University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXXVII

ADMINISTRATION OF ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD

There now appeared upon the scene a figure, which, though
practical enough in its general lines, was, in consequence of
one stirring incident, to be always wrapped about with the
atmosphere of romantic adventure. This was Alexander
Spotswood, who became the lieutenant-governor of the Colony
in 1710. He was sprung from an archbishop and a chief justice
of Scotland, although born at Tangier in Africa; had served
with the rank of colonel in the armies of Marlborough; and
had been badly wounded at the Battle of Blenheim. He
showed in the performance of his duties in Virginia extraordinary
energy, resolution, and intelligence from the start.

One of his first acts was to secure a guardship to prevent
vessels bound out from Virginia ostensibly to London alone
from smuggling on board a quantity of tobacco for sale in
the West Indies by the way. Another was to persuade the
General Assembly to appropriate a sum sufficient to complete
the erection of the new state-house; another still was to
recommend the restoration of the fort at Point Comfort, the
establishment of a hospital for the sailors of the trading
vessels under its roof, and the construction there also of a
large dock for repairs to all kinds of ships. He had occupied
his seat but a short time, when there sprang up the rumor
of a slave conspiracy in Surry County; but this, happily for
the people of that region, was revealed early enough for suppression
without loss of life. The negro who gave the clue
was purchased by the Assembly and emancipated.

Spotswood's practical genius was early turned to the
opening up of iron mines—an interest that won for him the

Colonel Alexander Spotswood

name of the Tubal Cain of Virginia. His means were not
sufficient to allow him to do this at his own expense at first,
and he urged the General Assembly to begin the work at the
public charge; but without success, although it was suggested
that, by this means, the burden of taxation might be lessened.
Four years subsequently (1714), he took the earliest step
to develop his own iron mines on the Rapidan with the aid
of German workingmen who had emigrated to America under
the encouragement of De Graffenreid. The latter had founded
New Bern in North Carolina, but had been prevented from
carrying out his contract to establish these new-comers there
in consequence of an invasion by the Tuscaroras. They had
instead settled on one of the tributaries of the Rappahannock
at the instance of Spotswood, who felt a compassion for their
forlorn condition, and supported them until capable of earning
their own subsistence. He owned about 45,000 acres here,
which lay outside of the organized communities, and as he
had discovered traces of iron in the soil, he determined to
set up a furnace at his own expense. There were forty
German men, women, and children on the land at this date,
and the adult males were employed by him about the single
furnace. In time, he added three furnaces to this first one.
He did not venture, for fear of the English manufacturers, to
turn out finished iron; but he seems to have made such
castings as chimney-backs, andirons, fenders, rollers, skillets,
and boxes for cart wheels. Pig iron, however, remained his
staple product.

Spotswood used the power of his position to increase the
usefulness of the post-office which Thomas Neale, as already
stated, had been authorized to establish in all the Colonies.
The charge was nine pence a mile for every letter of a single
sheet which was to be transmitted for a distance of eight
miles, and four and a half pence more, if it were to be transmitted
beyond that distance. He advocated the restriction of
all patents to the public lands to the north side of the James,
as this would sooner, by more rapidly spreading the population

to the mountains, raise a barrier against Indian invasion
from the most threatening quarter. He protested against the
intrusion of the Carolinians upon lands situated north of
Wyanoke Creek; and he appointed Philip Ludwell, Jr., and
Nathaniel Harrison to act as commissioners, in co-operation
with commissioners from the sister colony, to settle the boundary
dispute.

There arose, in 1711, a controversy between Thomas Carey
and William Glover as to which of the two was entitled to
serve as the governor of North Carolina. Glover was compelled
to take refuge in Virginia, while Cary refused to recognize
the authority of Edward Hyde, who had recently
arrived from England with the commission of lieutenant-governor.
Hyde accepted Spotswood's mediation. Cary, on the
other hand, rejected it, and boldly moved his fleet up to attack
his opponent, who at once sent in haste to Spotswood for
assistance. Spotswood ordered several companies of the
border militia to hurry to his aid, which was now urgently
needed, as Cary was about to strike. Cary did strike, but
was forced to withdraw, and in revenge, despatched an emissary
to the Tuscaroras to obtain their active support, but
the old men refused to consent to it. Ultimately, Cary surrendered
to Spotswood, and was shipped away to England
for trial. This was in July, 1711.

