History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia. James William Head
to compress the greatest possible amount of useful information into the smallest compass. Indeed, had I been competent, I doubt that I would have attempted a more elaborate rendition, or drawn more freely upon the language and the coloring of poetry and the imagination. I have therefore to apprehend that the average reader will find them too statistical and laconic, too much abbreviated and void of detail.
However, a disinterested historian I have not been, and should such a charge be preferred I shall look for speedy exculpation from the discerning mass of my readers.
In this connection and before proceeding further I desire to say that my right to prosecute this work can not fairly be questioned; that a familiar treatment of the subject I have regarded as my inalienable prerogative. I was born in Loudoun County, of parents who in turn could boast the same distinction, and, if not all, certainly the happiest days of my life were passed within those sacred precincts. I have viewed her housetops from every crowning eminence, her acres of unmatched grain, her Arcadian pastures and browsing herds, her sun-kissed hills and silvery, serpentine streams. I have known the broad, ample playgrounds of her stately old Academy, and shared in the wholesome, health-giving sports their breadth permitted. I have known certain of her astute schoolmasters and felt the full rigor of their discipline. Stern tutors they were, at times seemingly cruel, but what retrospective mind will not now accord them unstinted praise and gratitude? Something more than the mere awakening and development of slumbering intellects was their province: raw, untamed spirits were given into their hands for a brief spell—brief when measured in after years—and were then sent forth to combat Life's problems with clean hearts, healthy minds, robust bodies, and characters that might remain unsullied though beset with every hellish device known to a sordid world. God bless the dominies of our boyhood—the veteran schoolmasters of old Loudoun!
But to return to my theme. I have a distinct foresight of the views which some will entertain and express in reference to this work, though my least fears of criticism are from those whose experience and ability best qualify them to judge.
However, to the end that criticism may be disarmed even before pronouncement, the reader, before condemning any statements made in these sketches that do not agree with his preconceived opinions, is requested to examine all the facts in connection therewith. In so doing it is thought he will find these statements correct in the main.
In such a variety of subjects there must of course be many omissions, but I shall be greatly disappointed if actual errors are discovered.
In substantiation of its accuracy and thoroughness I need only say that the compilation of this work cost me three years of nocturnal application—the three most ambitious and disquieting years of the average life. During this period the entire book has been at least three times rewritten.
In the best form of which I am capable the fruits of these protracted labors are now committed to the candid and, it is hoped, kindly judgment of the people of Loudoun County.
James W. Head.
"Arcadia,"
Barcroft, Va., Feb. 1, 1909.
Descriptive.
SITUATION.
Loudoun County lies at the northern extremity of "Piedmont Virginia,"[1] forming the apex of one of the most picturesquely diversified regions on the American continent. Broad plains, numerous groups and ranges of hills and forest-clad mountains, deep river gorges, and valleys of practically every conceivable form are strewn to the point of prodigality over this vast undulatory area.
[1] "Piedmont" means "foot of the mountain." "Piedmont Virginia," with a length of 250 miles and an average width of about 25 miles, and varying in altitude from 300 to 1,200 feet, lies just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and comprises the counties of Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison, Greene, Orange, Albemarle, Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, Franklin, Henry, and Patrick. It is a portion of the belt that begins in New England and stretches thence southward to Georgia and Alabama.
The particular geographic location of Loudoun has been most accurately reckoned by Yardley Taylor, who in 1853 made a governmental survey of the county. He placed it "between the latitudes of 38° 52–½" and 39° 21" north latitude, making 28–½" of latitude, or 33 statute miles, and between 20" and 53–½" of longitude west from Washington, being 33–½" of longitude, or very near 35 statute miles."
Loudoun was originally a part of the six million acres which, in 1661, were granted by Charles II, King of England, to Lord Hopton, Earl of St. Albans, Lord Culpeper, Lord Berkeley, Sir William Morton, Sir Dudley Wyatt, and Thomas Culpeper. All the territory lying between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers to their sources was included in this grant, afterwards known as the "Fairfax Patent," and still later as the "Northern Neck of Virginia."
"The only conditions attached to the conveyance of this domain, the equivalent of a principality, were that one-fifth of all the gold and one-tenth of all the silver discovered within its limits should be reserved for the royal use, and that a nominal rent of a few pounds sterling should be paid into the treasury at Jamestown each year. In 1669 the letters patent were surrendered by the existing holders and in their stead new ones were issued. … The terms of these letters required that the whole area included in this magnificent gift should be planted and inhabited by the end of twenty-one years, but in 1688 this provision was revoked by the King as imposing an impracticable condition."[2]
[2] Bruce's Economic History of Virginia.
The patentees, some years afterward, sold the grant to the second Lord Culpeper, to whom it was confirmed by letters patent of King James II, in 1688. From Culpeper the rights and privileges conferred by the original grant descended through his daughter, Catherine, to her son, Lord Thomas Fairfax, Baron of Cameron—a princely heritage for a young man of 20 years.
BOUNDARIES.
The original boundaries of Loudoun County were changed by the following act of the General Assembly, passed January 3, 1798, and entitled "An Act for adding part of the county of Loudoun to the county of Fairfax, and altering the place of holding courts in Fairfax County."
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That all that part of the county of Loudoun lying between the lower boundary thereof, and a line to be drawn from the mouth of Sugar Land run, to Carter's mill, on Bull run, shall be, and is hereby added to and made part of the county of Fairfax: Provided always, That it shall be lawful for the sheriff of the said county of Loudoun to collect and make distress for any public dues or officers fees, which shall remain unpaid by the inhabitants of that part of the said county hereby added to the county of Fairfax, and shall be accountable for the same in like manner as if this act had not been made.
2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for a majority of the acting justices of the peace for the said county of Fairfax, together with the justices of the county of Loudoun included within the part thus added to the said county of Fairfax, and they are hereby required at a court to be held in the month of April or May next, to fix on a place for holding courts therein at or as near the center thereof (having regard to that part of the county of Loudoun hereby added to the said county of Fairfax) as the situation and convenience will admit of; and thenceforth proceed to erect the necessary public buildings at such place, and until such buildings be completed, to appoint any place for holding courts as they shall think proper.
3. This act shall commence