|
SPOTSWOOD, Alexander,
colonial governor: b. Tangier, Africa, 1676; d. Annapolis, Md., June 7,
1740. He was the only child of Robert Spotswood and his wife Catherine
Elliott. His father was resident physician to the governor and garrison of
Tangier. He was descended from an ancestry which went back to the time of
Alexander III. of Scotland in 1249, and which was settled at that time in
the parish of Gordon and shire of Berwick on the Scotch border. Alexander
Spotswood grew up among military surroundings. He served with distinction
under the Duke of Marlborough, and was severely wounded at the battle of
Blenheim. His military talents and his high courage procured for him the
appointment of lieutenant-governor of the colony of Virginia under the
Earl of Orkney, the governor and commander-in chief; and in June, 1710, he
arrived in Virginia to discharge the duties of his office. His military
experience enabled him to subdue the pirates and bucaneers, who at that
time infested the Virginia coast, and he quelled the insurrection of the
Tuscarora Indians on the Southern border. He sought to develop the mineral
resources of the colony, and opened iron mines and constructed a furnace
above the Falls of Rappahannock, at Germanna, where he resided. He
organized and led an expedition westward to explore the then untraversed
Shenandoah Valley, and crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains. On his return he
presented to each of his companions a miniature golden horseshoe, engraven
with the motto: "Sic juvat transcendere montes." He built the famous "Powderhorn"
at Williamsburg, and he established an Indian school at Fort Christiana in
Southampton county. In 1730 he became deputy postmaster-general of the
American colonies, and he made Benjamin Franklin postmaster of
Pennsylvania. His removal was effected by the Virginia clergy in
September, 1722. He died at Annapolis, Md., June 7, 1740, when on the eve
of embarking with the expedition for Cartagena, and is said to have been
buried at "Temple Farm," his country residence near Yorktown, where later
Lord Cornwallis signed the articles of his capitulation to General
"Washington. Governor Spotswood's administration was wise and beneficient,
and he left an enduring fame as one of the greatest and best of the
colonial governors. He married, in 1724, Anne Butler Brayne, daughter of
Richard Brayne, Esq., of Westminster, England, and from them were
descended some of the most prominent and distinguished of the later
Virginians. His letters were purchased by the Virginia Historical Society
in 1882 and published in their collection as the official letters of
Alexander Spotswood, lieutenant-governor of Virginia in 1710-1722
(1882-85). |
