by Craig Cabell
Spotswood consulted his Council and the decision was taken to act, despite the fact that they were meddling in the internal affairs of another colony:
I had the unanimous opinion of Her Majesty’s Council here to send an armed Force for the protection of that government against this Insurrection, there being now no other way but Force left to restore the peace of Your Lordships’ Country.45
Spotswood sent a party ‘of Marines from our Guardships, in hope that will fright the people from joining in the mad designs of Cary and his party, when they see their Governor will be supported from hence’.46
Fortunately for Spotswood this action worked as he stated in a letter to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, dated 31 July 1711:
The Marines are returned after having frighted the Rebellious party so as to lay down their arms and disperse, and I with joy tell your Lordships that there is now some prospect of tranquillity in Your Government, and that I have brought this about without effusion of blood, or disorders committed.47
However, it was not all wine and roses. Indeed, Spotswood exacerbated the issue by not bothering to conceal his contempt of the House of Burgesses throughout his tenure as governor. For ten years he was at odds with his Council and the House of Burgesses, which constant strain would have laid many other men low but not so for Spotswood.
Yet, he did try to quell some of the discontent by bringing in the Tobacco Inspection Act in 1713. This put into law the requirement for the tobacco from Virginia to be inspected before entering the European market which would ensure that only highest-quality leaf would get through, increasing demand and increasing prices, rather than the poor quality of leaf that was, at the time, being exported to England:
It may be reasonably suspected if what they carry home rather diminishes y’n increases the duties at the Custom House and serves for no other Use than Vile practices, whereby the Staple Commodity of this Country has been brought into Disteem and the markets thereof entirely ruined in Europe.48
The new Act was designed to increase the prices and improve the lot of the growers and planters:
This Law, therefore, by obliging all Planters to have their Tobacco viewed by a Sworn Officer in ye manner your Lordships may see more fully from ye several parts of the Act, has made provision against the exportation of all such Trash as is said to be allowed by the Custom House officers in the Out Ports as damaged Tobacco and thereafter frequently re-exported without the benefit of the Draw-back, and thus it is hoped the reputation of Virginia Tobacco may be retrieved when none but such as is found to be worth paying the duty at home shall be sent to foreign markets.49
The Assembly was made up of the elite of Virginia tobacco planters and Spotswood decided to create forty patronage positions, of which twenty-nine sitting burgesses were awarded these positions – some additional £250 per year. However, Spotswood’s scheme backfired as tobacco prices did not quickly go up and the Act was highly unpopular with the farmer elite in Virginia. In the following election after the Act was introduced, all but one of the burgesses who had been awarded these inspectorships lost their seats.
A year later, he brought in the Indian Trade Act that helped to make his relationship with the Councils and the Virginia planters even worse. The idea for the Act was to grant the ‘Virginia Indian Company, a joint-stock company, a twenty-year monopoly over American Indian trade, and charge the company with maintaining Fort Christanna, a settlement in southern Virginia for smaller Indian tribes’:50
I formed a settlement on the Frontiers for the Tributary Indians, pursuant to their Treaties, and by the Temptation of a fine tract of Land of Six Miles Square, the building a Fort thereon and placing a Guard of Twelve men and an Officer to be assisting to them.
Spotswood named this new settlement Christanna. As for the Indian Trade Act he mentions this in a letter dated 27 January 1714 claiming
By the means of a late Act which I have obtained to be passed in the Assembly here, confining all Trade with ye Indians on the South side of James River (which are the most considerable of all our Tributaries), to Christ-Anna alone.51
Spotswood goes on to say that he formed a company to take on the responsibility of monitoring the Indian trade:
It became the more easier for me to draw ’em to the passing the above mentioned Act for the better regulation of the Indian Trade, by which that Trade is not only confined to ye Settlement at Christ-Anna, as is above related, but a Company is established for carrying it on, who has as they have, the Sole benefit thereof for 20 years, are under an Obligation to contribute towards the Education of the Indian Children, namely by erecting forthwith, at their own Charge, a School-house at Christ-Anna.52
Spotswood hoped that by creating the company he would head off any political opposition by passing the responsibility for defence against Indian attack to private enterprise, taking it away from the colonial government along with the associated costs of defending the colony. However, like the Tobacco Act this also angered many Virginians, especially those who had heavy investments in private trade.
In the autumn of 1715, Spotswood dissolved the House of Burgesses in frustration:
I am obliged to give an Account of the Transactions of this Government, wherein the several unwarrantable Schemes they had formed, and their whole proceedings thereupon are faithfully Sum’d up, and told them in so public a manner as will leave no room to doubt of the truth of ye matters of fact; and after such a Behaviour of the House of Burgesses as is there truly represented, I hope the Expressions will not appear so Severe nor their dissolution too unadvised.53
The wrangling continued, and to get away from it he led an expedition in 1716 to expand Virginia’s western frontier. His expedition crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and took the Shenandoah Valley which Spotswood claimed for the King and by doing so, expanded the colony of Virginia. This area was later settled in the 1730s to act as protection against French and Indian aggression. He also created a frontier fortified outpost at Germanna on the Rapidan River. None of these actions were really contested by the two assemblies of the colonial Virginian government.
