Alexander Spotswood (1676-6 June 1740) was the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722, succeeding Robert Hunter and preceding Hugh Drysdale.
Biography[]
Alexander Spotswood was born in English Tangier, Morocco in 1676, a descendant of King Robert II of Scotland. He served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army during the War of the Spanish Succession serving as John Churchill's quartermaster; he was wounded at the Battle of Blenheim. In 1710, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, and he took part in the 1718 expedition to the Ocracoke Inlet of North Carolina that led to the death of the famed pirate Blackbeard. In 1722, he was recalled from his Lieutenant-Governorship, and he retired to his estate in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, which was named after him.