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 assurance 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]
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]
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 Assembly passed 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 petitioned this general assembly 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 Assembly, now enjoy.