USA > Virginia > Virginia county names : two hundred and seventy years of Virginia history > Part 3
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In connection with the Virginia county, it is interesting to note that the North Carolina county of Richmond, formed in 1779, was named after Charles Lennox, third Duke of Richmond (and probably a grandson of the first Duke of Richmond), who was a friend of the colonies in the English Parliament. A descendant of the first Duke of Richmond was Governor-General of Canada for some years during the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Thomas, the sixth Baron of Fairfax, was born in England in 1691, and died in 1782 at his large country mansion, "Greenway Court," twelve miles from Winchester, Va. He came to Virginia in 1739, but soon re- turned to England. In 1742, during his ab- sence from Virginia, a part of his estates was organized into a county and named Fairfax in his honor. In 1745 Lord Fairfax settled
""Century Cyclopedia of Names," under Charles Lennox.
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Virginia County Names
permanently on his Virginia lands. Sixteen of the present counties of the State8-Lan- caster, Northumberland, Richmond, West- moreland, Stafford, King George, Prince Wil- liam, Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Clarke, Madison, Page, Shenandoah, and Frederick-and the seven West Virginia counties of Hampshire, Hardy, Morgan, Ber- keley, Jefferson, Grant, and Mineral, be- longed to the cultivated and hospitable old bachelor.
Lord Fairfax employed young Washing- ton to make surveys on his vast domain, and the two men formed a strong and lifelong friendship for each other. Sir Thomas's home was often the resort of guests, and his friendliness and generosity made him uni- versally esteemed. During the Revolution he remained loyal to George III, but neither American nor Briton would harm the prop- erty of the genial old gentleman.
Albemarle county, organized in 1744, was named after William Anne Keppel, second Earl of Albemarle, who had been appointed Governor-in-chief of Virginia seven years be- fore. The earl never occupied the govern-
8Footnote, p. 236, Howe's "Virginia History." Grant and Mineral counties in West Virginia have been organ- ized from Hampshire and Hardy since Howe wrote.
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Thirteen Named After Englishmen
or's chair, and Virginia was under deputy governors during the seventeen years that he was nominally her chief executive.
Keppel was born in England in 1702; at fifteen years of age was made captain in the English army, and was successively promoted for meritorious conduct until 1743, when he became Lieutenant-General. His excellent military record doubtless led to his being made governor of Virginia.
The Earl of Loudoun and General Am- herst, prominent officers of the French and Indian War, were his successors in the guber- natorial office, though, like Keppel, neither of them actually performed the functions of that office. Lord Albemarle had a fine figure and courtly manners, but his habits were so ex- travagant that he was kept heavily in debt. He died in Paris at the age of fifty-two.
Keppel must not be confused with General George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, who re- stored the Stuarts to the throne in 1660. The duke was one of the eight original grantees of Carolina, and his name still lives in the North Carolina Albemarle Sound.
In 1757, when Loudoun county9 was formed, Lord Loudoun was commander of
There is a Loudon county, Tennessee, and the Vir- ginia county is sometimes incorrectly spelled without the u.
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Virginia County Names
the British troops in America, and hence his name is given to one of the fairest of Vir- ginia counties. Loudoun had been appointed governor of Virginia in the same year, but his military duties in the North prevented him from assuming the office. He proved, how- ever, an utterly incompetent general. After he had left northern New York almost de- fenseless in order to increase the army he was leading against the strong French fortress at Louisburg, the enemy gained important suc- cesses on the unprotected frontier. Loudoun's efforts resulted in no advantage to the Brit- ish, for he did not deem his forces strong enough to carry on the siege, and so the English retired from Louisburg without ac- complishing anything.
Very different was the military career of General Amherst, whom Pitt, the new Eng- lish Prime Minister, appointed in Loudoun's place in 1758. Louisburg was soon taken, and the English arms were nearly every- where successful. The fall of Quebec in 1760 virtually ended the war, and, by the terms of the treaty of peace made in 1763, the French yielded to the English all their territory in North America except. several small islands near Newfoundland. Am-
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Thirteen Named After Englishmen
herst county's name, which was given in 1761, fairly indicates the joyful pride that Virginia felt in the successful general. Amherst was appointed governor of Virginia in 1763, but he did not assume the office, and hence Fau- quier continued to serve.
