Spotswood's land acquisition program really got underway about the start of 1718 when seventy-odd Germans were settled on what was to become the Spotsylvania tract. This was described in the patent as 40,000 acres, but when plotted and measured by the DeedMapper software it turns out to be much closer to 65,000 acres. This was to the cornerstone of Spotswood's economic independence. He very wisely concentrated on naval stores to be produced on this land because it was politically correct. England had used up many of its trees in making charcoal for its iron industry and naval stores had to be imported from the Baltic nations.
In a tentative way, Spotswood started a search for iron about the time the Second Germanna Colony came, which could be given as the beginning of 1718 by the new calendar. Spotswood had had some interest in iron, especially as an enterprise to be run by the Colony itself, but it had been voted down. At the same time, he had been warned by the Board of Trade that such an endeavor might be against the trade laws. As a violation of the trade laws, it might be shut down with a total loss of the considerable investment. Not having the money in the first place and facing a potential challenge from England, Spotswood only maintained a side interest in iron.
He says, though, that in 1717 or 1718 he started a search for iron at the request of Sir Richard and his friends in England. Probably because he regarded these people as powerful and wealthy allies, he gave the Germans the go-ahead to look (that is his statement for official purposes). The search was very low key as all of his mining and quarrying from the spring of 1716 (starting with silver) to December of 1718 required upwards of sixty pounds of money, a trivial amount for an operation of this significance. This search was made by the First Colony, and the Second Colony had nothing to do with it. By the time that the First Colony left his service, around the start of 1719, he knew that he had iron ore. He did not take a patent out on the iron mine land until February of 1720(NS).
Spotsylvania County was formed by legislation enacted in 1720. Shortly after this, Spotswood started constructing his house at Fort Germanna. Now Fort Germanna and Spotswood's home (built over the fort) were about 13 miles from the iron mine. Why did he build so far from his furnace which was near the iron mines? If iron had held the number one position in his thinking as his economic security, would he not have built his home closer to it? Instead, he built so that he was much closer to the immense Spotsylvania tract because that was his priority in 1720 to 1723.
Brawdus Martin, an individual active about fifty years ago, was troubled by the fact that Spotswood built his home so far away from the mines. He, in essence said, that if iron was so important to Spotswood, he would have built his home closer to the furnace. His conclusion was that there were two Germannas, one at the mine and one at the location that we know today. He was laughed at for this conclusion but the people laughing could not answer Martin's original question. Both sides were wrong, because, to put it simply, iron was not a major factor in Spotswood's thinking when he built his home.
(21 May 03)
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.