| Notes |
- Alexander Spotswood served as an aide-de-camp in the British Navy, under the Duke of Marlborough, at the Battle of Bienheim, where he was wounded in the breast on August 13, 1704. He was made Major General in the British service, and appointed to the command of an expedition against Carthagena, which had been formed at Annapolis, MD and died there on the eve of its departure.
In 1710 he was appointed lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of the Virginia Colony, and remained at this post until 1723. He brought to the colony the right of "Habeas Corpus," but his policies and reforms were not supported by the House of Burgesses, because they thought he had usurped their power. In order to protect the colony from Iroquois Indian raids, he established settlements of friendly Indians, powerful enough to resist attack and concluded a treaty with the Iroquois. In 1739 he became deputy postmaster-general for the American Colonies. In 1740 he was appointed Major-General of an expedition against Carthagena, but died before the embarkation at Annapolis.
In 1716 he made the first complete discovery of a passage of the Blue Ridge Mts.
From Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia, Charles Campbell, J. Munsell, Albany NY, 1868, p. 13-15
He was bred in the army from his childhood. He served with distinction under the duke of Marlborough: was wounded, in the breast, at the battle of Blenheim, August 13, 1704. When governor of Virginia he sometimes showed his guests a cannon ball, which, when spent, struck his coat in battle. Blenheim Castle is represented in the background of the three-quarter portrait of him preserved (1868), at Chelsea, King William county, Va.
He was governor of the colony from 1710 to 1723. He brought over with him the right of habeas corpus, hitherto denied to Virginians, although guarantied to Englishmen by Magna Charta. He was the author of an act making tobacco-notes the medium of ordinary circulation. Being a master of the military art, he kept the militia under excellent discipline.
In 1716, Governor Spotswood made the first complete discovery of a passage over the Blue Ridge mountains. Upon his return, he presented each of the gentlemen, who accompanied him, with a golden horse shoe. Some of these were set with precious stones, resembling the heads of horse-shoe nails. The horse-shoe had inscribed, on one side of it, the motto: Sic juvat transcendere montes. A novel entitled: 'The Knight of the Golden Horse-Shoe', by Dr. Wm. A. Caruthers, of Virginia, derives its name and its subject from this exploit of the governor.
He urged upon the British government the policy of establishing a chain of posts, beyond the Alleghanies, from the lakes to the Mississippi, to restrain the encroachments of the French. He reduced to submission the Indian tribes, and blending humanity with vigor, taught them, that while he could chastise their insolence, he commiserated their fate. He recommended the intermarriage of the whites with that race. He took measures to extend the advantages of a Christian education to the Indian children.
He was proficient in the mathematics and well skilled in architecture: he built the octagon Powder Magazine at Williamsburg, afterwards so noted in the time of Governor Dunmore; rebuilt the College of William and Mary, and made improvements in the governor's house and gardens. He was styled the Tubal Cain of Virginia, and was indeed the pioneer of iron manufacture in North America.
Previous to the year 1624, Governor Spotswood had founded, on a horse-shoe peninsula of four hundred acres, on the Rapidan river, in Spotsylvania county (named after him), the little town of Germana, so called as having been settled by Germans, sent over by Queen Anne.
During the year 1624, Governor Spotswood married Ann Butler, daughter of Richard Bryan, Esq., of Westminster. She derived her middle name from James Butler, duke of Ormond, her godfather. The governor now resided at Germana.
Governor Spotswood left in manuscript a historical account of Virginia during his administration. Although a whig in politics, he was a high churchman, and had high notions of governmental prerogative: but a long residence in Virginia and the identity of his interests with those of the Virginians appear to have greatly changed his views of governmental authority and popular rights. [1]
|
1676 - 1740 (64 years)
[4] 
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
