were to be supported at its charge for a period of twelve months and to remain in its service for the term of seven years.[1] The original purpose was to establish three iron works,[2] but only one furnace appears to have been erected, its site being on Falling Creek, in the present county of Chesterfield.
It is interesting to find that this spot as a place for iron-making had already been regarded with great enthusiasm by George Sandys, who declared that if Nature had intentionally prepared it with a view to this special manufacture, the advantages for that purpose which it possessed could not have been more remarkable. In expressing this opinion, he had in mind the circumstance that there were present in proximity here not only ore and water, but wood, and stones with which to construct the furnace.[3] A mine was opened and a successful effort made to work it. The men employed were provided with food and clothing by the Company, whilst the adventurers of Southampton Hundred allowed them the use of five kine.[4] The cost of setting up the iron works was in 1621 calculated by Sir Edwin Sandys to be four thousand pounds,[5] but it is stated by other authorities to have been as much as five thousand.[6] According to the assertion of the enemies of the Southampton administration, the only practical return which the Company obtained for this enormous outlay was an iron shovel, a pair of tongs,
- ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. I, p. 123.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 67.
- ↑ Relation of Waterhouse, Neill’s Virginia Company of London, p. 338.
- ↑ Company’s Letter to Governor and Council of Virginia, Neill’s Virginia Company of London, p. 310.
- ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. I, p. 122.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. II, p. 148.
