Legends of Loudoun Part 8

The county lieutenant, first officer in rank but, in the present instance, the last to be chosen, was not commissioned until December, 1757, when Francis Lightfoot Lee, son of our old friend Thomas Lee, was selected and settled himself on lands which he had inherited from his father and which were within the boundaries of the new county. His residence in Loudoun, however, did not prove to be permanent, for upon his marriage in 1769, to Miss Rebecca Tayloe of Mount Airy, he removed to Menokin on the Rappahannock where he continued to reside until his death, without issue, in the winter of 1797; but as a result of his frontier experience he was always thereafter called "Loudoun" by his brothers.[79] In addition to his position as county lieutenant he and James Hamilton served as the first Burgesses from Loudoun and continuously so acted for a number of years.

[79] _Landmarks_, I., 327 and 344.

The first county surveyor was recognized at the court held on the 9th August, 1757, when "George West, Gent. produced a Commission to be Surveyor of this County and thereupon he took the Oath directed by the Act of a.s.sembly and entered into and acknowledged his Bond to the President and Masters of the College of William & Mary in Virginia with Charles Binns & Lee Ma.s.sey his Sureties which is Ordered to be recorded."

The first attorneys to qualify to practice law before the Loudoun Court were Hugh West, Benjamin Sebastian, William Elzey, and James Keith.

Few inst.i.tutions of the Northern Neck of those days of slow travel and thin settlement were more important than the inns or as they are usually designated "ordinaries;" and the keeper of an Ordinary was generally a man of parts and consequence in his community. The matter of cost of food, drink and lodging in the public inns was a subject close to the heart of the eighteenth century colonial and Loudoun's Court lost no time in taking control of the ordinaries within its boundaries. Already several were in existence. As early as 1740 William West had acquired land on the Carolina Road near the present Aldie and soon had constructed a dwelling and was keeping an ordinary there. The Loudoun Court on the 9th May, 1759, gave him a license to keep his ordinary for a year--presumably to be annually renewed--but he had been acting as the local Boniface for many years before that. The first Loudoun license for an ordinary, however, was granted on the 10th August, 1757, "to James Coleman to keep Ordinary at his House in this County (at the Sugar Lands) for one Year he with Security having given Bond as the Law directs;" but Coleman, too, had been conducting an ordinary at his residence before then.

On the 12th September, 1759, the court licensed John Moss to keep an Ordinary at Leesburg.

But on the 9th day of August, 1757, the day before it granted its first license to keep ordinary to James Coleman, the court laid down its rules and regulations for Loudoun inn keepers. That the gentlemen justices gave far more detailed attention to the charges for alcoholic refreshment than to the other matters regulated may or may not have been mere coincidence.

"The Court," so runs the record, "proceeded to rate the Liquor for this County as follows:

L S d

For a gallon of rum and so in proportion 8 Nantz Brandy Pr Gallon 10 Peach or Apple Brandy Pr Gallon 6 New England Rum Pr Gallon 2 6 Virginia Brandy from Grain Pr Gallon 4 Arrack the Quart made into Punch 8 For a Quart of White, red or Madeira Wine 2 6 For Royall and other low Wines Pr Quart 1 6 English Strong Beer Pr Quart 1 3 London Beer called Porter Pr Quart 1 Virginia Strong Beer Pr Quart 7-1/2 Cyder the quart Bottle 3-3/4 English Cyder the Quart 1 3 For a Gill of Rum made into Punch with loaf Sugar 6 Ditto with fruit 7-1/2 For ditto with Brown Sugar 3-3/4 For a Hot Diet 9 For a Cold Diet 6 For a Gallon of Corn or Oats 4 Stableage & Fodder for a horse 24 hours or one night 6 Pasturage for a Horse 24 Hours or one night 4 For lodging with clean Sheets 6d. Otherwise nothing All soldiers and Expresses on his Majesty's service paying ready money shall have 1/5 part deducted.

"Ordered that the respective Ordinary keepers in this County do sell according to the above rates in Money or Tobacco at the rate of 12s 6d per hundred and that they do not presume to demand more of any Person whatsoever."