In September, the Tuscaroras murdered many of the
inhabitants along the banks of the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers,
although there had been no declaration of war. Spotswood
promptly sent a detachment of soldiers to prevent the Indians
on the borders from going over to the marauders, and he
himself made a journey through the woods to the town of
the Nottoways to influence their chiefs to set their faces
dead against such an uprising. Previous to this time, the
Indian children educated under the terms of the Boyle gift
at the College of William and Mary had been procured from
remote tribes. Spotswood now offered the chiefs seated in
Virginia a remittance of the tribute in fur if they would bring

their children to the college; and this offer was accepted by
the Nansemonds, Nottoways, and Meherrins.

At the session of 1710-11, the General Assembly laid a tax
of five pounds sterling on the head of every negro slave, and
twenty-two shillings on the head of every Indian slave,
imported. The single purpose of this heavy duty was to
discourage the further increase in the population of bondsmen
of either race. The debts already incurred in their purchase
was growing intolerable, and there was an apprehension also
that insurrections would be encouraged by their increasing
number. The Board of Trade, bearing in mind only the
interest of the merchants engaged in the slave traffic, recommended
the annulment of this Act. The steady inpouring of
Africans gave a strong impulse to the production of tobacco,
and the augmented quantity of that commodity which resulted
only further depressed its price in the market. So impoverished
became many of the small planters that they now began
to turn their energies again to the manufacture of petty
domestic articles, which the English traders had previously
supplied. It was estimated that, in one county alone, forty
thousand yards of woolen, cotton, and linen cloth were now
produced; and the quantity made in other counties fell not
far short of the same length. Spotswood, apprehensive of
the Board of Trade's interference with the home industry,
endeavored to divert the people's attention to the collection
of naval stores for export.

In 1711, he tried in vain to persuade the General Assembly
to require the induction of every clergyman. At this time, only
forty of the fifty-two parishes in Virginia possessed respectively
a minister of the Gospel. He sought with equal earnestness
to ensure a better income for the incumbents of the
pulpits by recommending for that purpose, as well as for
the repair of the churches, an additional tax of forty pounds
of tobacco on the head of every tithable in the Colony. He
strove to put the collection of the quitrents on a more solid
footing by suggesting that the General Assembly should pass

an act that would compel the forfeiture of all land on which
the quitrents had remained unpaid for a period of three
years. In order to obtain a finer quality of leaf in payment
of these dues, he proposed that certificates should be issued
for all the tobacco deposited in the public warehouses; and
that these certificates should be declared to be legally receivable
for all kinds of taxes.

In 1714, Spotswood entered into treaties with the Sapony,
Nottoway, and Tuscarora Indians. His plan was to establish
these tribes in three different settlements on the southern
frontiers to serve as a bulwark against invasion. During this
year, he spent six weeks in these forests, and while there, chose
the site for a fort, which was afterwards erected and given
the name of Christanna. Twenty-three thousand acres were
reserved for the three divisions of Indians, but only the
Saponys took advantage of the allotment; the Nottoways
refused to leave their town; and the Tuscaroras removed to
Carolina. In the new fort at Christanna, Spotswood placed
an officer with a file of twelve soldiers, and these, accompanied
by a dozen Indian scouts, were ordered to prowl about the
surrounding woods from day to day. All the commercial intercourse
with the Indians was required to be restricted to this
fort, and a company was formed for the exchange of goods.
This company was placed under contract to build roads, warehouses,
and a powder magazine, and also to keep the fort
in repair. In return for this outlay, it was granted a monopoly
of the Indian trade.

In 1715, not less than seventy Indian children were receiving
instruction at the fort from the Rev. Charles Griffin, whom
Spotswood had appointed to the office of schoolmaster there
at a salary of fifty pounds sterling a year. All Indian parents
who were willing to enter their children in his classes were
granted more favorable rates in trading.

