One reason for giving the parts of William Byrd's " Progress to the Mines " that had not been given in the Germanna Record was to show at more length the writings of Byrd. They are entertaining and tell us a lot about early Eighteenth Century Virginia. He was roaming over the Tidewater region and we see the poor state of roads and lack of guidance given to travelers. At the same time, we see the courteous reception that he obtained when he stopped overnight.
Another reason to recount the writings was to show the nervousness and expense involving in iron smelting. Taking the expense question, Mr. Chiswell tells us that the partners in his iron operation had had to put in twelve thousand pounds Sterling to bring it to the point where there was some return on the investment. A century earlier, the iron furnace at Falling Creek was sponsored by a group who put up five thousand pounds Sterling. At this earlier venture, they did not make use of slave labor, so they were saved that expense.
In 1732, Alexander Spotswood had a partner in England, Robert Cary, who helped with the financing of the air furnace at Massaponox. At the same time, Cary also had the responsibility to make friends in England so that nothing would upset or terminate the operation. There was a distinct air of nervousness as to whether Parliament might forbid some or all iron works in Virginia.
In the Tubal furnace, the first iron furnace of Spotswood, there were English partners. Some Bristol merchants supplied the slaves in 1723 that were needed. Of course, with this large investment, they too would have been seeking friends to insure that the operation would continue until they recovered their expenses and profits.
Mr. Chiswell told Col. Byrd some points which duplicate the experience of Spotswood. Chiswell said it was necessary to explore the iron mine extensively to see that it would yield enough iron to justify the great expense. For this Chiswell recommended a year's work. Spotswood once wrote that he set his Germans to looking for iron ore about the start of 1718 (NS). Albrecht's and Holtzclaw's testimony in the Spotsylvania Court House was that mining and quarrying continued until December of 1718. Chiswell also suggested that the ore be tested, which could be done in a forge much like a blacksmith's forge. The Germans would have had no difficulty in doing this.
Spotswood in his early Virginia years did not have the necessary money to start an iron furnace and he had been warned by the Board of Trade that if such a project were started that it might be overthrown in England. Within a few years, Spotswood did invest in an enterprise (Indian trading) which was overturned with a large loss to the Virginia investors. Hence, Spotswood was nervous about starting an iron venture. It was only when he was requested by Sir Richard to do so, that he commenced the search for iron ore. Then it was several more years before the furnace was operating.
(15 Jun 05)
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.