We can learn more about iron casting in Virginia, especially by Alexander Spotswood, from information pertaining to the Bristol (England) merchants who were often ship owners and investors in enterprises. I am indebted to Jim McNeil of Bristol who has studied the trade between Virginia and Bristol. Much of the material came from the book by Walter E. Minchinton, entitled " The Virginia Letters of Isaac Hobhouse, Merchant of Bristol ", which was published in 1958. This was also the basis of an article in Beyond Germanna on page 875.
In the Eighteenth Century, a merchant, ship owner, and investor in Bristol, England, could be one and the same person. A merchant might be a part owner of a ship and he might be an investor in enterprises in the Colonies besides being a partner in enterprises in Bristol. A major trading location overseas of the Bristol entrepreneurs was Virginia.
Fifty of the seventy slave ships in the period 1718 to 1727 were Bristol ships, but only a fraction of these ships were active in any one year. Most were involved in the "triangular trade" in which, on the first leg from Bristol, the ship carried trade goods to the west coast of Africa where the goods were exchanged for slaves. On the second leg, the slaves were taken to the West Indies or to Virginia where they were sold. Then the ships in Virginia were loaded with tobacco which they brought back to Bristol. This triangular round trip took one year.
The 100-ton ship Greyhound , out of Bristol, armed with six guns and manned by a crew of twenty, carried 182 slaves to Virginia in 1718, 170 in 1719, 222 in 1721, and 166 in 1722. When the slave ships arrived in Virginia, they called along one or two of the four major rivers. The sale of the slaves in Virginia was carried out for a commission by agents who acted on behalf of the English ship owners. One such agent was Augustine Moore, who was an agent on the Rappahannock River for several Bristol merchants. Letters of the agents suggest that the slaves remained on the ship until they were sold.
Besides the triangular trade, there was a direct trade between Bristol and Virginia. Bristol supplied household goods, tools, ironware, foodstuffs, and luxuries for Virginia citizens. For example, the cargo carried to Virginia from Bristol by the ship Seahorse in January 1723 (NS) consisted of:
| 40 lbs haberdashery | 34 gross tobacco pipes | 9 leather chairs value £3.3s |
| 3480 glass bottles | 10 ½ doz felt hats | 11 cwt 20 lbs wrought iron |
| 22 pieces kersey | 32 yards blanketing | 2 cwt lead shot |
| 120 ells English linen | 500 goods of cotton | 18 rugs |
| 6 pairs of blankets | 216 lbs shoes | 2 feather beds value £3.2s |
| 4 cwt cheese | ½ cwt gunpowder | 430 lbs worsted stuff |
| 1 chest window glass | 3 ton beer in bottles | 2 cwt nails |
Some of the goods, like the glass, beer, and tobacco pipes, were made in Bristol, and most of the rest was made in the hinterland of Bristol. The cheese perhaps came from Ireland, the iron goods from the Severn Valley or the Midlands, the woolen goods from the Cotswolds or Devon. Even in the direct trade between Bristol and Virginia, the ships made one round trip per year.
(12 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.