Alexander spotwood biography
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Seldens of Virginia and Allied Families. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co. (1911), vol. Colonial Williamsburg, so familiar to latter-day tourists, features a town principally of his design: he helped to restore the College of William and Mary following a 1705 fire; he proposed a new Bruton Parish Church in 1710 and then designed the structure, which served as a model for numerous other churches in Virginia; and he constructed a powder magazine in Williamsburg in 1715.
- The Spottiswoode Miscellany. Edinburgh: printed for the Spottiswoode Society (1844), pp. 6-7.
Alexander's marriage contract
Alleged Daughter Mary Elizabeth, wife of Minitree Jones
Mary Elizabeth Spottswood, shown (as at 18 April 2024) as wife of Minitree Jones, has previously been attached as a daughter on a duplicate profile merged into this one.
The act granted the Virginia Indian Company, a joint-stock company, a twenty-year monopoly over American Indian trade, and charged the company with maintaining Fort Christanna, a settlement in southern Virginia for smaller Indian tribes. 2, p. Tobacco prices did not increase immediately, and the inspection policy was unpopular with Virginia farmers.
15.
108, available here.
Unfortunately for the governor, his patronage scheme failed. The nominal Governor at the time was George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. On the positive side, his achievements were impressive: 1) improving Virginia's defenses against the pirates who threatened shipping trade routes and reforming abuses in trade with Native Americans which had previously led to a war with the Tuscaroras;[1][3] 2) regulating and stabilizing the fur trade;[5][2] 3) instituting a system of inspection for all tobacco being exported or used as legal tender;[5][2] 4) settling outpost communities along the frontier to discourage the French from encroaching on Virginia's territories;[1] and 5) discovering a strategically very important passage over the Blue Ridge Mountains.[1][2] On the return of his expedition over the mountains, he presented each of the men who had accompanied him with a golden horse shoe inscribed with the motto "Sic juvat transcendere montes",[7] which can be loosely translated as ”This helps to cross mountains".
2, no. During that time he carried on a courtship and, on 11 March 1724, Alexander Spotswood married Anne Butler Brayne, daughter and co-heiress of Richard Brayne, at St. Mary le Bone, Middlesex.[11][2] It was a politically astute marriage, his wife being named after James Butler, the duke of Ormond, who was her godfather.[10][7] There were four children from this marriage, all born before Spotswood returned to Germanna with his new family.[3]
In 1730 Spotswood returned to Virginia with his wife and children, having been appointed deputy postmaster general for the American colonies at a salary of £300 per year.[1][2][3]
Death
At the outbreak of war with Spain, Alexander Spotswood was appointed major-general, second in command of the special expedition that Lord Cathcart planned to lead against Cartagena.[2][18] While travelling north to consult with the colonial governors concerning the war effort, Spotswood became ill and died at Annapolis, Maryland on 7 June 1740.[2][19] The location of his burial is unknown.[19]
Alexander Spotswood's will, dated 19 April 1740, was probated 3 February 1741.[20][21] An image of the will is viewable online here.
The agreement was renewed the next year.Spotswood completed the Governor's palace in 1722, when he was recalled from the lieutenant governorship and replaced by Hugh Drysdale. 1676 - 1740)
Biography
Family and Early Military Career
Alexander Spotswood, the son and heir of Robert Spottiswoode and his wife Katherine, widow of Dr.
George Elliot, was born 12 December 1676 in Tangier,[1] where his father served as personal physician to the earl of Middleton, governor of Tangier, and to the English garrison which was stationed there.[2][3] His mother took him to England at the age of seven, one year before the garrison was abandoned, to be educated at Westminster School.[1] Alexander was eleven years old when his father died.[4][3]
He received his first commission in 1693 at the age of seventeen, serving in an infantry regiment under the earl of Bath.[4][5] During the War of Spanish Succession he served under Lord Cadogan and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel,[5][3] eventually becoming (at the age of twenty-seven) lieutenant quartermaster general for all English forces in the Netherlands.[4][2] Spotswood was wounded at the Battle of Blenheim 13 August 1704 when he was "brushed" by a cannon ball and suffered a broken rib, collar bone and shoulder bone,[4][6] but as soon as he was able to return to duty he found himself engaged in the fighting at Oudenaarde.[2] During that battle his horse was shot from under him, he was taken prisoner, and the duke of Marlborough personally negotiated for his release.[4][5] He was then given the task of directing the transport of grain to feed Marlborough's army.[4]
On 23 June 1710 Spotswood was appointed lieutenant governor of Virginia, to serve under the auspices of the titular governor, who was George Hamilton, earl of Orkney.[5][2] Hamilton had no desire to visit Virginia himself, although his position as governor there included a sinecure of £1.200.[4] It was agreed that Spotswood, in exchange for serving as lieutenant governor, would receive a portion of this annual amount.[4][3]
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
Spotswood brought a lot of energy to his new position, and his tenure as lieutenant governor was both ground-breaking and troubled.
Albany: J. Munsell (1868), pp. Spotswood was criticized for the project’s high cost, but plantation owners began to emulate the building’s Georgian architecture in their own homes as early as the 1720s, and by the mid-eighteenth century, the style was an indicator of wealth and power.
Removal from Office
Spotswood learned too late that he had several masters to please, each with a different set of interests: English merchants, imperial bureaucrats, and the Virginia planter elite.