Looking beyond his political policies, Spotswood also left a mark on Virginian architecture. He is responsible for much of the design of Williamsburg and he helped to restore the College of William and Mary that was damaged after a fire in 1705. He designed the structure for a new church in Bruton Parish in 1710 shortly after his arrival. This church served as a model for the design and style of many other churches and buildings throughout the colony. In 1715 he had a new powder magazine built in Williamsburg. Perhaps the most memorable and outstanding project is the magnificent Governor’s Palace which he oversaw from 1710 to 1722:
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.54
Yet, despite these achievements Spotswood could not get away from the political wrangling and he discovered too late that he had many more masters than he initially realised, including English merchants, the Virginia planter elite and imperial bureaucrats, in addition to the Earl of Orkney and their Lordships at the Council of Trade and Plantations.
The Virginia planter elite were the biggest thorn in his side because they were very well-connected to the Privy Council in Britain and could bring a lot of influence and power to bear on policies that they opposed. For example, they brought so much pressure to bear on the Tobacco Inspection Act and the Indian Trade Act that the government in Britain disallowed those acts in 1717:
Immediately upon the Receipt of his Majesty’s Order in Council, I issued a proclamation for repealing both ye Indian and Tobacco Laws, but as the Country are almost Generally sensible of the loss of the Tobacco Law, so the Government found it Self no less embarrassed by the repeal of the Indian Law.55
Part of the problem was Spotswood’s desire to increase his power without re
alising that it was actually diminishing. He appointed judges, called for new elections, and appointed new parish ministers without consulting the local politicians. He tried to remove members of the Council that opposed him. All of this added up to a weakening of his power as the influence of the Virginia planters continued to grow, the latter being manifest in the House of Burgesses and in the Colonial Council.
However, Spotswood reached an accord with his council on 29 April 1722 when both sides agreed to act in friendship in the running of the colonial government. This was largely achieved by Spotswood agreeing to become a permanent Virginian resident: ‘Later that year, as part of a series of land grants awarded to settlers to create a buffer against the French, the Council granted Spotswood 86,000 acres in the newly created Spotsylvania County.’ In a letter dated 11 June 1722, Spotswood wrote to the Board of Trade that the ‘angry proceedings of the Assembly in 1718’ were ‘balanced by their good agreement in 1722’.56
That same year Spotswood was replaced, despite the new detente between him and the Council. The new Lieutenant-Governor, Hugh Drysdale arrived on 25 September 1722 to take up his post. Historians believe that there were several factors that may have contributed to Spotswood’s removal. One is the ten years of constant wrangling that took place prior to the new detente. The government in London would have had a string of letters and complaints against Spotswood and it could be that after ten years they’d had enough. Another reason could be the massive land grant that he accepted which went against the stated policy that no person or persons could claim more than 1,000 acres of Virginian land. Perhaps the most plausible theory of all is that two of Spotswood’s most antagonistic opponents, the Reverend James Blair and William Byrd, had not reconciled with him when the rest of the Council had and both men, powerful and influential in Virginia as well as having potent friends in the English government, were in London when the decision to replace Spotswood was taken. If this is the case he would be the third governor in a row that Blair had had a hand in unseating. If Spotswood had cooperated with the Virginia planter elite he may have been able to hang on much longer as governor. It was a lesson taken to heart by future governors.
True to his agreement, Spotswood settled in Virginia, in the frontier town of Germanna in Spotsylvania County. Here he built a mansion that was even larger than the Governor’s Palace and far more ornate and impressive than that building. Sadly by 1750 it had been destroyed. He also built the largest ironworks in the colonies and relied on slave labour to run it. The biggest market for his iron was England.
Spotswood married Anne Butler Brayne of St Margaret’s Parish, Westminster in 1724 when he returned to England to work out the taxes on his vast land holdings in Virginia as well as secure his title to those lands. The couple had two sons and returned to Virginia in 1729. A year later the government appointed him as deputy postmaster for all of North America and he distinguished himself in this role as well, extending the postal service much further south from Philadelphia, where it was before he took up the post, to Williamsburg. It was Spotswood who selected Benjamin Franklin as the postmaster for Philadelphia in 1737.
Two years later Britain went to war with Spain. Spotswood had always dreamed of military advancement and this he finally achieved when he was brought back into the Army as brigadier general. This position saw him as second-in-command to Major-General Charles Cathcart, but Spotswood didn’t see any action. He was travelling to Maryland to consult with colonial governors on how to raise and organise new troops for the war against the Spaniards; on arriving at Annapolis he fell ill suddenly and died shortly afterwards on 7 June 1740.
That is his life story. From the letters and actions in this chapter we can get an idea of what kind of man Alexander Spotswood was. He had no qualms about extending his authority beyond the borders of Virginia into neighbouring colonies, specifically North Carolina; he set up settlements on the borders and expanded the lands which were later settled. We see a man of action, a decisive man who was driven to get things done and would use unorthodox methods to achieve his aims. He was a builder, a man of some vision who left a lasting legacy on Virginia. By contrast, Blackbeard was the opposite; a man who left nothing behind but a terrible reputation.
