the very brief account I printed off yesterday, from the 1722 book  
printed in London [Beverly's "History of Virginia", second edition]  
and thence to the 1860 book ["History of the Colony and Ancient  
Dominion of Virginia" by Charles Campbell], says that a Mrs. Susan  
Bott of Petersburg had seen a golden horseshoe that had belonged to  
Spotswood, and it was small enough to be worn on a watch chain. One  
of the horseshoes was said to still be in the possession of the  
family of Brooke [did it survive the Civil War?]. A glass stopper to  
a small bottle was dug up in the yard at Chelsea, the property of a  
daughter of Spotswood, in King William County, and it had a horseshoe  
stamped on it.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Jan 28, 2007, at 2:34 PM, Lonny J. Watro wrote:

> At this URL you'll find the debate:
> http://www.germanna.org/history.html#marker
>
> Quoted from the above URL...
>
> The Knights of the Horseshoe
> In August 1716, Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood led a group of men  
> on a trip that has become known as the exploration to the Blue  
> Ridge Mountains of Virginia. This group of men later became known  
> in fiction as "The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" and Reverend  
> Jones in his history of Virginia says they were given a gold  
> horseshoe in commemoration of their famous journey. No proof of  
> this gold horseshoe has ever been found so the  story was probably  
> a creation of Jones and later perpetuated by Caruthers in his 1834  
> fantasy "The Knights of the Horseshoe". Fontaine's Journal makes no  
> mention of any gift given by Spotswood at the end of the  
> expedition. From Fontaine's Journal: "...and at four we came to  
> Germanna. The Governor thanked the Gentlemen for their assistance  
> in the expedition. Mr. Mason left us at five. I went and swam in  
> the Rappahannoc (sic) river and returned to the town."
>
> The men in the party were Spotswood; John Fontaine, who wrote a  
> journal of his observations of the journey that has been an  
> invaluable resource for research by historians through the years;  
> Beverley, the noted historian of Virginia in 1703; Colonel  
> Robertson; Austin Smith; Todd; Dr. Robinson; Taylor; Brooke; Mason;  
> and Captains Clouder and Smith. The entire party also included  
> rangers, Indians, and numerous servants who made the total number  
> of the party approximately fifty persons.
>
> In Hugh Jones' fanciful "History of Virginia", published in 1724,  
> the following is stated:
>
>
>  "Governor Spotswood, when he undertook the great discovery of the  
> Passage over the Mountains, attended with a sufficient guard, and  
> pioneers and gentlemen, with a sufficient stock of provisions, with  
> abundant fatigue passed these Mountains, and cut His Majesty's name  
> in a rock upon the highest of them, naming it Mount George; and in  
> complaisance the gentlemen, from the governor's name, called the  
> mountain next in height Mount Alexander.
>
>  For this expedition they were obliged to provide a great quantity  
> of horse shoes [things seldom used in the lower parts of the  
> country, where there are few stones]; upon which account the  
> Governor, upon their return, presented each of his companions with  
> a golden horse shoe [some of which I have seen studded with  
> valuable stones, resembling the heads of nails] with this  
> inscription on the one side: SIC JUVAT TRANSCENDERE MONTES; and on  
> the other is written the tramontane order."
>
> Part of Jones' account is again contradicted by Fontaine when he  
> states:
>
> "The Governor had graving irons but could not grave any thing, the  
> stones were so hard. I graved my name on a tree by the river side  
> and the governor buried a bottle with a paper enclosed in which he  
> writ that he took possession of this place in the name and for King  
> George 1st of England."
>
>
> End Quote
>
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