To Colo. Blakiston, 11 June 1713, Sir:
- - - - I writt to You about a 2 Months ago about the discovery of another mine in which I am concerned, and have little now to add, except that all ye Gentlemen concerned with me, depend very much on your prudent management of this affair, wherein you will please take the advise of my Lord Orkney to whom I have writt about it. As to what expences you shall be at, you may be assured they shall be reimbursed, and whatever you find it necessary to engage for, in order to the obtaining a Grant in our favour, faithfully performed, though if, (as you write,) it be so difficult to get it any otherwise than in general as a favour to ye Country, The Charge will be but small, and must be defrayed at the public Expences; yet even in that case, I would have you push it on as speedily as possible, because we cannot proceed till we know what we have to Trust to. - - - - [There is some mysteries in this note. Spotswood implied a previous mine of which we have no knowledge unless he was referring to Byrd's iron mine. Col. Blakiston was the agent for Virginia in London. Occasionally he was charged as being an agent for Spotswood as opposed to being an agent for Virginia. Certainly, Spotswood wrote to Blakiston as a friend more so than when he wrote to the Council for Trade. We do know that in early May, Larkin Chew obtained a patent for a tract of more than four thousand acres in Virginia about four miles from the future Germanna. Within in the month he started selling shares in this tract including one-quarter to Spotswood, one-sixteenth to Graffenried [gratis?], and one-sixteen to Lord Orkney [gratis, surely, in return for the assistance he could provide in England], plus several other men. Later, Graffenried in his memoirs identified this tract as the site of a proposed silver mine. One of the mysteries is why Larkin Chew was involved. It is believed that he was a Captain of the militia assigned to protect Graffenried when he went exploring up the Potomac River. Thus, it may have been that Graffenried influenced Chew. Or Chew may have observed that a number of people wanted to believe in silver and all that he needed to do was to claim he owned a silver mine.]
To Colo. Blakiston, 17 August 1713, Dear Sir: - - - - I have formerly advized you that I am embarked in a new project about ye mines, of which there appears better hopes than the former, And therefore must request you that if any resolution be taken by the Queen and Council in relation thereto, that may be to any purpose, that you will not let it ly neglected for want of paying ye necessary fees to the Clerks, which shall either be repaid you Out of the public revenue of the Colony, if it be a general Benefit, or by the persons engaged in the Design, if it be Only a private Order. - - - - [We see that Spotswood bought a share of a silver mine in May (not shown in these letters but documented in the patent and court records plus the memoirs of Graffenried) and then, within two weeks, he starts pushing Blakiston to resolve the royalty question for a silver mine.]
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.