SPOTSWOOD, Alexander, governor of Virginia, born in Tangier, Africa, , in 1676; died in Annapolis, Maryland, 7 June, 1740. He was bred to arms from an early age, served under the Duke of Marlborough, was dangerously wounded at Blenheim, and became deputy quartermaster-general. He was then appointed governor of Virginia and arrived there in June, 1710, bringing with him as a peace offering the writ of habeas corpus, which hitherto had been withheld from the province. The satisfaction with which this was received by the people and the evident necessity of such a protection turned his attention to the condition of their laws, and he introduced reforms in the constitution, in the general administration of justice, and in the character of the revenue laws and the collection of taxes, receiving the co-operation of the assembly and the approval of the people, while the burgesses voted £2,000 to build him a "palace." In the second year of his administration the house of burgesses refused to provide the means that he asked for repelling the invasion of the French from Canada, and he therefore requested the home government for assistance. Virginia also refused to concur with his proposals for the discharge of the public debt, but, notwithstanding these differences, his popularity was undiminished for years. He exerted himself in behalf of William and Mary college, assisted in raising a large fund for its support and in restoring the building that had been burned several years before his arrival, established a school for the education of Indian children, insisted on rigid economy in the offices under his control, and supported every measure that was conducive to the general prosperity. He was the first to explore the Appalachian mountains.. His expedition, which lasted from 17 August till 20 September, 1716, consisted of a company of his friends, well mounted and armed, and also rangers, Indian guides: and servants, leading horses laden with provisions. No savage dared attack so well-appointed a party, and there was no lack of merrymaking, as they hunted by day or cooked the spoils by their camp-fires and drank of "white and red wine, usquebaugh, brandy shrub, two kinds of rum, champagne, canary, cherry punch, and cider," which were among their stores. The most elevated summits they named Mount George, for the king, and Mount Spotswood or Mount Alexander, in honor of the governor. He also took measures to mark the valley of Virginia for the English king, and John Fontaine, who was one of the party, says in his journal: " The governor had graving irons, but could not grave anything, the stones were so hard. The governor buried a bottle with a paper enclosed, on which he writ that he took possession of the place, and in the name of and for King George the First of England." They returned to Williamsburg, preceded by trumpeters, and, to commenlorate the event, Governor Spotswood instituted the order of Tramontane to encourage future expeditions. He gave to each of his companions a small golden horseshoe, to be worn as a badge, and the members of the expedition were known afterward as the "Knights of the golden horseshoe." As early as 1710 he sought to extend the line of the Virginia settlements to interrupt the chain of communication between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, and favored the incorporation of a Virginia Indian company, which, from the emoluments of a monopoly of the traffic, should sustain forts in the western country; but this act was repealed. He secured a treaty with the Six Nations in 1722, who bound themselves to abandon the region east of the Blue Ridge and south of the Potomac, prevented the tributary Indians from joining the Tuscaroras in their forays in Carolina, and sought to renew an alliance with this tribe, which he succeeded in dividing. Hewas the author of an act to improve the staple of tobacco and make tobacco-notes the medium of ordinary circulation. Although the welfare of Virginia was his constant aim, he was often imperious and contemptuous. On one occasion he remarked to the house of burgesses that the people had made a mistake in choosing "a set of representatives whom heaven has not generally endowed with the ordinary qualifications requisite to legislators," and in placing at the head of standing committees men who could neither "spell English nor write common sense." The most bitter conflict in which he was involved was that of church patronage. Like his predecessors, the governor claimed that the presentation to church livings was a privilege of his office, which admitted no interference of the vestries. With the aid of this controversy, his enemies prevailed against him, and he was removed from his post in 1722. He lived eighteen years longer in Virginia, and from 1730 till 1739 was deputy postmaster-general of the colonies. In this capacity he arranged the transfer of mails with much energy, bringing Philadelphia and Williamsburg within eight or ten days of each other, and through his influence Benjamin Franklin was appointed postmaster of Pennsylvania. On his domain of 40,000 acres he found beds of iron-ore, and, establishing a furnace, thus gave to Virginia a new industry. He was also interested in promoting vine-culture. At his houses on the Rapidan and at Yorktown he maintained the courtly state of the time and of his rank. In 1740 he was made a major-general to command an expedition to the West Indies, and died while attending to the embarkation at Annapolis. He bequeathed his books, maps, and mathematical instruments to William and Mary college. Governor Spotswood's official account of his conflict with the burgesses is printed in the "Virginia Historical Register," and he is best described in William Byrd's " Progress to the Mines," included in "The Westover Manuscripts, containing the History of the Dividing-Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina," written from 1728 to 1736 and published by Edmund and Julian C. Ruffin (Petersburg, 1841). The vignette is from a portrait now in the Virginia state library. His letters were used by George Bancroft, and then were lost sight of until 1873, having been taken to England by George W. Featherstonehaugh. They were bought from the latter's widow by the Virginia historical society in 1882, and published as "The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia in 1710-1722," in the collections of the Virginia historical society, with an introduction and notes by Robert A. Brock (2 vols., Richmond, 1882-'5). Itisspeeches to the assemblyin 1714-'18 are preserved in William Maxwell's "Virginia Historical Register" (vol. iv.).--His son, Robert, was killed by the Indians in 1757.nHis grandson, Alexander, soldier, born in Virginia; died in Nottingham, Virginia, 20 December, 1818, served in the Revolutionary army, and was appointed major of the 2d Virginia regiment. He married Eliza, the daughter of General William Augustine Washington and the niece of General George Washington.--The second Alexander's brother, John, served also in the army, and was wounded severely at Germantown.