There is, in the Public Record Office in Kew Gardens, a record of the quantity of iron imported to England from the British Colonies in America, from Christmas 1710 to Christmas 1749. (In preparing reports, Christmas was often taken as the marker point in the years.) This report was prepared by the Custom House in April of 1750.
The British Colonies in America were Antigua, Barbados, Carolina, Jamaica, Nevis, New England, New York, Pennsylvania, St. Christopher, Virginia and Maryland combined, and the West Indies. (Two or three of these Caribbean islands were very important to England, as their level of general trade exceeded any of the North American colonies.) The iron report was broken down by two types of iron bar and pig. Pig iron was cast directly from the furnace and, in fact, required a furnace. Pig iron was brittle and its utility was limited. Bar iron required further heating and working of the pig iron. The resultant wrought iron could be worked into a variety of products such as nails, hinges, and wheel rims.
The first pig iron shipment from Virginia was 15 tons, in 1723. This or the previous year was probably the first year that the Spotswood furnace was in regular production. The next year, 202 tons of cast (pig) iron was shipped. In the 1730’s, more than 2,000 tons were regularly shipped from Virginia to England each year.
Prior to 1723, no cast (pig) iron was shipped from Virginia to England. There were some shipments of bar iron in the years 1718 to 1721. The earliest was four tons of bar iron in 1718. Experts in the iron industry tell me that this iron was probably not produced in a furnace. With an oversized forge-like structure, it is possible to burn most of the non-iron constituents out of the iron ore, leaving a spongy iron mass. It was not possible, nor necessary, to melt the iron. Instead, labor was used to beat and work the spongy mass into bar iron. Because of the huge amount of labor required, the process was inefficient. The only reason for producing the iron this way was to test whether the ore was a good ore that would produce quality iron. As a part of the mining and quarrying process that Albrecht and Holtzclaw mentioned, the ores might have been tested in this way. This could have yielded the four tons of bar iron that was shipped to England in 1718. Spotswood would have been very interested in the quality of the iron, so he may have sent it to England to obtain the opinions of experts there.
About 1722, the first furnace of Spotswood was probably entering regular production. This was about three years after the First Germanna Colony members had left Germanna so it should not be claimed that they built the first iron furnace for Spotswood.
Some of the other British Colonies in North America shipped bar iron to England before Virginia did. Nevis and St. Christopher shipped a small quantity of bar iron in 1717, the year before Virginia shipped the four tons. In 1718, in addition to Virginia’s shipment, Barbados shipped a small quantity of bar iron.
(02 Nov 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.