In 1715, South Carolina requested Virginia's aid in
repelling an Indian incursion, and Spotswood, in response,
sent off to that Colony a large quantity of arms and ammunition

which had been stored in the magazine at Williamsburg.
These supplies were conveyed by a detachment of one hundred
and fifty men who were soon successful in defeating a large
body of savages, then relentlessly engaged in ravaging the
outlying regions. Two years later, a tribe that had taken
part in these attacks made their way to Christanna to deliver
to the officer there a number of their children to serve as
hostages during their education in the college at Williamsburg.
While they were asleep in camp a lurking Iroquois
band stole upon them at dawn and put many of them to the
tomahawk and led most of the remainder away into captivity.

Outraged by this, and previous like events, Spotswood, in
the winter of 1717-18, visited the Colony of New York in
order to prevent, by mingled threats and warnings, the undertaking
of another march by the Iroquois against the tributary
tribes in Virginia. The daring warriors of the Five Nations
had already left on their way to the South, but were stopped
and brought back by a messenger sent on their trail in a
hurry. It was at first the habit of these marauders to pass
in the eastern shadow of the Blue Ridge; but at a later
period, they agreed to travel only on the western side, unless
they could show a license for the eastern from the governor
of New York.

Spotswood, who found the General Assembly indisposed
to appropriate the funds needed for his various military
enterprises, spoke with impatience of the character of the
average member, whose only offense apparently was fidelity
to the wishes of his constituents, who were, naturally enough,
chiefly concerned with keeping the taxes down. The council,
being more under his influence, seems to have concurred in his
measures to correct the popular abuses in the application of
the headright, and to force the sheriffs to swear to the accuracy
of their quitrent accounts. Philip Ludwell, Jr., and William
Byrd persuaded the General Assembly to send a petition to
the King for the abolition of the quitrent altogether, and
because Spotswood considered this to be unwise, they held

Blackbeard, the Pirate

him up to opprobrium as an enemy to the Colony. His opponents
now endeavored to undermine his standing with the
English government by communications to the Board of Trade
aspersing him for a supposed breach of trust, the violation of
his official oath, indifference to the royal instructions, trickery
in procuring a large legislative appropriation, and other
offenses, which, if true—which they were not—were equally
dishonorable and unpardonable. To all these charges, the able
and experienced governor replied at length with convincing
force.

The unjustifiable attacks of private and public enemies did
not chill or divert his official energies. In 1717, it was said, at
one time, that the Capes were actually blocked by pirates. One
of their ships carried twenty-six guns and was accompanied
by a sloop. Spotswood was active in dispersing these outlaws
by means of the Shoreham, which was still stationed on that
coast. In 1718, Captain Teach, a notorious fellow, pretended
to accept the King's pardon, which had been offered to all
who would abandon that redhanded profession. He surrendered
to the governor of North Carolina, and most of his
crew scattered throughout that Colony, but a considerable
number resumed their nefarious calling. Teach joined these
in a sloop, which he had been allowed to retain on giving his
promise to engage only in lawful commerce. He soon overhauled
a vessel transporting a cargo of sugar and cocoa.
When news of this outrage was brought to Spotswood, he got
together several sloops and manned them with officers and
crews obtained from vessels in the service of the King. On
November 22nd (1718), Teach was overtaken, a fight followed,
and he and twelve of his men were killed, while the rest were
captured, along with their sloop, which was armed with
eight guns.

Philip Ludwell, Jr., having failed to upset the governor
by his letters to the Board of Trade, joined warmly in a
controversy raised by Commissary Blair over Spotswood's
claim that he had a right to collate to a vacant benefice. It

seems that Ludwell and Blair had transferred a clergyman
from one parish to another with the support of the vestry of
the latter parish. This was done only after the clergyman had
promised that he would not go to the governor to obtain his
consent to induction. Spotswood resented the imposition of
this condition, and a hot quarrel resulted.