"Courageous youth! were now thine honored sire
To breathe again, and rouse his wonted ire,
Nor French nor Shawnee dare his rage provoke,
From great Potomac's spring to Roanoke.
"May Forbes yet live the cruel debt to pay,
And wash the blood of Braddock's field away;
The fair Ohio's blushing waves may tell
How Britons fought, and how each hero fell."[408:C]
Anne Catherine, the elder daughter of Governor Spotswood, married Bernard Moore, Esq., of Chelsea, in the County of King William. Dorothea, the other daughter, married Captain Nathaniel West Dandridge, of the British navy, son of Captain William Dandridge, of Elson Green.[409:A]
The governor's lady surviving him, and continuing to live at Germanna, November the 9th, 1742, married second the Rev. John Thompson, of Culpepper County, a minister of exemplary character. From this union was descended the late Commodore Thompson of the United States navy. Lady Spotswood's children objected to the match on the ground of his inferior rank, so that after an engagement she requested to be released; but he appears to have overcome her scruples by a curious letter addressed to her on the subject.[409:B]
The present representative of the family[409:C] is John Spottiswoode, Esq., M.P., Laird of Spottiswoode.[409:D] His brothers are George Spottiswoode, of Gladswood, County Berwick, lieutenant-colonel in the army, and Andrew Spottiswoode, of Broom Hall, County Surrey. The representative of the family resides during the greater portion of the year at Spottiswoode, on his extensive hereditary estate, the modern mansion being one of the finest in Southern Scotland. The old mansion still remains. Thirty miles of underground drains have been made on this estate, reclaiming hundreds of acres of land lying between the Blackadder and the Leader.[409:E]
Governor Spotswood[409:F] was half-brother to a General Elliott. The governor had a country-seat near Williamsburg, called Porto-Bello. Besides the portrait of him preserved at Chelsea, in the County of King William, there is another at the residence of William Spotswood, Esq., in Orange County, where there is also a portrait of Lady Spotswood, and one of General Elliott, half-brother of the governor, in complete armor. The descendants of Governor Spotswood in Virginia are numerous, and his memory is held in great respect.
FOOTNOTES:
[400:A] Bishop Meade's Old Churches, etc., i. 160, ii. Appendix, 393.
[401:A] Bishop Meade's Old Churches, etc., i. 162.