Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/80

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

of Hugh Drysdale. he would have again be- come acting governor, but was set aside on account of his feeble health. He married, Frances, daughter of Henry Corbin, of T.uck- ingham House, and had issue (i) Frances, married Charles Grymes, of Moratico, Rich- nwnd county, and was ancestress of General R. E. Lee; (2) Elizabeth, married Robert I'urteus, of New I'.ottle, Gloucester county, who afterwards removed to England, where she became the mother of Beilby Porteus,

retary of state in 1643. Taken prisoner at the battle of Philiphaugh, he was tried by the Scotch parliament, sentenced to death, and executed. Alexander Spotswood's father was Dr. Robert Spotswood, who was a physician to the governor and garrison at Tangier. His mother was Catherine Elliott, a widow who had by her first husband a son, (General Roger Elliott, whose portrait is now in the state library at Richmond, Virginia. Alexander was born at Tangier in 1676, educated for a

P.ishop of London; (3) Edn.und, secretary of military life, fought und.r Marlborough was

Marvland n.arrK-d in .728. Anna, widow of quartermaster-general with the rank of colonel,

inmes l-Vi^bv and Thomas Dordley, and and was dangerously wounded m the breast at

dau-dner of Matthias Vanderheyden, by which the battle of Blenheim. In 1710 he was

marriage he was father of Ariana (who mar- ried John Randolph of Virginia, father of Edmund Randolph, first attorney-general of \'irginia and of the United States), and a son Edmund, who died unmarried in 1819.

Hunter, Col. Robert, an officer in the Eng- lish army, was aj^pointed governor of Vir- ginia in 1706 to succeed Sir Francis Nichol- son, but in his voyage was captured by a I'rench jjrivateer and remained prisoner until the end of 1709. In June, 1710, he became governor of New York, and held that office till 1719. In July. 1727. was appointed gov- ernor of Jamaica and died there March ii, ^734-

Spotswood, Alexander, lieutenant-governor under the I'.arl of Orkney (1710-1722) was a great-grandson of John Spotswood or Spotis- wood. Scotland, who in 1635 became arch- bishop of Glasgow and one of the privy coun- cil. His grandfather. Sir Robert Spotswood, was an eminent lawyer, who was elected presi- dent of the court of sessions in Scotland. In the civil war. Sir Robert was a staunch sup- porter of Charles 1. and was temporary sec-

appointed lieutenant-governor of Virginia, and showed himself a conspicuously energetic administrator. Fie bestowed much attention upon Williamsburg, leveled the streets, assisted in rebuilding the church, providing some of the brick, built a brick magazine for the safe- keeping of the public arms, and aided in rebuilding the college, which had been burned in 1705; and in 1722, on the petition of the people of W^illiamsburg and the assembly, he granted a charter of incorporation to the city o\ Williamsburg. Against the enemies of the colony he took firm and decided steps. The coast of Virginia was harassed by piratical vessels. Spotswood sent an expedition against them under Captain Maynard. killed the pirate. Teach or Blackbeard, and hanged others. As to the Indians he blended humanity with pohcy. He established a school for the Sap- onies at I-ort Christanna in Brunswick county, and paid the master. Mr. Griffin, out of his own pocket, and arranged a treaty by which the chiefs of the tributary tribes promised to send their sons to college. He sent soldiers against the Tuscaroras, who had attacked North Carolina, but laid force aside when he