The Letters of Governor Alexander Spotswood from the 1710s reflect the governor's frustration with the electorate of Virginia and the Virginia House of Burgesses. Alexander Spotswood (1676–1740), a Scot by birth, had served with distinction in the British military. In 1710 he was appointed acting governor of the Virginia Colony, a post he held until 1722. But Spotswood was no colonial revolutionary; he was a product of the British Empire and did his best to balance the conflicting demands of Great Britain and those of the colonists.