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The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor Of Library of Congress The official letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant- Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710–1722, now first printed from the manuscript in the collections of the Virginia historical society, with an introduction and notes by R.A. Brock. Richmond, Va COLLECTIONS OF THE Virginia Historical Society. New Series. VOL. I. Committee of Publication. ARCHER ANDERSON. J. L. M. CURRY. EDWARD V. VALENTINE. Spotswood THE OFFICIAL LETTERS OF Alexander Spotswood, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA, 1710–1722, Now First Printed from the Manuscript IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE Virginia Historical Society, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY R. A. BROCK, Corresponding Secretary and Librarian of the Society. VOL. I. The official letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710–1722, now first printed from the manuscript in the collections of the Virginia historical society, with an introduction and notes by R.A. Brock. Richmond, Va http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.05713 Library of Congress LC RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. MDCCCLXXXII. F?29 .Y31 WM. ELLIS JONES, PRINTER, RICHMOND, VA. LC 858?? Ex PREFACE. The Publishing Committee herewith presents to the Society the first volume of the Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, written during his administration (1710–1712) as Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and printed from the Manuscript in its Cabinet. The text of the volume includes the period from June 20, 1710, to July 26, 1712. Another volume to be printed, which will complete the publication of the manuscript, will be accompanied by a full and carefully prepared analytical index of the entire work. The manuscript was used by Mr. Bancroft in the preparation of his History of the United States, and its value is distinctly affirmed by him. A little later, it was loaned by its owner, John R. Spotswood, Esq., of Orange county, Va., to George W. Featherstonehaugh, author and geologist, who carried it with him to England. With the lapse of years no information regarding it being obtainable, it became the object of repeatedly expressed solicitude on the part of American writers, who at last, in the futility of their inquiries, had begun to fear that it was no longer in existence. The official letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710–1722, now first printed from the manuscript in the collections of the Virginia historical society, with an introduction and notes by R.A. Brock. Richmond, Va http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.05713 Library of Congress The manuscript remained, however, in the possession of the widow of Mr. Featherstonehaugh, from whom it was obtained by this Society by purchase in the year 1873. INTRODUCTION. Colonel Alexander Spotswood, who arrived in Virginia in June, 1710, as the Deputy or Lieutenant of George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony,a was descended from the ancient Scottish family of Spottiswoode, a local sur-name assumed by the proprietors of the lands and Barony of Spottiswoode, in the parish of Gordon and county of Berwick, at the earliest period when sur-names became hereditary in Scotland; but his lineage is yet more nobly avouched in the virtue, learning, ability and courage of its representatives through centuries of succession. a Under this unjust policy of the British Ministry, of giving to those whom it desired to favor, station and emolument without accompanying service, the Earl of Orkney continued in the enjoyment of a considerable revenue as Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Virginia, for quite forty years, without performing personally a single act of government. The traditional account of the family is, that the male line of the ancient barons of Spottiswoode failing in the reign of Alexander II, a younger son of the illustrious house of Gordon, which was then seated in the same county, married the heiress, and was obliged to take upon him the name of Spottiswoode; but he retained in his armorial bearing the boar's head of the Gordons, which his successors, the barons of Spottiswoode, carry to this day.b b The arms of the family are: Az. a chev. gu., betw. three oak trees eradicated, vert. Crest. An eagle displayed gu. looking to the sun in splendor. Motto: Patior ut potior. The immediate progenitor of this family was Robert de Spotswood, born during the reign of Alexander III, who succeeded to viii the crown of Scotland in 1249. Seventh in descent The official letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710–1722, now first printed from the manuscript in the collections of the Virginia historical society, with an introduction and notes by R.A. Brock. Richmond, Va http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.05713 