In 1748, when the Earl of Chesterfield had just ended his brilliant public career in Great Britain, the Virginia county was named in his honor. The earl had been many years both in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords, but his greatest political success was his able administration as Lord-Lieuten- ant of Ireland. His courtly grace and pol- ished dignity made "Chesterfield manners" proverbial; and to say that one is a "regular Lord Chesterfield" is merely an emphatic way of affirming a complete fulfilment of the laws of etiquette. Chesterfield lived twenty- five years after his retirement to private life, and spent much of his time in correspondence. His letters,10 like his manners, are models of style.
In 1749 the English Earl of Halifax founded in Nova Scotia the famous seaport
10 Chesterfield's letters are valuable also as original sources of history. They give an inner picture of court life and of the royal family.
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Virginia County Names
city that bears his name. The county that contains the city is also called Halifax, in honor of the earl. Three years later Vir- ginia followed Nova Scotia's example by or- ganizing a Halifax county also. In 1758 North Carolina, too, named a county after the Earl of Halifax.
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was hardly surpassed in popularity or influence by any English statesman of the eighteenth century, though William Gladstone held nearly the same place in English hearts in the nineteenth century that William Pitt did 140 years ago. Nearly half of Pitt's seventy years of life was spent in public service, and the successful termination of the war in Canada in 1763 was due to his sound judgment in the choice of generals. Pitt's part in securing the repeal of the odious Stamp Act of 1766 was so well known that the General Assemblies of Massa- chusetts and Virginia gave him a vote of thanks for his efforts in their behalf. The grateful Virginians named Pittsylvania county after him the next year, and its county seat is called Chatham, from the earl's title. The city of Pittsburg in Pennsylvania is also named after William Pitt.
Greenville (sometimes spelled Green-es-
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ville) county was formed in the latter part of 1780. I am divided between two explana- tions of the name, as it may come either from Sir Richard Temple Grenville, sometimes spelled Greenville, a brother-in-law of Wil- liam Pitt, or from General Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame. Both explanations have much to recommend them, and while I credit the name to the English nobleman, I regard it equally as probable that it should be credited to the Revolutionary patriot.
A sketch of General Greene is given else- where,11 and a few words must suffice here. After ably fulfilling the duties of quarter- master-general of the Revolutionary army for two years, Greene was transferred to the com- mand of the army in the South in the autumn of 1780. In October of that year he had presided over the tribunal that convicted the brave but unfortunate André. At the time that Greenville county was formed, the name of General Greene was already loved and honored in the South, and his movements were eagerly and anxiously watched by the patriotic Virginians. What Greene did or failed to do was going to mean much to the South and to Virginia, much to the very ex-
Pp. 113-114.
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Virginia County Names
istence of the nation. What man could Vir- ginia at that time more fittingly honor in the naming of a new county ?12
Sir Richard Temple Grenville was born in 17II, and after an active life in politics, dur- ing which he showed himself to be a friend to liberty, he died in 1779, one year before the Virginia county of Greenville was formed. He was a brother-in-law of William Pitt, who had died in 1778, and was a patron of John Wilkes, the English politician and po- litical agitator who became a popular hero by his fearless attacks on the English ministry and King George III. Wilkes, after being several times elected to Parliament and kept from taking his seat on the ground that he was ineligible, was elected and seated in 1774, and continued in Parliament until 1790. In
1777 Wilkes county, North Carolina, was named after the English friend of liberty. In addition to his connection, private and po- litical, with William Pitt, so highly esteemed in the colonies, and his friendship for John Wilkes, Grenville was supposed by many to have been the author of the "Letters of Ju- nius," that were such masterly attacks on the
12The county clerk of Greenville, 1895, unhesitatingly said that the county was named after General Greene.
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English government at a time when the col- onies were feeling the weight of English op- pression.
The probability that the Virginia county was named after Sir Richard Grenville is heightened by the fact that North Carolina, in 1777, named three counties, Burke, Cam- den, and Wilkes, after English friends to the colonies, and in 1779 named Richmond county after another English friend.
The chief objection to the theory that Greenville county is named after General Greene is that the county is named Greenville, and not Greene. A further objection is the fact that in 1838 Virginia named Greene county in honor of the Revolutionary patriot, which she would hardly have done if one Vir- ginia county were already named after Greene. It is, of course, possible that the older county was named in honor of the gen- eral, and that this fact was forgotten or over- looked when the new county was named.
