William Francisco Spotswood

William Francisco Spotswood (February 16, 1827 – April 13, 1895) was an American druggist and politician who served as president of the city council and school board of Petersburg, Virginia.

Early life Spotswood was born on February 16, 1827 in Petersburg, Virginia. He was the third, but eldest surviving, son of Dandridge Spotswood (1787–1849) and Catharine Brooke ( Francisco) Spotswood (1801–1863). and Eliza Robertson Spotswood. a soldier in the American Revolutionary War who fought at the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. His paternal great-great grandparents were Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood (himself the great-grandson of John Spotswood and wife Rachel ( Lindsay) Spotswood), and Elizabeth Butler Brayne (a godchild of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormond). His maternal grandparents were Catherine ( Fauntleroy) Brooke and Peter Francisco, a Portuguese-born American blacksmith who fought for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

Career Spotswood attended the Petersburg Classical Institute intending to study medicine at the University of Virginia, but the death of his father in September 1849, changed his plans, and he became a druggist and apothecary. He then became a successful merchant, and was considered "trained more and better druggists than any man in the State." For over ten years, he served as treasurer of the Petersburg Gas Company, and for twenty years was president of the Aqueduct Company, succeeding the Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court William T. Joynes. During the Civil War, he worked in hospital service with Dr. Porcher and Dr. Hines of the medical staff of the Confederate States Army. He also saw active duty, and was stationed at Battery Five on the river the week prior to the First Battle of Petersburg on June 9, 1864. he married Philadelphia socialite Katherine "Kitty" Wolff, the daughter of Dr. Lawrence Wolff in 1904. They divorced and she married Count Erwein von Schönborn-Buchheim in 1911. They too divorced in 1924 and she married Baron Eugène von Rothschild in 1925. Isabella Maitland Spotswood (1873–1877), who died young. James Dunlop Spotswood (1877–1882), who died young. Martha Bogle Dunlop Spotswood (1885–1981), who died unmarried.

Spotswood died on April 13, 1895 in Petersburg and was buried at Blandford Cemetery there.