Revolutionary War Militia Stirrup, recovered at Williamsburg, VA (SOLD)

This is a very interesting piece being offered; it is a Revolutionary War iron Militia stirrup, ca. 1770 - 1790. It measures 5 ¾” x 5” x 2” and weighs 12-ounces. This unique stirrup was dug years ago by a local resident at Williamsburg, Virginia at the Eastern area Peninsula.

Williamsburg was the capital of the Virginia colony from 1699 until 1779. Plotted on land first used by Virginia Indians, it was settled by the English during and just after the Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622–1632) and called Middle Plantation, for its location equidistant between the York and James rivers. In subsequent years, wealth and political prestige gradually shifted upriver from the first seat of English government, at Jamestown, and talk of moving the capital gained momentum during Bacon’s Rebellion (1676–1677), when rebels burned the statehouse.

The Crown did not agree to move the capital until after the establishment of the College of William and Mary at Middle Plantation, in 1693, and another fire at the statehouse, in 1698. In 1699, Middle Plantation became Williamsburg, after King William III, and the colony’s new capital. At the behest of the General Assembly, officials laid out streets and began building a new statehouse.

Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood oversaw the construction of a powder magazine (1715), the enlargement of Bruton Parish Church (1715), a public theater (1718), and the completion of the Governor’s Palace (1722). When the statehouse burned and smallpox hit in 1748, officials briefly considered, but then rejected, the idea of moving the capital, paving the way for a boom in building and population growth.

During the Revolutionary War, Virginia’s royal governor dissolved the General Assembly and fled the city. After British troops invaded Virginia in 1779, Governor Thomas Jefferson moved the capital to Richmond.

This is a solid piece and a very early artifact, something that is rarely found. This would make a great to just about any collection.