The Marquis of Rockingham, after whom the Virginia county was named in 1777, was far inferior to William Pitt in ability; yet, as the leader of the liberal party among the aristocrats in England, he proved himself to be the true friend of America. He was
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Virginia County Names
Prime Minister of England in 1765-66, and, from that time, headed the opposition to the war ministry of Lord North. In 1782, when the party in favor of making peace with America came into power, Rockingham be- came Prime Minister again, but died a few months after assuming the office.
These thirteen counties are pretty widely scattered throughout the State. Loudoun and Fairfax are the most northern of them, and are watered by Potomac streams. Fair- fax is rendered more attractive when it is re- membered that Mount Vernon, the home and burial place of Washington, is within its bor- ders. At Oak Hill in Loudoun county is the home where President Monroe resided for part of the time after his retirement from the Presidency.
Rockingham is a large county that lies be- tween the Blue Ridge and Great North moun- tains in the Shenandoah Valley, and it is drained by waters that enter the beautiful Shenandoah River.
Albemarle, in north-central Virginia, has beautiful mountain and river scenery. In this county is Charlottesville, which contains the University of Virginia. This institution, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson, has
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long held the first place among Southern uni- versities. Jefferson was born in Albemarle, and also died there; and near Charlottesville is Monticello, his home and burial place. Al- bemarle produces excellent grapes, and the "Albemarle pippin" is probably more widely and favorably known than any other apple.
In 1842, when Mr. Andrew Stevenson, a citizen of Albemarle county, represented the United States at the English court, he caused several barrels of Albemarle pippins to be presented to Queen Victoria.13 From that time until her death the pippin was the apple eaten at the Court of St. James'; and it may be that King Edward keeps up the custom of his mother. At any rate, the pippin has a wonderful popularity in England now. Mr. C. E. Sydnor, the Richmond fruit ex- pert, received, in the summer of 1907, an or- der from a wholesale fruit merchant of Eng- land for 20,000 barrels of pippins. This order, at $6.50 a barrel in London, would represent about $130,000. Sydnor also re- ceived an order from Copenhagen, Denmark, for 5000 barrels of pippins. Some years ago a university student sent as a Christmas pres-
13Charlottesville Daily Progress, July 9, 1907.
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Virginia County Names
ent a barrel of choice pippins from Char- lottesville to his sweetheart in Louisiana. He took the writer with him to help select the apples, and the two sampled the fruit before it was shipped. Well, if those apples didn't win that girl, she must be proof against all the wiles of crafty lovers !
Amherst county has the Blue Ridge on its northwestern border, while the James River adjoins it on the south for a distance of fifty miles.14
Pittsylvania and Halifax counties lie to- gether on the North Carolina border, and are watered by the Staunton and the Dan rivers. Both are unusually large counties, and Pittsyl- vania is exceeded in population by Henrico and Norfolk only.
Chesterfield is southeast of the State's center, and is surrounded on all except its northwest side by the James and Appomattox rivers. Matoaca, a town of seven hundred in- habitants on the north bank of the Appomat- tox not far from Petersburg, bears a private name of Pocahontas,15 the Indian princess. Matoaca was the early home of John Ran-
14Whitehead's "Virginia Handbook," p. 202.
'Howe's "Virginia," p. 229.
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Thirteen Named After Englishmen
dolph of Roanoke. Numerous Indian relics have been found there, and the place seems to have been a favorite resort with the Indians. Indeed, we assume that Pocohontas herself must have loved the neighborhood, for not far from Matoaca is a small place, not a post of- fice, but a station on the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, called Pocahontas; and in Amelia county is Mattoax, which is simply another rendering of the Indian girl's name.
Warwick and Southampton counties are in southern Virginia, with the Isle of Wight county between them. Warwick county is in the southeastern part of the peninsula formed by the James and York rivers. Its original name was Warwick River county,16 though the "River" was dropped before 1672. The county has greatly increased in population since Newport News began its growth.
Southampton county is drained by the Meherrin, Nottoway, and Blackwater rivers. In Southampton occurred a slave insurrection under Nat Turner in 1831. Fifty-nine whites were murdered in cold blood, most of them women and children. The rising was promptly suppressed and Turner and about a
16Martin's "Virginia Gazeteer," p. 288.
