most of the other counties had been for it was bounded completely by already established governments. Its creation, however, was in line with the thesis already laid down "to make justice accessible to all", and made court attendance more convenient for dwellers in the northwest portions of Essex, King and Queen and King William.

Three years later, in 1731, a new county was created from the northwest portions of Stafford and King George "above Choppawomsick Creek on Potomac River and Deep Creek on Rappahannock River and a southwest line to be made from the head of the north branch of the said creek to the head of the said Deep Run." This area was to be known as Prince William County honoring by this title, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the King's brother. He was later known as "The Butcher of Culloden" because of the ferocity of his treatment of the Scotch Highlanders after the battle of Culloden in 1745. This battle, so sanguinary and devastating in its effects, wiped out the Stuart sympathizers and there were no further attempts to depose the Hanoverian dynasty from the British throne. The county seat is Manassas, near which were fought two battles of the Civil War.

Brunswick and Migration Southward

In 1720, the Assembly passed an act to be effective in 1721, creating Spotsylvania County as has been mentioned. At the same time, there was an act to form a county from the southern part of Prince George County and name it Brunswick for the Duchy of Brunswick which was then a possession of the Electorate of Hanover. The description is as follows: that Brunswick County should begin "on the south side of the River Roanoke at the place where the line lately run for ascertaining the uncontroverted bounds of this colony towards North Carolina intersects the said river Roanoke and to be bounded by the direction of the governor with consent of council so as to include the southern pass." No steps were taken for carrying out this act because of the small number of settlers in the area, until May 1732, when it was enacted that the earlier legislation become effective the first of January ensuing. Setting up the county government had been made possible by adding parts of Surry and Isle of Wight, thus increasing the the number of tithables and lessening the amount of taxes each would pay. The preamble to the act expresses this thought in more precise phrase when it says "whereas by reason of the small number of tithables in the county of Brunswick the poll taxes must necessarily be very grievous and burthensome to them, which by an addition of parts of the counties of Surry and Isle of Wight would be remedied, and divers of the inhabitants of the two last mentioned counties would thereby also be freed from hardships and inconveniences which at present they labour under."

The reference to the line lately run "between Virginia and North Carolina" is the famous survey made by Col. William Byrd, Major William Mayo, John Irvine and others which forms the subject of The History of the Dividing Line written by Colonel Byrd. The Mayo River in Patrick and Henry Counties perpetuates the name of Major Mayo, the skilled surveyor in the party. The entire boundary was not surveyed then, in fact it was a good many years later before it was necessary to have a clear limit between the two colonies for the entire area.

Brunswick County began to function in 1732 and grew rapidly. The "overwrought ground" mentioned long before had in the interval became a more and more disturbing factor in agriculture. Tobacco was king, it demanded new land, hence new land must be provided. In Brunswick there was not only new land but the sort of land to raise good tobacco profitably, a condition equally true today. Settlers from Essex, King and Queen, Gloucester, York, Elizabeth City and other older counties soon made their way into Brunswick. It may not be amiss to observe that with the better living made possible by better tobacco crops a gastronomic delicacy was developed there, a rich and succulent stew called "Brunswick Stew" in honor of the county. So far as the writer is aware no other county in the state has achieved similar fame.

Orange County Reaches to the Mississippi

In 1734, an expansion to the northwest took place in the creation of Orange County so named to honor William, Prince of Orange, later William III of England. The City of Williamsburg, King William and King and Queen counties had been prior evidences of his popularity. The new division was to embrace that part of Spotsylvania County lying in Saint Mark's Parish "Bounden southerly by the line of Hanover County, northerly by the grant of Lord Fairfax and westerly by the utmost limits of Virginia." This western boundary was the Mississippi River. The Assembly further enacted "for the encouragement of the inhabitants already settled and which shall speedily settle on the westward of Sherrendo (Shenandoah) River" that "all who had established themselves by 1st January 1734/35 should be free of country, county and parish levies for the next three years."

Part of this expansion was due to the natural increase of population, the allure of new settlements where there was greater opportunity for advancement of fortunes, and part to the tide of immigration. Years of warfare in Germany had left ruined communities along the Rhenish Palatinate. For these people, Rotterdam was the most convenient port of embarkation and Philadelphia was often their port of debarkation. Following in the steps of John Van Metre, Adam Miller, Jacob Stover and Jost Hite who had come to the Valley of Virginia between 1725 and 1731, many immigrants, finding land cheaper in Virginia, left Pennsylvania and took up residence in Virginia.

In 1735, the act of the Assembly passed the year before for creating the new county of Amelia became effective. By this act, it was ordered that "the said county of Prince George and that part of the parish of Bristol which lies in the same be divided from the mouth of Namozain Creek up the same to the main, or John Hamlin's, fork of the said creek, thence up the south or lowest branch thereof to White Oak Hunting Path and thence by a south course to strike Nottoway River." The land below these courses retained the name of Prince George. The land lying above these courses bounded "southerly by the Great Nottoway River including part of the county of Brunswick and parish of Saint Andrew as far as to take the ridges between Roanoke and Appomattox Rivers and thence along those ridges to the great mountains westerly by the said mountains and northerly by the southern boundaries of Goochland and Henrico Counties" became Amelia County and Raleigh Parish. The name was in honor of the youngest daughter of George II.

By 1738, people living across the Blue Ridge Mountains found them a barrier to frequent attendance at Orange County Court. For their convenience, a division was ordered. "All that territory and tract of land at present deemed to be a part of the county of Orange lying on the northwest side of the said mountains (Blue Ridge) extending from thence northerly, westerly and southerly beyond the said mountains to the utmost limits of Virginia" shall be "separated from the rest of the said county and erected into two distinct counties and