The first deed recorded in Loudoun but on page 2 of the first volume of Deed Books, is dated the 6th day of August, 1757, from Andrew Hutchison "of Loudoun County and Cameron Parish" and runs to his sons John and Daniel, also of Loudoun; it conveys a piece of land "containing by estimation seven hundred acres more or less whereon now lives the said John Huchison and to be equally divided between them." Thus another old and well-known Loudoun family is introduced.

The first will recorded was that of "Evan Thomas of Virginia Coleney in Loudoun County." It was proved at the court held on the 8th day of November, 1757, and its record is followed by a long and interesting inventory of his estate.

For some time prior to the organization of the county there had been a small backwoods settlement, perhaps only a few scattered log houses, near the intersection of the Carolina and old Ridge Roads. This tiny hamlet had dignified itself with the name of George Town in rugged loyalty to King George the Second. Deck and Heaton say that in 1757 a little fort was built there. Protection from attack by the French and Indians was deemed necessary to every frontier settlement. Nicholas Minor, who was a captain in the Virginia Militia and in active service at this period, may have had a hand in the building of this fort and it is probable that he was in military command there. He lived on his nearby plantation of Fruitland and his estate included some sixty acres or more at the intersection of the Carolina and Ridge Roads. In the year 1756, it is believed, he employed John Hough (who, as stated in the last chapter, had in 1744 settled in these backwoods and was acting as a surveyor for Lord Fairfax) to survey this land for a town site. Hough thereupon made his survey and perhaps mapped his first rough draft in 1757, probably making a more carefully detailed copy in 1759, after the establishment of the Town had been formally authorized by the Legislature and Minor had sold off a number of the lots as plotted on the plan. If so, this first rough draft is now lost or has been destroyed and the copy of 1759 was destined for many years also to be involved in mysterious disappearance. Though constantly in use for the first forty years of its existence, through oversight or negligence neither this 1759 "edition," nor the original draft, had been entered on the county records. Then in the latter part of the eighteenth century, the 1759 copy was used as an exhibit in the suit of Cavan vs. Murray, involving land adjacent to the town and in 1798 folded up and filed with the county clerk together with other exhibits in that litigation. The story of its disappearance and recovery is attached to a photostatic copy of the map now before me:

"For generations the mystery of its disappearance has been a subject of speculation and many believed that it had been withdrawn from the public records into private lands, and there held or possibly lost. In November 1928, the bundle containing the papers in the above suit was opened by Charles F. Cochran, and the old plat brought to light, just 130 years after it had been placed there. The paper was worn through at many of the creases, being completely in two through the middle, many minute bits were turned under or hanging only by a shred, and in places there has been shrinkage. Through the courtesy of Dr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, and Col. Lawrence Martin, Chief of the Division of Maps, and in return for permission to file a photostat of the plat in the Library of Congress, the plat was mounted by Mr. William F. Norbeck, the Library's expert in the restoration of old maps. It was due to Mr.

Henry B. Rust of Rockland, near Leesburg that the extended search of the Loudoun County records was made, in which the plat was brought to light, and he has had it framed."[80]

[80] I owe both the copy of the map and its history to Mr. Thomas M.

Fendall of Morrisworth and Leesburg.

This framed map of 1759 was presented to the county, by delivery to Mr.

B. W. Franklin, then county clerk of Loudoun, on the 30th December, 1928, by Mr. E. Marshall Rust, the brother of Henry B. Rust.

Upon the organization of the county, the matter of location and establishment of a county seat had to be determined. It was not, however, until the 15th June, 1758, that the Council of the Colony, by deciding to locate the courthouse of Loudoun on the lands of Nicholas Minor on the old Carolina Road near the crossing of the Alexandria-Keys Gap Highway, fixed the importance of what was to be known as Leesburg.

The order of the Council reads:

"The Council having this day taken under Consideration the most proper Place for establishing the Court House of Loudoun County, it appearing to them that the plantation of Captain Nicholas Minor was the most convenient place and agreeable to the Generality of the People in that County, it was their opinion, and accordingly Ordered, That the Court House for the said County be fixed on the land of the said Minor."

When this order of the Council was made on the 15th June, 1758, the Loudoun Court, as we have seen, had been duly organized and from time to time was meeting for the performance of its duties since the preceding 12th July. Where these early meetings were held does not appear on the records, nor so far as I can learn, is now known. The record of the court's sittings at the time generally begin "At a court held at the courthouse" so that the presumption arises that, for the time being, the residence of one of its members may have been used for that purpose.

