You got it half right.....
(PhysOrg.com) -- Sunspot formation is triggered by a magnetic field, which scientists say is steadily declining. They predict that by 2016 there may be no remaining sunspots, and the sun may stay spotless for several decades. The last time the sunspots disappeared altogether was in the 17th and 18th century, and coincided with a lengthy cool period on the planet known as the Little Ice Age.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news203746768.html#jCp
December 1776....at the tail end of the mini ice age:
This name was coined to tie together all the different global cooling events which took place, which produced the very coldest series of British winters for millenni
Check out the thickness of the ice on the Thames river London.