If Spotswood had not been governor at the time and if there had been another man who was softer, more pliable than and not as single-minded as Spotswood, would Blackbeard’s reign of terror have continued virtually unchecked? We will never know but what we have provided here is a little of Spotswood’s character; at heart a military man and therefore accustomed to action, to people doing what he told them to do and being single-minded and dedicated to his purpose. The two men were on a collision course that would see Blackbeard’s end and, in some ways, the end of the ‘Golden Age of Piracy’.
Chapter 4
Contemporaries and the Times
Now that we’ve looked at Spotswood’s life and had a glimpse at Teach’s early life it is worth looking at the times and some of the people within them that influenced these two men. Turning to the criminal fraternity, one man whose life was broadly similar to Teach’s was Dick Turpin, a famed highwayman who was alive during the same period as Edward Teach, although Turpin was much younger when Teach died and wasn’t hung until several years later.
Why look at Turpin? Simply because his legend, like that of Blackbeard, has become much larger over the centuries than the actual exploits of the man. His image is of a dashing and daring highwayman who rode from London to York in less than twenty-four hours on his mount ‘Black Bess’. In reality this ride was undertaken by another highwayman, John ‘Swift Nick’ Nevison who, having robbed a sailor near Gad’s Hill in Kent, set off on this momentous journey in order to give himself an alibi. This took place before Turpin was even born.
Turpin’s criminal ventures had been unremarkable and certainly nothing of legend up until the time when he was captured and waiting to be hung at York racecourse. Only then did he exhibit the daring traits of a dashing highwayman usually attributed to him.57
The legend of Turpin is one of a lone highwayman, but during most of his criminal career he was part of the Essex Gang. This gang operated not by holding up people on the highway but by robbing isolated farmhouses and torturing the occupants into giving up their valuables and money. Turpin did not get involved in highway robbery until towards the end of his criminal career and his brashness at the end of his life was recorded in an account of his execution in the York Courant where he finally showed some courage and ‘threw himself off the ladder’, dying five minutes later.
By the time of Turpin’s death, Teach was already dead but his legend would have become common knowledge due to the account of his exploits being published in Captain Johnson’s History as well as accounts appearing in newspapers. So by the time Turpin was gaining notoriety it is quite likely that he must have known of the accounts of Blackbeard. We could speculate that these accounts may have contributed in some small way to Turpin wanting to gain as much infamy, kudos and fortune as he could. He acquired these through his acts of lawlessness, torture and murder and was no hero, but Teach could have been. The latter fought in ‘Queen Anne’s War’, also known as the War of Spanish Succession, as a privateer. When it was over he could have continued with this line of work but instead, he chose to let go of all the shackles of civilisation and turn to piracy.
The times would also have had a heavy influence on Teach. Most of the major battles that England was fighting at the time took place at sea and the news of these maritime victories by the Royal Navy would, of course, be brought back to England and published. Between 1689 and 1697 England was at war with France. In 1702 the War of Spanish Succession broke out. Hostilities continued until 1713 when the signing of the Utrecht Treaty ended the war.
Last of the Stuart monarchs, Queen Anne’s reign spanned twelve years. These were dominated by the War of Spanish Succession and, by the uniting of the English and Scottish parliaments, resulted in the creation of the Parliament of G
reat Britain on 1 May 1707 which was known as the Act of Union. The years were also marked by Marlborough’s famous victories at Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet.58
Anne was born to the Catholic King James II but was raised as a Protestant under her uncle King Charles II. She married the Prince of Denmark and experienced seventeen pregnancies but only produced five children and only one, her son, managed to outlive infancy but died before he could inherit the throne.
The greatest influence on Queen Anne was her relationship with Sarah Jennings Churchill, her childhood companion and lady of the bedchamber. According to the BBC Online History account of Queen Anne, in 1688 Sarah persuaded her friend, then monarch-to-be, to support her brother-in-law the Protestant William of Orange of the Netherlands when he took the English throne from James II:
It was after William’s death in 1702 that Anne became monarch, but prior to her succession she agreed to the Act of Settlement in 1701, signed by William, which promised the throne to the Electress of Hanover (and her heirs) as heir of James I (VI of Scotland). Anne had by this point abandoned the idea of producing an heir.59
Politically, Anne believed in mixed ministries and the two major political parties of the day were the Whigs and the Tories. The Tories came to power in 1710 and when it came to foreign policy she found herself at odds with them, believing, as did the Whigs, that a war on the continent would be more successful than a naval campaign, which the Tories supported.
The Duke of Marlborough was Sarah Churchill’s husband and also a Whig sympathiser. He won several battles as the commander of the British and allied forces on the continent during the War of Spanish Succession. As the Queen’s lady of the bedchamber, Sarah was always trying to pressure Anne to promote more Whigs and by the same process, her husband. However, the Queen resisted these attempts and finally, having had enough, dismissed Sarah and her husband from her service.
