Knights of The Golden Horseshoe Expedition - The Expedition

The Expedition

Alexander Spotswood became acting royal governor of Virginia in 1710, by which time pressure on the colony to expand had become more acute than ever. In 1716, Governor Spotswood, with about 50 other men and 74 horses, led a real estate speculation expedition up the Rappahannock River valley during westward exploration of the interior of Virginia. The journalist of this expedition was a Huguenot, Lieut. John Fontaine, who served as an officer in the British Army.

The party included 14 rangers and 4 Meherrin Indians, and departed Germanna on August 29, coming within sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains on August 31. They continued upriver past today's Stanardsville, reaching the head of the Rappahannock on September 2. Fontaine recorded in his journal for September 5 that axemen had to clear the way along the path of what he called the "James River", but which was in fact a creek along the eastern slope named Swift Run, surrounded on all sides by steep mountain terrain. Swift Run is part of the James River drainage system. The expedition had followed the Rappahannock drainage system up to this point.

There they crossed the top ridge of the Blue Ridge mountains at Swift Run Gap (elevation 2,365 feet).

On September 6, 1716, they rode down into the Shenandoah Valley on the east side of Massanutten Mountain and reached the Shenandoah River, which they called the "Euphrates" near the current town of Elkton. There, they fired multiple volleys and drank special toasts of wine, brandy, and claret to the King and to Governor Spotswood, naming the two peaks after them. The taller summit they called "Mount George", and the lesser, "Mount Spotswood".

On the banks of the river they buried a bottle, inside which they had put a paper whereby Spotswood claimed the place in the name of George I. On September 7, the party returned home, reaching Germanna on September 10.

After the journey, Spotswood gave each officer of the expedition a stickpin made of gold and shaped like a horseshoe on which he had inscribed the words in Latin "Sic jurat transcendere montes", which translates into English as "Thus he swears to cross the mountains." The horseshoes were encrusted with small stones and were small enough to be worn from a watch chain. The members of Governor Spotswood's expedition soon became popularly known as the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe."

Of the expedition members, only the following are known by name to have taken part: Lt. Governor Spotswood, John Fontaine, Robert Beverley, Jr., William Robertson, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Todd, James Taylor (great-grandfather of US President Zachary Taylor), Robert Brooke (grandfather of VA Governor Robert Brooke), George Mason III, Capt. Smith, William Clopton, Jr., (second son of William Clopton and Ann Booth Clopton) and Jeremiah Clouder. Edward Sanders, <1839 will of descendant Elijah Sanders mentions great-grandfather "Old Edward Sanders" as a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe.

In a Richmond news article, dated February 16, 1901, honoring John Bacon Clopton, the grandson of William Clopton Jr.. The following is a copy of a handwritten statement, signed and sealed to be found among the John Bacon Clopton papers at Duke University Library, Durhan, North Carolina:

There was in my father's possession a golden horseshoe which the tradition of the family said was worn by William Clopton Jr.. That is had 7 Diamonds set in it the place of nailheads, was inscribed on one side "Sic Juvat Trancsenderi Montes" and on the other "William Clopton, Knight." That as a child I have had it laid in my hand to look at and that it was of a size to encircle the center of my palm. And that this horseshoe was stolen by Pickpocket Smith, a notorious character, who operated among fashionable of Richmond in 1842 or 3. Witness my hand and seal this ninth day of August, 1897. Signed: Joyce Wilkinson Wallace