Brunswick County began to function in 1732 and grew rapidly. The "overwrought ground" mentioned long before had in the interval became a more and more disturbing factor in agriculture. Tobacco was king, it demanded new land, hence new land must be provided. In Brunswick there was not only new land but the sort of land to raise good tobacco profitably, a condition equally true today. Settlers from Essex, King and Queen, Gloucester, York, Elizabeth City and other older counties soon made their way into Brunswick. It may not be amiss to observe that with the better living made possible by better tobacco crops a gastronomic delicacy was developed there, a rich and succulent stew called "Brunswick Stew" in honor of the county. So far as the writer is aware no other county in the state has achieved similar fame.
Orange County Reaches to the Mississippi
In 1734, an expansion to the northwest took place in the creation of Orange County so named to honor William, Prince of Orange, later William III of England. The City of Williamsburg, King William and King and Queen counties had been prior evidences of his popularity. The new division was to embrace that part of Spotsylvania County lying in Saint Mark's Parish "Bounden southerly by the line of Hanover County, northerly by the grant of Lord Fairfax and westerly by the utmost limits of Virginia." This western boundary was the Mississippi River. The Assembly further enacted "for the encouragement of the inhabitants already settled and which shall speedily settle on the westward of Sherrendo (Shenandoah) River" that "all who had established themselves by 1st January 1734/35 should be free of country, county and parish levies for the next three years."
Part of this expansion was due to the natural increase of population, the allure of new settlements where there was greater opportunity for advancement of fortunes, and part to the tide of immigration. Years of warfare in Germany had left ruined communities along the Rhenish Palatinate. For these people, Rotterdam was the most convenient port of embarkation and Philadelphia was often their port of debarkation. Following in the steps of John Van Metre, Adam Miller, Jacob Stover and Jost Hite who had come to the Valley of Virginia between 1725 and 1731, many immigrants, finding land cheaper in Virginia, left Pennsylvania and took up residence in Virginia.
In 1735, the act of the Assembly passed the year before for creating the new county of Amelia became effective. By this act, it was ordered that "the said county of Prince George and that part of the parish of Bristol which lies in the same be divided from the mouth of Namozain Creek up the same to the main, or John Hamlin's, fork of the said creek, thence up the south or lowest branch thereof to White Oak Hunting Path and thence by a south course to strike Nottoway River." The land below these courses retained the name of Prince George. The land lying above these courses bounded "southerly by the Great Nottoway River including part of the county of Brunswick and parish of Saint Andrew as far as to take the ridges between Roanoke and Appomattox Rivers and thence along those ridges to the great mountains westerly by the said mountains and northerly by the southern boundaries of Goochland and Henrico Counties" became Amelia County and Raleigh Parish. The name was in honor of the youngest daughter of George II.
By 1738, people living across the Blue Ridge Mountains found them a barrier to frequent attendance at Orange County Court. For their convenience, a division was ordered. "All that territory and tract of land at present deemed to be a part of the county of Orange lying on the northwest side of the said mountains (Blue Ridge) extending from thence northerly, westerly and southerly beyond the said mountains to the utmost limits of Virginia" shall be "separated from the rest of the said county and erected into two distinct counties and parishes; to be divided by a line to be run from the head spring of Hedgman River to the head spring by the River Potomac." "That part of the said territory lying to the northeast of the said line beyond the top of the said Blue Ridge shall be one distinct county, to be called and known by the name of the county of Frederick and parish of Frederick. And that the rest of the said territory lying on the other side of the said line beyond the top of the said Blue Ridge shall be one other distinct county and parish to be called by the name of the county of Augusta and parish of Augusta." The counties thus created honored Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son of George II, and his wife, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales. Frederick predeceased his father and it was Frederick's son who became George III.
The Assembly had repeated with reference to Augusta and Frederick Counties its action in the case of Brunswick; namely: created counties before they were financially able to function. Not until 1743 did Frederick have sufficient tithables to begin to hold court, and it was two years later before Augusta set up her county organization.