Spotswood, George W.

Born: 1782 Orange County, Virginia

Died: 1844-11-24 Springfield, Illinois

Alternate name: Spottswood

A relative of George Washington, Spotswood was a midshipman in the U.S. Navy from 1799-1803, and he was a lieutenant in the Virginia militia during the War of 1812. From 1825 to 1829, he was a hotel keeper at the University of Virginia, and after leaving Charlottesville, he lived in Kanawha County, Virginia, before settling in Illinois. Spotswood opened the Rural Hotel in Springfield, Illinois, in May 1836. He gained an appointment as postmaster of the city in 1841. He died at the age of 62, after a "lingering illness."

David B. Mattern, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, and Anne Mandeville Colony, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Retirement Series (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013), 2:660–61; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 21 May 1836, 3:1; 27 August 1841, 2:1; 28 November 1844, 2:7; Philip Alexander Bruce, History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919 (New York: Macmillan, 1922), 2:222-24.