6
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Virginia County Names
dozen of his followers were hanged. The negro leader claimed to have received revela- tions from heaven directing him to the step. The outbreak was not caused by cruelty of the whites to their slaves, for Turner con- fessed that his master treated him kindly.
As has been said, Northampton county is the southern part of the "Eastern Shore" of Virginia, Accomac comprising the northern part. Sulgrave, the ancestral home of the Washingtons, is in Northampton.
Richmond, in the "Northern Neck," the peninsula formed by the Potomac and Rappa- hannock rivers, is hemmed in by the Rappa- hannock River and by Westmoreland, North- umberland, and Lancaster counties.
Greenville county, on the North Carolina line, separates Brunswick from Sussex and Southampton, and is watered by the Meherrin and Nottoway rivers.
TWELVE COUNTIES NAMED AFTER ENGLISH SHIRES.
NEW KENT, . Organized 1654
SURRY, . Organized 1652
NORFOLK, Organized 1691
SUSSEX, Organized 1754
BUCKINGHAM, . Organized 1761
BEDFORD,
Organized
1753
STAFFORD, Organized
I666
WESTMORELAND, Organized 1653
NORTHUMBERLAND, . Organized 1648
LANCASTER, . Organized
1651
ESSEX,
Organized 1692
MIDDLESEX, Organized 1675
CHAPTER VII
TWELVE COUNTIES NAMED AFTER ENGLISH SHIRES
Seventeen Virginia counties have names that correspond to those of shires in England. Five of these names, however, are probably derived from titles of nobility with which prominent Englishmen were honored. Glou- cester and York were nearly certainly named after two1 of King Charles I's sons, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and James, Duke of York. Cumberland county is named after Prince William, Duke of Cumberland and son of George II, King of England; Warwick county2 takes its name from the Earl of War- wick, a prominent member of the London Company for Virginia, and Northampton county3 is nearly certainly named after Spen- cer Compton, Earl of Northampton, who fell fighting for King Charles in the civil war of 1642-49. Bedford county, too, may possi-
1See antea, pp. 34-35. "See antea, p. 64. 3See antea, p. 66.
(85)
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Virginia County Names
bly be named after an English duke, though it is classed among the counties named after the English shires.
Of the remaining twelve counties given in the list above, the names of two, New Kent and Surry, can be traced with certainty.
New Kent is so named from the shire of Kent in England, and is a small tidewater county north of Henrico and Charles City. There are five Kent counties in the United . States: in Rhode Island, Delaware, Mary- land, Michigan, and Texas; and it is almost safe to assume that the first three names are taken directly from the English shire, for these are old colonial counties and named when the States were loyal to England.
In New Kent county, on the banks of the Pamunkey River, is the mansion called the "White House," which occupies the site of the one in which Washington was married.
About five miles from the mouth of Ware Creek, a tributary of the York River, and twenty-two miles from Jamestown, stand the ruins of the "The Old Stone House." This building, though not completed, was strongly made and well suited for defense. Captain
*Campbell's "History of Virginia," p. 74.
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Twelve Named After English Shires
John Smith describes just such a fort that was partly built in 1608-09, but never finished, be- cause the workmen had to stop building in order to provide a food supply.5 If this be Captain Smith's fort, it is probably the oldest building erected by the English in America.
Surry county takes its name from the shire of Surrey, spelled with an e in England6 The only other Surry county in the United States is in North Carolina, which State fol- lows Virginia in leaving out the original e. The North Carolina county is named after the English shire.7 Surry is on the south bank of the James River, between Isle of Wight on the east and Prince George on the west. The Blackwater River receives the drainage of the county on the southwest.
Nearly all of the twelve counties that we may assume to have been named after the shires of England are tidewater counties, and ten of them were named before 1700. Buck- ingham and Bedford are the only ones con-
"Howe's "Virginia History," pp. 390-392; Smith's "Vir- ginia," Vol. iii. p. 227.
"Dr. B. W. Green supports me in this view.
"J. C. D. in Appendix Mrs. Cornelia P. Spencer's North Carolina History.
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Virginia County Names
taining mountains. Five of the thirteen - Norfolk, Sussex, Buckingham, Bedford, and Surry-lie south of the James. Surry has al- ready been discussed.
Norfolk and Sussex are flat counties of southeastern Virginia.
