James Hunter and His Iron Works

Presented by Kathi Lynn Austin, Freedom Forge Foundation, and Jerrilynn Eby MacGregor, Stafford County Historical Society. During the American Revolutionary War, James Hunter was one of the largest producers of arms and supplies to the Continental Troops. Born into a well-established mercantile family near Glasgow, Scotland, James Hunter arrived in America in the mid-1740s where he began, over the course of the next three decades to, along the Rappahannock River near Falmouth, construct and refine what would soon be called "...the greatest Iron Works that is upon the Continent" as his business grew into arguably the largest manufacturing facility in Colonial America.

Despite his involvement in helping to build the foundations of America and ensure patriot victory during the Revolutionary War, Hunter's Iron Works and his gun-making subsidiary, Rappahannock Forge, are almost forgotten to this day. The Freedom Forge Foundation, headed by Kathi Lynn Austin, looks to preserve and interpret…