Alexander Spotswood (abt. 1676 - 1740)

Born about 12 Dec 1676 in Tangier, Morocco [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Butler (Brayne) Thompson — married 11 Mar 1725 in St. Mary le Bone, Middlesex, England

Descendants

Died 7 Jun 1740 at about age 63 in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Province of Maryland

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Magna Carta Gateway Ancestor Descendant of Surety Barons Hugh le Bigod, Robert de Vere, and possibly others (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Alexander Spotswood resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

This profile is part of the Shenandoah Valley One Place Study.

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. 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". This became the source of future tales concerning the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.^[8][5]

However, Spotswood's efforts were increasingly overshadowed by a number of problems. He found himself in conflict with some of the most powerful politicians and businessmen in Virginia, who were used to doing things their own way and not having regulations set on their activities by the lieutenant governor.^[1] Chief among those he alienated were the influential Philip Ludwell and William Byrd.^[1][3] The governing council also frequently opposed him, wanting to retain council control over appointments and over a new court of oyer and terminer.^[1] The lower house (the burgesses) held him in great dislike because he was "openly contemptuous" of them, and in 1718 they petitioned the king to have him removed.^[1]

In 1717 both the Indian Trade Act and the Tobacco Inspection Act were repealed, and by 1722 Alexander Spotswood was removed from the office of lieutenant governor.^[1][5]

Germanna

During his time as lieutenant governor, Spotswood had acquired "by means not always above question"^[5][3] about 85,000 acres in Spotsylvania County.^[2] In 1722 he retired there, founding a small town of mostly German immigrants which was called "Germanna," and building a home for himself which later became known as the Enchanted Castle.^[9]

This community served as one of the outposts in Spotswood's plan of "frontier defense," and the Palatine Germans who settled it furnished the labor for Spotswood's growing business, which was the mining and smelting of iron.^[2][10] By 1723 he was shipping twenty tons of pig iron to Bristol as well as manufacturing a variety of iron objects for the Virginia market.^[10] When the Palatine Germans finished their term of service, Spotswood replaced them with a hundred slaves who were put to work smelting and forging iron products, working in both his mines and his fields.^[10] Germanna was a flourishing enterprise...so flourishing that officials in both Virginia and England began to raise questions about the validity of how some of the land titles had been acquired, and whether Spotswood was meeting his quitrent obligations.^[2][10]

It became necessary to make a trip to England to settle questions about his legal ownership of the land and determine what special tax assessment would be appropriate.^[10]

Marriage and Children

Spotswood spent six years in England resolving questions about his property rights at Germanna. 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]

• John Spotswood;^[2] m. 24 Oct 1745 Mary Elizabeth Dandridge^[12]
• Anne Catherine Spotswood;^[2] bp. 19 Oct 1728; ^[13] m. Col. Bernard Moore^[2][14]
• Dorothea Spotswood;^[2] m. Nathaniel West Dandridge^[2][15]
• Robert Spotswood;^[2] d. c 1756 in French and Indian War^[16][17]

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.

His widow remarried 9 November 1742 to the Rev. John Thompson of Culpeper, Virginia.^[2]

Research Notes

Slaveholder

• Alexander Spotswood owned many slaves, hundreds who worked in his iron mine and forge and a smaller number who worked in his home and on his property. At his death most of these slaves were bequeathed, along with his lands, and were not specifically named in his will.^[22] Seventeen household slaves (assigned a total value of £360) were however mentioned by name.^[23] More information on the enslaved of Alexander Spotswood is available on this free space page: Enchanted Castle Germanna.

Alexander's marriage contract

• This deed made by Rev. John Thompson and wife Butler to the heirs includes the provisions of the marriage contract between her father Richard Brayne, Robert Cary, & Alexander Spotswood. Orange Co. VA Will Book 10, p. 472. FHL Film # 007724901, image 264/753. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BJ-VRVG?i=263&cat=370458 [note made by Honi Kleine]

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. No good evidence has been found for this. Please see the research notes on her profile.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} Morgan, Gwenda. Spotswood [Spottiswoode], Alexander (1676-1740). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edition (23 Sep 2004), available here by subscription.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20} Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013), vol.5, pp. 4-5, SPOTSWOOD 20. [Major-General] Alexander Spotswood.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8} Lenman, Bruce P. Spotswood, Alexander. American Natonal Biography, online edition, available here by subscription.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7} Havighurst, Walter. Alexander Spotswood: portrait of a Governor. Williamsburg: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1967), p. 4, available here.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8} Malone, Dumas (ed). Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1943), vol. 17, p. 468
6. ↑ Campbell, Charles, Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia. Albany: J. Munsell (1868), p. 13.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Campbell, Charles, Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia. Albany: J. Munsell (1868), p. 15.
8. ↑ Campbell, Charles, Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia. Albany: J. Munsell (1868), pp. 13-14.
9. ↑ Historical Marker Database (online), Alexander Spotswood's Enchanted Castle.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5} Havighurst, Walter. Alexander Spotswood: portrait of a Governor. Williamsburg: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1967), p. 108, available here.
11. ↑ Bannerman, William Bruce. The Registers of Marriages of St. Mary le Bone, Middlesex 1668-1812. London (1917), p. 230.
12. ↑ "Virginia, U.S., Extracted Vital Records, 1660-1923," database with images, Ancestry Sharing Link - (Ancestry Record 61462 #6945 : accessed 4 April 2023), John Spotswood marriage to Mary Spotswood on 24 Oct 1745 in King William County; citing Virginia Vital Records, Indexed by Judith McGhan.
13. ↑ "England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, (Ancestry Record 9841 #12299600 : accessed 4 April 2023), Anna Catharina Spotswood baptism on 19 Oct 1728, daughter of Alexander Spotswood & Butler, in Saint Luke, Chelsea, London, England; citing England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Salt Lake City, Utah FamilySearch, 2013, FHL Film Number 585471.
14. ↑ Campbell, Charles, Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia. Albany: J. Munsell (1868), p. 20.
15. ↑ Campbell, Charles, Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia. Albany: J. Munsell (1868), p. 23.
16. ↑ Campbell, Charles, Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia. Albany: J. Munsell (1868), p. 25.
17. ↑ Kennedy, Mary Selden. Seldens of Virginia and Allied Families. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co. (1911), vol. 2, p. 112.
18. ↑ Malone, Dumas (ed). Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1943), vol. 17, p. 469
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} Havighurst, Walter. Alexander Spotswood: portrait of a Governor. Williamsburg: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1967), p. 114, available here.
20. ↑ Ancestry.com. "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858." [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013, online at Ancestry.com, pages 161-163 (w/subs.): Transcribed will.
21. ↑ "American Wills Proved in London 1661-1775." (abstracts) online at Ancestry.com, page 170 (w/subsc.).
22. ↑ Havighurst, Walter. Alexander Spotswood: portrait of a Governor. Williamsburg: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1967), p. 113, available here.
23. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/378071 Index to wills, 1734-1947; will books, 1735-1906] Will books, v. 1-2, 1735-1778; Film number: 007645702 > image 112 of 474; FamilySearch Image: 3QS7-L9PX-X4P3 (accessed 30 August 2022)

