The earliest written record pertaining to Spotswood's iron mine and furnace was written by the Rev. Hugh Jones who left Virginia in 1722 and wrote a history of Virginia in 1724. He said:
“This iron has been proved to be good, and it is thought, will come at as cheap a rate as any imported from other places; so that 'tis to be hoped that Colonel Spotswood's works will in a small time prove very advantageous to Great Britain . . . ”
Rev. Jones was a friend of Spotswood and he was probably informed about the status of the iron works by Spotswood.
There are two themes running through this. First, the furnace was producing iron. Second, it was not going as well as desired. There was still a "hope" that it would be successful.
In the year 1722, Spotswood completed the purchase of the Massaponox tract, where he constructed wharves for loading iron onto ships. This suggests that he had very limited production up to this time if there were no good means to load the iron on ships for water transport.
In 1723, Lt. Gov. Drysdale, Spotswood's successor, wrote to the Board of Trade:
“I judge it part of my duty to inform your Lordships of an affair, that is at present the common Theme of peoples Discourses, and employs their thought. Coll. Spotswood's iron works: he had brought itt to that perfection that he now sells by public auction at Wm:burgh, backs and frames for Chymnies, Potts, doggs, frying, stewing and baking panns. . .”
Evidently the "iron works" was still something of a novelty. Spotswood shipped some cast iron to England this year.
Probably, the construction of the furnace started about 1720, but problems were encountered as it was attempted to smelt iron. Two problems that might have occurred are a lack of sufficient water power and a lack of charcoal. We do know that eventually two streams or runs were eventually used to supply the water and it is likely that the operation started with only one flow of water. Charcoal could be made in a sufficient quantity, but it takes a lot of labor. Probably not enough labor was available.
We know from Mr. Chiswell's comments that Spotswood was not a good manager of men. When he started, he may have thought the Second Colony people could make the charcoal. Spotswood admitted though that the charcoal could not be transported any great distance and the Second Colony people were about 18 miles away from the furnace. The iron works may have ground to a halt while sufficient labor was obtained to keep the operation running smoothly. In an upcoming note we will look at the labor supply.
(10 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.