Something is missing from the record in the period from the summer of 1712, when Spotswood tells of his desire to get the royal interest in silver and gold mines determined, to the summer of 1713, when Spotswood writes to Col. Blakiston in London and strongly urges him to have the Crown's interest in silver and gold mines clarified. At the latter time, Spotswood also writes that he is involved in "another mine". We have no information as to what the other mines might have been. The "another" mine, which is the subject of Spotswood's letter to Blakiston, is much better known.
Larkin Chew obtained a large land patent in 1713. The abstract reads (from N. M. Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers , v.3, Virginia State Library, Richmond):
“Larkin Chew, 4020 acres of new land, St. Mary's Parish, Essex Co.; on south side of the South River of Rappahannock River; 02 May 1713, (Patent Book 10, page 68). 20 pounds, 5 shillings.”
The South River of Rappahannock River is today called the Rapidan. According to Ulysses Joyner who prepared a map of early Orange County patents, this patent is in the vicinity of Burr's Hill in present day Orange Co. (It has been plotted in Beyond Germanna on page 423.) On the next May 28 (this would be in 1713 and in the same month as the patent), Larkin Chew sold fractional interests in this patent (as recorded in the Essex Court at Tappahannock) as follows:
When the sales of the fractional interests were recorded, Graffenried was already on his way to England, so he was not present in Virginia when the transfers took place. Graffenried later (to be quoted) identified this tract as a silver mine. According to a private communication from Paula Felder, Larkin Chew had been the captain of a group of the militia who had been assigned to guard Graffenried on his explorations above the Falls of the Potomac River (in 1712). Certainly Chew would have been informed about Graffenried's quest. In patenting the 4020 acres, we do not know if Chew thought he had found silver which he was willing to share among friends or if Chew was merely a front man for a party of people headed by Alexander Spotswood. It seems clear that this mine was the subject of Spotswood's letter to Blakiston in 1713.
(03 Sep 04)
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.