See Also:

• Dandridges of Virginia. William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 2 (Oct 1896), p. 81 (Dorothea's marriage). Available at jstor.

• Doyle, J.A. Spottiswood or Spotswood, Alexander. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography archive edition (1897), available here.

• Governor Spotswood. Virginia Historical Register, vol. 4, no. 1 (1851), pp. 6-7.

• Greene, Jack P. The Opposition to Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood 1718. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 70, no. 1, part 1 (Jan 1962), pp. 35-42. Available at jstor.

• Hofstra, Warren R. The Extension of His Majesties Dominions: The Virginia Backcountry and the Reconfiguration of Imperial Frontiers. Journal of American History, vol. 84, no. 4 (Mar 19980, pp. 1289-1292, available at jstor.

• Sons of the Revolution in State of Virginia Quarterly Magazine, vol. 2, no. 4 (Oct 1923), p. 48.

• The Spottiswoode Miscellany. Edinburgh: printed for the Spottiswoode Society (1844), pp. 187-188.

• Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (ed). Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, online edition (2006), Alexander Spotswood, vol. 1, p. 59.

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed for the Magna Carta Project by Jen Hutton on 6 April 2023.

Alexander Spotswood is NOT listed as a Gateway Ancestor in Magna Carta Ancestry's "List of Colonial Immigrants"; however, he is named in Richardson's Royal Ancestry (vol. V, pages 1-5 SPOTSWOOD) as an immigrant to America and a descendant of Robert the Bruce, who descends from Magna Carta Surety Barons Gilbert de Clare and Richard de Clare. The trail to the Clares, along with trails to surety barons Hugh le Bigod, Roger le Bigod, Saher de Quincy, and Robert de Vere, were project-approved/badged in 2015 by the Magna Carta project. These trails are set out in the Magna Carta Trails section, below.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".

Magna Carta Trails

Badged Richardson-documented trail to the Clares (RA V:1-5 SPOTSWOOD):

Gateway Ancestor Alexander Spotswood(badged)

1. Alexander is the son of Robert Spotswood (badged)

2. Robert is the son of Bethia Morrison (badged)

3. Bethia is the daughter of Eleanor Maule (badged)

4. Eleanor is the daughter of William Maule (badged)

5. William is the son of Isabel Arbuthnott (badged)

6. Isabel is the daughter of Jean Stewart (badged)

7. Jean is the daughter of John Stewart (badged)

8. John is the son of James Stewart (badged)

9. James is the son of Isabel of Lorn (badged)

10. Isabel is the daughter of Janet Isaac (badged)

11. Joanna is the daughter of Maud de Brus (badged)

12. Maud is the daughter of Robert de Brus (badged)

13. Robert I is the son of Robert de Brus (badged)

14. Robert is the son of Isabel de Clare (badged)

15. Isabel is the daughter of Magna Carta Surety Gilbert de Clare

16. Gilbert is the son of Magna Carta Surety Richard de Clare

Badged trails to de Vere, Quincy, and the Bigods,

8. John Stewart is the son of Joan Beaufort (badged)

9. Joan is the daughter of Margaret Holland (badged)

10. Margaret is the daughter of Alice FitzAlan (badged)

11. Alice is the daughter of Richard de Arundel (badged)

12. Richard is the son of Alice de Warenne (badged)

13. Alice is the daughter of Joan de Vere (badged)

14. Joan is the daughter of Robert de Vere (badged)

15. Robert is the son of Hugh de Vere (badged)

16. Hugh is the son of Magna Carta Surety Robert de Vere

15. Robert de Vere is the son of Hawise de Quincy (badged)

16. Hawise is the daughter of Magna Carta Surety Saher de Quincy

11. Alice FitzAlan is the daughter of Eleanor Plantagenet (badged)

12. Eleanor is the daughter of Maud of Lancaster (badged)

13. Maud is the daughter of Isabel de Beauchamp (badged)

14. Isabel is the daughter of Maud FitzJohn (badged)

15. Maus is the daughter of Isabel le Bigod (badged)

16. Isabel is the daughter of Magna Carta Surety Hugh le Bigod

17. Hugh is the son of Magna Carta Surety Roger le Bigod