Alexander Spotswood
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Alexander Spotswood (CIR 1676 - 6 June 1740) Lieutenant-Colonel and Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
Alexander Spotswood was born in the Tangier Garrison, Morocco about 1676 to Catharine Maxwell (CIR 1638 - December 1709) and her second husband, Dr Robert Spotswood (September 17 1637 - 1680), the Chirurgeon to the Garrison. His older half-brother (by his mother's first marriage to George Elliott) was Roger Elliott (CIR 1655 - May 15 1714), who became the First Governor of Gibraltar. Following the death of Robert Spotswood, his mother married thirdly Rev Dr George Mercer, the Garrison's Schoolmaster.
On May 20 1693, Alexander became an Ensign in the Earl of Bath's Regiment of Foot, and was commissioned in 1698, being promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1703. He was appointed Quartermaster-General of the Duke of Marlborough's army the same year, and was wounded at the Battle of Blenheim the following year.
In 1710, Alexander was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, under the nominal governorship of George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney. A Tobacco Act requiring the inspection of all tobacco intended for export or for use as legal tender was passed in 1713. The next year, he founded the First Germanna Colony, and regulated trade with native Americans. In 1715, he bought 3229 acres (13 km²) at Germanna. In 1716, he created the First Iron Foundry in the colony, and led the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition into the Shenandoah Valley to expedite settlement. The following year saw the foundation of the Second Germanna Colony and the Repeal of regulation of trade with native Americans. A Third Germanna Colony followed in 1719, and Germanna was made the seat of Spotsylvania County the following year.
A Treaty with the Iroquois was arranged in Albany, New York during 1721. Alexander completed the Governor's palace in 1722, when he entered private life with 80,000 acres (324 km²) in Spotsylvania and three iron furnaces.
Returning to London, he married Butler Brayne in 1724, but was back at the 'Enchanted Castle', Germanna, by 1729. He served as Deputy Postmaster General from 1730 to 1739, and died on June 6 1740 at Annapolis, Maryland (MD).
Alexander married Butler Brayne in London and had four children by her:
- John M. Spotswood (1725 - May 6 1756)
- Anne Catherine Spotswood (1728 - CIR 1802)
- Dorothea Spotswood (1733 - 1773)
- Robert Spotswood (d.1758)
References
- Will PRO - PROB 1/13;
- Official Letters (ed. by R. A. Brock, 2 vol., 1882-85);
- Biographies by W. Havighurst (1968) and L. Dodson (1932, repr. 1969).