o, and for tobacco due in the county of Loudoun twenty
pounds of tobacco; and that so much of the act of the
assembly, intituled, An Act for amending the Staple of
Tobacco, and preventing frauds in his Majesty's customs, as
relates to anything within the purview of this act, shall be,
and is hereby repealed and made void.
DERIVATION OF NAME.
Loudoun County was named in honor of Lord Loudoun, a representative peer
of Scotland, who, the year before its establishment, and during the
French and Indian war, had been appointed captain-general and
governor-in-chief of the province of Virginia, and commander-in-chief of
the British military forces in the Colonies.
His military avocations, however, prevented him from entering upon the
duties of the gubernatorial office, and it is believed that he never
visited the colony of Virginia. Dinwiddie continued in the control of
its affairs, while Loudoun turned his attention to military matters,
in which his indolence, indecision, and general inefficiency were most
conspicuous and disastrous. Franklin said of him: "He is like little
St. George on the sign-boards; always on horseback, but never goes
forward."
Until his early recall to England, contemporaneous writers and brother
officers mercilessly criticised Loudoun "whom a child might outwit, or
terrify with a pop-gun."
Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia contains the
following succinct account of the public services rendered by this
noted Scotchman:
"John Campbell, son of Hugh, Earl of Loudoun, was born in
1705, and succeeded his father in the title in November,
1731. In July, 1756, he arrived in New York with the
appointment of governor-in-chief of Virginia, and also with
the commission of commander-in-chief of the British forces in
America, but, proving inefficient, returned to England in
1757. He was made Lieutenant-General in 1758, and General in
1770. He died April 27, 1782, and was succeeded by Norborne
Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, as governor of Virginia, in
1768."
SETTLEMENT AND PERSONNEL.
The permanent settlement of Loudoun began between the years 1725 and
1730 while the County was yet a part of Prince William and the
property of Lord Fairfax, the immigrants securing ninety-nine-year
leases on the land at the rate of two shillings sterling per 100
acres. The above-noted interim saw a steady influx of the fine old
English Ca
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