Willis Kemper, in 1899, when he was writing the Genealogy of the Kemper Family , wrote about Lt. Gov. Spotswood, "It was not long until he discovered evidences of iron ore in the districts toward the Blue Ride." The time comparison was with respect to Spotswood's arrival in Virginia, which was about when the days are the longest in 1710. Kemper believed that not only had Spotswood discovered iron by 24 October 1710, but that he had formulated a plan of action to develop it.
Through this misinterpretation of what Spotswood had written, which itself was in error, Kemper came to the conclusion that Spotswood had discovered iron. The error of Spotswood, which is not at all hard to show, was his claim that iron deposits has recently been discovered. Spotswood was still so new in Virginia in October of 1710 that he did not appreciate that iron had been discovered in Virginia before Jamestown. He also did not appreciate that a furnace for the smelting of iron ore had been built in 1622 on the James River. (This was also the site of the "newly discovered iron".)
This deposit of iron was well known to William Byrd, and it was he who made the proposal to Spotswood for the development of the iron. His proposal went beyond the interest of the Colony or even England. He was especially interested because it was on his land. He volunteered to turn his rights in the iron over to the colony if they would pursue a plan of development and give him a job in the enterprise. So in the early meetings with Spotswood, Byrd made the proposal to Spotswood, who in turn wrote about it in a letter to London. It was this letter of Spotswood that Kemper saw, but he failed to understand the background. So he came to the wrong conclusion.
There is not a shred of evidence that Spotswood ever discovered any iron. Though he was aware of iron in Virginia from almost his arrival, it was not a personal interest. It would be several years before he became interested in a personal sense.
Spotswood did not ask Graffenried to recruit iron miners when Graffenried returned to Europe. First, Spotswood had no need for miners, for he had no iron. We know that the Germans were already in London when Graffenried arrived there. So how could he have recruited them from across the ocean? Furthermore, we have Graffenried's own testimony that he advised the Germans to go back to Germany. That would be a strange way of going about the business of recruiting.
I never received any comments on what the phrase, "they could generally be called miners", might mean. Does it mean they were miners? Or does it mean that they have seen a miner at some time in their life?
(11 Oct 02)
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.