In 1724, Alexander Spotswood had to justify his land acquisitions in a letter to Col. Nathaniel Harrison, the Deputy Auditor General. This letter is in the Public Record Office in England. Spotswood makes it clear, that, in his mind, two things occurred about the same time. One was the arrival of the Second Colony of Germans. These were put into tenements along the north side of the Rapidan River above Germanna. The second thing which Spotswood regarded as happening at the same time as this was a letter from Sir Richard in England. He wanted Spotswood to search out iron ore so that an iron works might be established.
It appears that Sir Richard was the spokesman for a group. Spotswood, in his letter to Harrison, says that he set his Germans to looking for the ore. About a year later, another letter from Sir Richard said that he wanted to cancel his part in this. He said that was too old and the works would be too far away. Spotswood claims that above sixty Pounds Sterling had already been expended in the effort so far, but, rather than submit a bill to Sir Richard, he took the enterprise into his own hands. This paltry sum would indicate no major work had been done.
The Germans, through Albrecht and Holtzclaw, claimed that they worked at mining and quarrying until December of 1718. This would be about the time that Sir Richard dropped out of the enterprise, but the fact that the work ceased then probably had nothing to do with Sir Richard.
The Germans had agreed in London to work four years for Spotswood and the four years would have been up in the summer of 1718. A factor that tends to confirm this date is their purchase of land in the Northern Neck in the summer of 1718. And Jacob Holtzclaw, in his naturalization by Spotswood in 1722, says that he had been a resident of Stafford County for several years. The Germans did not leave Germanna in the summer of 1718, as they would want to wait until the harvests were in. We will see when we look into the comments of Kerri Berile, a seminar speaker, that the Germans might have been engaged in quarrying the raw materials for Spotswood's house during their last few months. This perhaps was the intent of the word "quarrying" in their statement.
Spotswood still was not, as of December 1718, committed to an iron works. He was still under the sword of Damocles as the enterprise could be judged detrimental, or upsetting, to the trade pattern with England. Also, he needed money, since an iron works was very expensive. It appears that he sought partners in England who were influential and wealthy. (Some of these were the slave traders of Bristol, England, who furnished the slaves.) He knew that he had the iron ore. There was nothing novel about that. All of the raw materials and energy which were needed were there. He had to import labor to build the furnace and run it. He patented the iron mine land in February of 1720 on the new style calendar, but, as people in Virginia did, he probably was delaying on this to save money.
(01 Aug 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.