Apparently the court was becoming impatient to have an official home and weary of the Council's delay; for at the court's session of the 11th day of July, 1758, or four days before the date of the Council's order, we find that it is, by the Loudoun Court,

"Ordered that the Sheriff of this County Advertise for Workmen to build a Courthouse to meet here at the next Court to agree for the same."

The proposed edifice was so carefully described that we can get a very clear idea of its appearance from the specifications recorded at this session of the 9th August, 1758. It was to be a brick building 28 x 40, with a jury room added sixteen feet square, having "an outside chimney and fireplace, eight feet in the clear from the foundation to the surface, two feet from the surface to the water table four feet, from thence to the joist ten feet." There significantly follows "and also a Prison and Stocks of the same Dimensions as those in Fairfax County for this County."[81]

[81] Loudoun Orders A, 142.

A month later, at the court's sitting of the 12th September, 1758, it was

"Ordered that the courthouse for this County be Built on a Lott of Captain Nicholas Minor's No. 27 and 28 and that he convey the same to William West and James Hamilton Gent. as Trustees in Fee for the use of the County."[82]

[82] Loudoun Orders A, 162.

Nevertheless no deed from Minor actually was obtained until nearly three years later, as will subsequently appear. That shrewd and careful Founder of Leesburg well might have been unwilling to give to the county two of the best lots in his new subdivision until he was abundantly protected; so the deed was not given until the new courthouse was built and any lingering doubt removed from his mind that the county's project would be carried out. At the court's session of the 13th September, 1758, a contract to build the courthouse was confirmed to "Aeneas Campbell Gent." for the sum of 365 pounds current money to be paid in two equal payments, the first on the first day of August next ensuing and the remaining half in the year 1760, Campbell having given a bond for the due performance of his contract. At the same session the contract to build the "Goal and stocks for this county" was confirmed to "Daniel French Gent" for 83 pounds current money to be paid on or before the 20th day of August then next; and it is noted that Campbell and French were the lowest bidders.

The building operations duly progressed. At the court held on the 15th November, 1759, a levy was laid in tobacco for the compensation of county officers and of 29,200 pounds of tobacco for the balance due Campbell, referred to as being "late sheriff" and succeeded by "Nicholas Minor Gt."

Upon completion of the building in 1761 the cautious Captain Minor felt a.s.surance to execute his deed to the county. On the 17th day of June in that year he conveyed to "Francis Lightfoot Lee Gentleman the first Justice named and nominated in the Commission of the Peace for the said County of Loudoun for and in behalf of him the said Francis Lightfoot Lee and the rest of the Justices in the said Commission named and their and his successors" for the nominal consideration of five shillings, "Current Money of Virginia, the two Lots of Land situate lying and being in the Town of Leesburg in the County and Colony aforesaid being the same whereon the Courthouse and Prison now stand laid off and surveyed by John Hough to contain each Lot half an Acre and numbered twenty seven and twenty eight." There were some formal rites attending the transfer of the land and the ancient "livery of seizin" ceremony was duly enacted. Then, following the signature of Minor and his witnesses to the deed:

"Memorandum that on the Eleventh Day of June Anno Domini one Thousand seven hundred and sixty one full peaceable and Quiet possession of the within mentioned premises was given by Nicholas Minor Gent to Francis Lightfoot Lee and the other Justices within named by delivery to him and them Turf and Twig on the said premises in the presence of the underwritten Persons then Present."[83]

[83] Loudoun Deeds B, 149.

And finally, at the court held on the 12th November, 1761, it was

"Ordered that Nicholas Minor Gen't. and John Moss Junr. Agree with Workmen to clear away the Bricks and Dirt about the Courthouse and likewise for building a Necessary House and Posting and Railing in the Courthouse Lott and bring in their Account at the Laying of the next Levy."[84]

[84] Loudoun Orders A, 544.

And from that day to this the Loudoun courthouse, in its various and successive reconstructions, has always stood on these lots of Captain Nicholas Minor, thus granted by him to the county for that purpose. In the process of time the prison, the stocks and the "Necessary House"

have been removed.

