lutely necessary to the prosperity of the Colony.[1] The colonial officers showed great willingness to respond to this spirit, and seem to have taken some steps looking to the restoration of the furnace.
Five years after the massacre, William Capps, who had a few years before been in correspondence with the Warwick faction among the members of the Company, being at that time a resident of the Colony, was sent by the King to Virginia with a general commission to establish a number of industries, including the manufacture of iron.[2] The Governor and Council expressed the utmost readiness to give Capps all the assistance in their power, but he became involved in trouble very soon, and before he could put any of his plans in operation, was forced to leave the country.[3] A proposition was made to the King in 1628 to incorporate a number of persons residing in England, whose names were subscribed, with special privileges for manufacturing iron in Virginia. They petitioned for the exclusive right, during fourteen years, of producing that commodity in the Colony, and also sought exemption from customs, subsidies, and other duties in importing it into England. There is no evidence that this charter was granted, but the desire to obtain it indicates that the demand for iron in the mother country
- ↑ Company’s Letter to Governor and Council in Virginia, 1622, Neill’s Virginia Company of London, p. 329. In a letter from the Company, dated Aug. 6. 1623, they state that they send over nineteen to make iron by a “blomery.” These men were to be assisted by private persons, who were to receive shares in their profit. If such persons declined to take any part in it, the tenants of the Company were to be required to give aid. The iron workers were to be seated at Martin’s Hundred, or “some commodious place.” Randolph MSS., vol. III, p. 174.
- ↑ King to Governor and Council of Virginia, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. IV, No. 32; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1627, p. 164, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Examinations taken Nov. 2, 1629, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. V, No. 32; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1629, p. 209, Va. State Library.
