The whole expense was computed at two pounds per ton of sow, (or pig iron,) and it sold for five or six pounds in England, leaving a nett profit of three pounds or more on a ton. It was estimated that a furnace would cost seven hundred pounds. One hundred negroes were requisite, but on good land these, besides the furnace-work, would raise corn and provisions sufficient for themselves and the cattle. The people to be hired were a founder, a mine-raiser, a collier, a stock-taker, a clerk, a smith, a carpenter, a wheelwright, and some carters, these altogether involving an annual charge of five hundred pounds.
At Massaponux, a plantation on the Rappahannock, belonging to Governor Spotswood, he had in operation an air-furnace for casting chimney-backs, andirons, fenders, plates for hearths, pots, mortars, rollers for gardeners, skillets, boxes for cart-wheels. These were sold at twenty shillings a ton and delivered at the purchaser's home, and being cast from the sow iron were much better than the English, which were made, for the most part, immediately from the ore.
In 1732, besides Colonel Willis, the principal person of the place, there were at Fredericksburg only one merchant, a tailor, a blacksmith, and an ordinary keeper.
The following advertisement is found in the "Virginia Gazette" for 1739: "Colonel Spotswood, intending next year to leave Virginia with his family, hereby gives notice that he shall, in April next, dispose of a quantity of choice household furniture, together with a coach, chariot, chaise, coach-horses, house-slaves, etc. And that the rich lands in Orange County, which he has hitherto reserved for his own seating, he now leases out for lives renewable till Christmas, 1775, admitting every tenant to the choice of his tenement, according to the priority of entry. He further gives notice that he is ready to treat with any person of good credit for farming out, for twenty-one years, Germanna and its contiguous lands, with the stock thereon, and some slaves. As also for farming out, for the like term of years, an extraordinary grist-mill and bolting-mill, lately built by one of the best millwrights in America, and both going by water taken by a long race out of the Rapidan, together with six hundred acres of seated land adjoining the said mill.
"N. B.—The chariot (which has been looked upon as one of the best made, handsomest, and easiest chariots in London,) is to be disposed of at any time, together with some other goods. No one will be received as a tenant who has not the character of an industrious man."
Major-General Sir Alexander Spotswood, when on the eve of embarking with the troops destined for Carthagena, died at Annapolis, on the 7th day of June, 1740. There is reason to believe that he lies buried at Temple Farm, his country residence near Yorktown, and so called from a sepulchral building erected by him in the garden there. It was in the dwelling-house at Temple Farm (called the Moore House) that Lord Cornwallis signed the capitulation. This spot, so associated with historical recollections, is also highly picturesque in its situation.[407:A]
Governor Spotswood left a historical account of Virginia during the period of his administration, and Mr. Bancroft had access to this valuable document, and refers to it in his history.[407:B]
During the sanguinary war with the Indians in which North Carolina had been engaged, Governor Spotswood demanded of the tribes tributary to Virginia a number of the sons of their chiefs, to be sent to the College of William and Mary, where they served as hostages to preserve peace, and enjoyed the advantage of learning to read and write English, and were instructed in the Christian religion. But on returning to their own people they relapsed into idolatry and barbarism.[407:C]
Governor Spotswood's long residence in Virginia, and the identity of his interests with those of the people of the colony, appear to have greatly changed his views of governmental prerogative and popular rights, for during this year he gave it as his opinion that "if the assembly in New England would stand bluff, he did not see how they could be forced to raise money against their will, for if they should direct it to be done by act of parliament, which they have threatened to do, (though it be against the right of Englishmen to be taxed but by their representatives,) yet they would find it no easy matter to put such an act in execution."[408:A]
Governor Spotswood married, in 1724, Miss Butler Bryan, (pronounced Brain,) daughter of Richard Bryan, Esq., of Westminster, an English lady, whose Christian name was taken from James Butler, Duke of Ormond, her godfather. Their children were John and Robert, Anne Catherine and Dorothea. John Spotswood married, in 1745, Mary Dandridge, daughter of William Dandridge, of the British navy, Commander of the Ludlow Castle ship-of-war, and their children were two sons, General Alexander Spotswood and Captain John Spotswood of the army of the Revolution, and two daughters, Mary and Anne. Robert, the younger son of the governor, an officer under Washington in the French and Indian war, being detached with a scouting party from Fort Cumberland, (1756,) was supposed to have been killed by the Indians. He died without issue.[408:B] His remains were found near Fort Du Quesne; and in an elegiac poem published in "Martin's Miscellany," in London, the writer assumes that young Spotswood was slain by the savages.