governor of Virginia who lived in England. Several other Virginians purchased interests in the proposed mine. We do know from the memoirs of Graffenried that the land was thought to contain silver .
Spotswood noted that the purchasers of land from the crown had no rights to any precious metals that might be found. Thus he began to write a series of letters to Col. Blakiston in London, who was the agent for Virginia, to see if the crown would agree to a split with the discoverer of the precious metals. Clearly, Spotswood was thinking here of a mine owned and operated by private individuals. He was thinking also of silver and gold, not of iron. As a consequence of the urgent letters from Spotswood, Blakiston in London knew the importance that Spotswood placed on these projected mines.
When the miners and Graffenried converged on London in the fall of 1713 (why the miners were there was another story because Graffenried insisted that he had told them not to come), Blakiston thought that he saw the opportunity for Spotswood to procure the labor that he might be needing when the approval from the crown was obtained. Instead, Queen Anne died and George (I) was installed. The argument was carried on to George, with Spotswood arguing that the king would be helping his fellow countrymen. But no decision was ever reached.
(29 Oct 01)
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.