Norfolk, bordering on North Carolina, contains the cities of Norfolk and Ports- mouth, which are opposite each other on the Elizabeth River, and are noted for their ex- cellent harbors. The great Jamestown Expo- sition of 1907, held in Norfolk from lack of accommodations at Jamestown, but which commemorated the three hundredth anniver- sary of the landing of the English at James- town, has done much to make this part of Vir- ginia famous.
Norfolk was the second countys of the State in population in 1900, but is now undoubtedly first. The farmers there are unsurpassed for industry and thrift, and agriculture is fol- lowed in a highly scientific manner. The market for vegetables is the earliest in the State, and the "trucking" trade is a source of
8Henrico, with Richmond in it, was first in 1900, but Norfolk county gained on Henrico 2,500 population a year between 1890 and 1900, and in 1900 was only 281 be- hind.
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Twelve Named After English Shires
great wealth. Fish and oysters of excellent quality are abundant, and a large trade in them is carried on.
Norfolk and Nansemond (to the west of Norfolk) counties contain the northern part of the Dismal Swamp; and Lake Drum- mond, so noted for the purity of its water, is about equally divided between the two counties.
Sussex county, a southwest extension of Surry county, from which it was formed, is watered by the Nottoway and Blackwater rivers. Peanuts and cotton are raised, and the yellow pine furnishes valuable lumber.
Buckingham county is centrally located, and the James River forms its northern border. The soil of the river "low-grounds" is very rich, and the scenery, viewed from the bluffs on the James, is beautiful. Gold is mined here, though not extensively.
Bedford, with the James on its northeast border, and with tributaries of the Staunton River furnishing an abundant water supply elsewhere, is hardly surpassed in beauty of scenery by any Virginia county. The Peaks of Otter, with their extended view, are ob- jects of great interest to the tourist. The hotel on the summit of Sharp Top, which is
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Virginia County Names
the peak commanding the best view, is gener- ally open from May I to October 15. The number of guests that visit the hotel is large, and seems to be steadily increasing. The mountain air is peculiarly invigorating, and produces a keen appetite.
As has been intimated, Bedford county may have been named after an English duke, John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford. The duke was born in 1710, and at the time Bed- ford county was formed, 1753, was well known in the public life of England. He had been for three years Secretary of State, 1748- 175I, and it is quite possible that the Virgin- ians named Bedford county in his honor two years after he retired from his high position. All four of the Virginia counties named in the three years 1752-3-4 have names of Eng- lish origin: Halifax, in 1752, after an Eng- lish earl; Prince Edward, in 1753, after a son of the Prince of Wales; Bedford, in 1753, after the English shire or after the English duke; Sussex, in 1754, after an English shire. The Duke of Bedford was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1756-61, and died in 1771, after holding several other high positions.
ºP. 86.
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Twelve Named After English Shires
Of the six other counties named after Eng- lish shires, three-Stafford, Westmoreland, and Northumberland-are separated from Maryland by the Potomac; three-Lancas- ter, Essex, and Middlesex-lie along the banks of the Rappahannock.
With regard to five of these counties, there is hardly any doubt that they take their names from the shires in England; but Stafford county may have been named in another way, though in my classification I place it among the counties named after shires.
Stafford county was formed in 1666 while William Howard, Viscount Stafford, was prominent at the English court; and it may have been named after the English viscount instead of after the English shire. Howard was brought up a Roman Catholic, and was a Royalist during the civil war, though he was often in opposition after the monarchy was restored. He was executed for treason in 1680, on testimony gathered by Titus Oates. He protested his innocence to the last, and there is good reason to believe his protests.
Stafford, in northern Virginia, is watered by the Potomac and Rappahannock. £
Like the other counties bordering on tidewater Potomac, Stafford has an abundance of fish.
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Virginia County Names
Westmoreland is between King George and Northumberland on the Potomac, and the Rappahannock is a part of its southwest bor- der. Westmoreland is famous as the birth- place of great men. Here were born Wash- ington and Monroe, each of whom served eight years as President of the United States. In this county is Stratford, the capacious man- sion built for Thomas Lee,10 the first native- born American that became governor of Vir- ginia. In Stratford were born Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, distinguished signers of the Declaration of Independence. The great Confederate chieftain, Robert Ed- ward Lee, was also born in this house. Gen- eral Henry Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee, was also a native of Westmoreland.
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