Library of Congress from Robert, was John Spotiswood, born 1510, died 1585; Superintendent of Lothian, a zealous Protestant divine, and one of the Compilers of “The First Book of Discipline and of the Confession of Faith.” His son, John Spotswood or Spottiswoode, born in 1595, became Archbishop of Glasgow, and one of the Privy Council of Scotland in 1603; was transferred to St. Andrews in 1615, and made Chancellor of Scotland in 1635. He suffered from the popular indignation at the attempt, discouraged by him, to impose a liturgy on the Scottish Church, and was deposed and excommunicated by the Assembly which met at Glasgow in November, 1638. He retired to London, where he died November 26th, 1639. He was the author, among other works, of “The History of the Church and State of Scotland.” His second son, Sir Robert Spottiswoode, President of the Court of Session, author of “The Practicks of the Laws of Scotland,” a man of distinguished learning and merit, was born in 1596, and met his death at the hands of Parliament, January 17, 1646, as an adherent of the royal cause. The son of the last Robert Spotswood, who died in 1688, married a widow, Catherine Elliott.c Their only child, Alexander, the subject of this notice, was born in 1676, at Tangier, then an English colony in Africa, his father being resident surgeon to its governor, the Earl of Middleton, and to the garrison.d c There is in the State Library of Virginia a handsome portrait of a martial personage, delineated in complete armor, formerly preserved at “Nottingham,” the seat of General Alexander Spotswood, of the Revolution, (grandson of Governor Alexander Spotswood), and later at “Sedley Lodge,” the seat of William Spotswood, Esq., in Orange county, Virginia; which tradition names as “General Elliott, half-brother of the Governor, who commanded the cavalry under Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim, and also served under the Prince Eugene.” Campbell's Spotswood Geneology, p. 16. There are also in the State Library, portraits of Governor Spotswood, representing him in full court dress of scarlet velvet, and of his wife “Lady” Spotswood, which have been transmitted in the family with the portrait of “General Elliott.” Another portrait of Governor Spotswood, which was preserved at “Chelsea,” the seat of the Moore family, in King The official letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710–1722, now first printed from the manuscript in the collections of the Virginia historical society, with an introduction and notes by R.A. Brock. Richmond, Va http:// www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.05713 Library of Congress William county, is now in the possession of Edward V. Valentine, Esq., the eminent sculptor, Richmond, Va. Blenheim Cattle is represented in the background of this portrait. d He was the author of “Plants within the Fortifications of Tangier in 1673.” Published in the Philosophical Transactions in 1696. ix Alexander Spotswood was literally bred in the army from his childhood, and, uniting genius with courage, served with distinction under the Duke of Marlborough. He was dangerously wounded in the breast by the first fire of the French on the Confederates at the Battle of Blenheim,e during the heat of which sanguinary encounter he served as Deputy Quarter Master General, with the rank of Colonel. e In after life, while Governor of Virginia, he was wont to show to his guests a four-pound cannon ball which struck his coat in that engagement. Though Virginia enjoyed tranquility, and the voice of faction was hushed at the time of the arrival of Spotswood, yet the condition of the colony was not prosperous. Her defenceless coasts were invaded by privateers and pirates, and, through the decline of her staple commerce, because of the quantities of tobacco procured from Germany by the Dutch, the surreptitious shipment of it from the colony, and the greed of the English factors, there was a just complaint of the scantiness of essential supplies of English manufactures. Spotswood was hailed with acclamation by the colonists, because he brought with him the invaluable benefit of the habeas corpus f act, which had been denied by the late ministers, when their representatives endeavored to extend it by their own authority. But while the Assembly regarded the recent favors granted, they could not, in October, 1710, be persuaded to see the defenceless condition of the colony, since the certain expense of protection appeared more immediate than distant danger, nor did the fear of a threatened French invasion the following summer, appeal any more effectually. They refused to pay the expense of collecting the militia, or to discharge the debt due, because, as Spotswood The official letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710–1722, now first printed from the manuscript in the collections of the Virginia historical society, with an introduction and notes by R.A.
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