I was a bit short on the information for the Caribbean cruise so I will add some information. The dates are 18 Feb 2006, to leave Tampa, Florida, (a Saturday) and return to Tampa on the next Saturday. In between, the ship (Veendam) will call at Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Costa Maya in Mexico. For more information contact Skip or Joy Poole at 262 Washington Street, Locust Grove, VA 22508-5137 (The email address is spoole@cruiseone.com ). Skip said at the Reunion that interest was running very high.
At the Seminar there were four speakers and I will mention the talks of two of them. One, because I know it well (I have my lecture notes, which I did not use) and, the second, because it had very novel and interesting points.
I talked on Alexander Spotswood's retirement plans, which had four distinct phases. In addition to these, he also was Postmaster General and a General in the Army, but these two were merely taking advantage of opportunities which arose and were not part of any long term plan. From the beginning of his arrival in Virginia in 1710, Spotswood had his eyes open for his future since he realized how uncertain the job of Lt. Gov. was. At several times during his position as Lt. Gov. he must have felt that the end was near, for he did not fit the pattern of the Virginia men who were in charge. He stood in opposition to them in several ways. For example, even though he initially made friends with people such as William Byrd, this friendship soured for a number of years while Byrd tried to get Spotswood removed. The geography of Virginia had a major impact on the events of the early Eighteenth Century. When Spotswood came, civilization was encroaching on the Piedmont, where the Indians lived, where the metals were, and where the large quantities of good land lay. These factors had a major impact on the retirement plans of Spotswood. Four distinct activities can be recognized. I summarize these with key words, namely: Silver, Indian Trading, Land, and Iron. Willis Kemper, writing at the end of the Nineteenth Century, put iron as the first and major activity that Spotswood engaged in. Actually, this was the last phase of his retirement plans. He did not engage in this in a major way until after the Fort Germanna Germans had left for their own land at Germantown. Because Kemper went astray, three generations of historians since them have been seriously misled.
For the first two or three years of his duties in Virginia, Spotswood was heavily engaged in the duties of being Governor. He promoted the interests of the Crown, which were at odds at with the ways things were done in Virginia. In this initial period, it was brought home to Spotswood that, besides promoting the Crown's interest, he should promote his own interests.
(21 Jul 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.