In September, 1758, the a.s.sembly pa.s.sed an act "erecting" Leesburg as a town, in the same measure "erecting" Stephensburg and enlarging Winchester, which act reads, in part, as follows:

"An Act for erecting a town on the land of Lewis Stephens, in the county of Frederick: For enlarging the town of Winchester, and for erecting a town on the land of Nicholas Minor, in the county of Loudoun....

"III And whereas Nicholas Minor of the county of Loudoun, gentleman, hath laid off sixty acres of his land, adjoining to the court-house of the said county into lots, with proper streets for a town, many of which lots are sold, and improvements made thereon, and the inhabitants of the said county have pet.i.tioned this general a.s.sembly that the same may be erected into a town, Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the land so laid off into lots and streets, for a town, by the said Nicholas Minor, be and the same is hereby erected and established a town, and shall be called by the name of Leesburg; and that the free holders and inhabitants thereof shall for ever hereafter enjoy the same privileges which the inhabitants of other towns, erected by act of a.s.sembly, now enjoy.

"IV And whereas it is expedient that trustees should be appointed to regulate the buildings in the said towns of Stephensburg, Winchester and Leesburg: Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, ...

And that the honorable Philip Ludwell Lee, esquire, Thomas Mason, esquire, Francis Lightfoot Lee, James Hamilton, Nicholas Minor, Josias Clapham, Aeneas Campbell, John Hugh, Francis Hague, and William West, gentlemen, be const.i.tuted and appointed trustees for the said town of Leesburg; and that they, or any five or more of them, are hereby authorized and empowered, from time to time, and all times hereafter, to settle and establish such rules and orders for the more regular and orderly building of the houses in the said town of Leesburg, as to them shall seem best and most convenient. And in the case of death or removal, or other legal disability of any one or more of the trustees above mentioned, it shall and may be lawful for the surviving or remaining trustees of the said towns of Stephensburg, Winchester, and Leesburg, respectively, from time to time, to elect and choose so many other persons in the room of those so dead, removed or disabled, as shall make up the number of ten; which trustees, so chosen, shall by all intents and purposes be vested with the same power as any other in this Act particularly named."[85]

[85] 7 Hening, 234.

Of the members of the Lee family partic.i.p.ating in the early affairs of the town and county or owning land in Loudoun, it is generally held that the new town was named in honour of Francis Lightfoot Lee, the first county lieutenant. Thus the Lees are appropriately and locally commemorated, though their river still remains Goose Creek and the county of their large holdings goes by another and less congruous name.

Now it must be remembered that in this year of 1758 which marked the formal recognition and naming of Leesburg, the French and Indian menace was a very real and terrible anxiety in the minds of the Loudoun settlers and had been responsible for the erection of the small frontier fort at this point which has been mentioned. The local tradition that the little town, when first built, was surrounded by a timber stockade seems not only plausible but highly probable.[86] It was a well established custom of the English Colonists on the Indian frontier, north and south, to protect their outlying villages in that manner.

Leesburg people always insist that the noticeable crowding together of houses in the older part of the town and the p.r.o.nounced local custom of building immediately on the street line is a survival of this very early need of concentration for protection.

[86] Head, 72.

Where the two main roads, to which the town owes its existence, pa.s.sed through its future site, they followed the old Virginia custom in being decidedly indefinite in their bounds; and their condition was further complicated by the ground at this point being marshy and fed by numerous springs. Therefore even before Leesburg was laid out or Loudoun organized, the people living in the neighborhood had pet.i.tioned the Fairfax Court for the construction of a highway at that point in such manner as would be most convenient for the travel from Noland's Ferry to the Carolinas. When Loudoun was organized the pet.i.tion was certified to the court of the new county which, in its November term of 1757, ordered that the roads leading from Alexandria to Winchester and from Noland's Ferry to the Carolinas be opened to go through that neighbourhood "in the most convenient manner;" and James Hamilton, John Moss and Thomas Sorrell were ordered "to view the most convenient way for the same and make report to the Court." These viewers proceeded to so efficiently fulfill their duties that when they eventually reported to the court, on the 12th April, 1758, that they had "viewed the most convenient way for the Roads to pa.s.s through the Town and find them convenient and good with proper clearing,"[87] a corduroy road had been constructed through the marshy ground and Hough was thus able to have his King Street in definite bounds when he mapped his survey for Minor.

[87] Loudoun Orders A, 91.