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Loudoun County constitutes a part of the five million acre Northern Neck of Virginia
Proprietary granted by King Charles II of England to seven noblemen in 1649. This grant,
later known as the Fairfax Proprietary, lay between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.
Between 1653 and 1730, Westmoreland, Stafford and Prince William Counties were formed
within the Proprietary, and in 1742 the remaining land was designated Fairfax County.
In
1757, by act of the Virginia House of Burgesses, Fairfax County was divided. The western
portion was named Loudoun for John Campbell, Fourth Earl of Loudoun, a Scottish nobleman
who served as Commander-in-Chief for all British armed forces in North America and titular
Governor of Virginia from 1756 to 1759.
Leesburg has served continuously as the County Seat since 1757.
Loudoun Settlements
Settling of the Loudoun area began between 1725 and 1730, while it was still owned by
Lord Fairfax. Permanent settlers came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. During
the same period, settlers from eastern Virginia of English Cavalier stock came to lower
Loudoun and established large tobacco plantations.
During the 1720s, a number of Quakers, Germans, Irish and Scots-Irish settled west of
the Catoctin mountains. Quakers formed the settlements of Waterford, Goose Creek (now
Lincoln), Harmony (now Hamilton) and Union (now Unison).
From 1745 to 1760, Germans from Pennsylvania and Maryland formed the settlement at
Lovettsville. After General Braddock's defeat by the French at Fort Duquesne in 1755,
refugees from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia settled in the western part of Loudoun
County, south of Short Hill. Catoctin Church became the center of that settlement.
A Storied History
In 1774, a meeting a freeholders and other residents was held in the County Courthouse
to discuss the protection of rights and liberties in North America. The group adopted the
Loudoun Resolves as well as a formal protest of the Stamp Act. Later, a number of Loudoun
County men fought in the Revolutionary War.
During the War of 1812, Loudoun County served briefly as a temporary refuge for the
President and important state papers. The Constitution and other state papers were brought
to Rokeby, near Leesburg, for safekeeping when the British burned Washington. President
Madison established headquarters at Belmont, where he was the guest of Ludwell Lee.
In 1861, residents of Loudoun County were split over the issue of secession. The
Quakers and most of the Germans in northern and central Loudoun opposed slavery and
secession, while the landed gentry in the southern part of the county favored secession.
During the Civil War, Colonel John Mosby and his Rangers were active in Loudoun County,
which was also the home of the Laurel Brigade, a famous Confederate Cavalry unit commanded
by Elijah V. White of Leesburg. A national cemetery near Leesburg marks the site of the
Battle of Balls Bluff, where Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., then a young Union soldier, fought
in 1861.
Modern Changes
For more than two centuries, agriculture was the dominant way of life in Loudoun
County, which had a relatively constant population of about 20,000. That began to change
in the early 1960s, when Dulles International Airport was built in the southeastern part
of the county. The airport attracted new businesses, workers and their families to the
area.
At the same time, the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area began a period of rapid
growth. Major road improvements made commuting from Loudoun County much easier, attracting
more and more people to the eastern part of the county. In the last three decades, the
population of Loudoun County nearly quadrupled.
Today, Loudoun County is a growing, dynamic county of about 200,000 people. Loudoun is
known for its beautiful scenery, rich history, healthy diversity of expanding business
opportunities, comfortable neighborhoods, and high quality public services.
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