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20
Governor Lord Dunmore probably agreed to this bill because he
assumed that the Ohio Company was no longer a threat to his own specula-
tive interests in western lands. He also may have relented to the
persuasions of John Ballendine of Fairfax, Virginia. Ballendine was
engaged in iron production in a number of locations in Virginia, including
along the Potomac, and it had been he who had forfeited his Occoquan
Mills in 1765 to his creditor, John Semple,for non-payment of debt.
Drawing on Semple's ideas after he noticed the increased interest in
opening the Potomac, Ballendine had developed his own plan to open the
river. He arranged for a formal meeting in May 1772 with Governor Lord
Dunmore, Governor Robert Eden of Maryland, Lord Fairfax, and other
prominent men of both Maryland and Virginia. This group subsequently
endorsed Ballendine's integrity and his proposals to open the Potomac. 34
The group also realized that there was a lack of expertise in river
improvements in the colonies, so they funded Ballendine to go to Europe
to study canal and lock technology and to raise money among English
speculators. Before he left Ballendine also sought the aid of Johnson's
supporters, and many of them including Johnson himself, agreed to take
subscriptions for Ballendine while he was abroad. 35
34U.S. Congress, House, Report of the Committee on Roads and Canals,
House Rept. 90, 19th Congress, 2nd session, 1827, pp. 23-28; Broadside of
John Ballendine, Potomac Company Miscellaneous Accounts, Records of the
National Park Service, Item 179, National Archives, Washington, D.C. The
endorsement of Ballendine's integrity apparently was necessary. Ballendine
had already been involved in a number of enterprises, not all of which
had been managed in the wisest possible manner. Later schemes brought him
into direct conflict with the State of Virginia. See Randolph 4d. Church,
"John Ballendine: Unsuccessful Entrepreneur of the Eighteenth Century,"
Virginia Cavalcade 8 (Spring 1959): 39-46.
35Scharf, History of Maryland, p. 518; Broadside of John Ballendine
Potomac Company Miscellaneous Accounts, Records of the National Park
Service, Item 179, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Ballendine listed
those who would take subscriptions for him on this broadside.
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