Fincastle County was an expansion of Augusta to the west but an expansion to the northwest had been in progress since before 1754. In that year, Governor Dinwiddie ordered a fort built on the present site of Pittsburgh and issued a proclamation offering land in the area to those who would enlist as soldiers for the French and Indian War. The French captured the fort and named it Fort Duquesne. This outpost of great strategic importance fell to the English in 1758 and was renamed Fort Pitt. The area was under Virginia jurisdiction and called the district of West Augusta being considered a part of Augusta County. "County courts were held at Pittsburgh under Virginia jurisdiction and the great section of country from the Alleghany mountains northwest to the Ohio came to be called West Augusta. It was represented under this name in the Conventions of 1775 and 1776. In October 1776, the district of West Augusta was divided into the counties of Ohio, Yohogania and Monongalia. A portion of this territory, including Pittsburgh, was claimed by Pennsylvania and there was much disorder and some bloodshed between the officers and adherents of the two Colonies. In 1779, commissioners from Virginia and Pennsylvania finally settled the line and Pittsburgh and the adjoining area were surrendered to Pennsylvania." The above is the concise account, by the late W. G. Stanard, in an early volume of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, of an almost forgotten episode in western development. It explains why in the Augusta County records in Staunton, Virginia are found deeds for land now in Pennsylvania.
The bounds of these three new counties, Ohio, Yohogania and Monongalia are set forth in detail in the Act of Assembly creating them, but are not quoted here since they neither adjoin nor are a part of the Commonwealth of Virginia now.
Kentucky a Virginia County, 1776
The next division of a county occurred in this same year 1776, and was further expansion toward the beckoning west; this division was not to take effect until January first, 1777. Fincastle became extinct as a county, its territory becoming Kentucky, Washington and Montgomery Counties. The Act of Assembly recites that the part of Fincastle lying "to the south and westward of a line beginning on the Ohio at the mouth of Great Sandy creek and running up the same and the main, or north-easterly, branch thereof to the Great Laurel Ridge or Cumberland Mountain, thence south westerly along the said mountain to the line of North Carolina shall be one distinct county and called and known by the name of Kentucky; and all that part of the said county of Fincastle included in the lines beginning at the Cumberland Mountain where the line of Kentucky county intersects the North Carolina line, thence east along the said Carolina line to the top of Iron mountain, thence along the same easterly to the source of the south fork of Holstein river, thence northwardly along the highest part of the high lands, ridges and mountains that divide the waters of the Tennessee from those of the Great Kanawha, to the most easterly source of Clinch river, thence westwardly along the top of the mountains that divide the waters of Clinch river from those of the Great Kanawha and Sandy Creek to the line of Kentucky county thence along the same to the beginning" shall be known "by the name of Washington; and all the residue of the said county of Fincastle shall be" known as Montgomery.
It is said that Washington County is the first place or area named for General Washington in the United States. It is also the first time the words Kentucky and Tennessee occur in a county division and show the scope of western settlements. Montgomery County was named for General Richard Montgomery, a Revolutionary officer, who fell 31 December 1775, while trying unsuccessfully to scale the city walls and capture Quebec from the English.
The next formation was a division of Pittsylvania County in 1777, ten years after its creation. The new county lay on the west side of "a line beginning at the mouth of Blackwater on Staunton river and running parallel with the line of Halifax county till it strikes the country line." The name Henry honored Patrick Henry, the famous orator of the Revolution and first Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He purchased a large acreage in Henry County but resided in nearby Campbell County.
Also, in 1777, Albemarle was divided "by a line beginning at the most western point in the line of Louisa County and running thence directly to the lower edge of Stott's ferry on the Fluvanna river and that part which lies south eastward of the said line together with the islands in the Fluvanna river adjacent thereto shall be called by the name of Fluvanna county." The county was named for the river and the river was so called in honor of Queen Anne whose name is borne by four other Virginia rivers. Fluvanna, used for most of the eighteenth century, was the title given the James River above its falls at Richmond. Tobacco and other merchandise was taken in bateaux down this river to Richmond.
Both Henry and Fluvanna Counties had been formed mostly because of natural increase in population rather than of any tide of immigration. The creation of Powhatan County in 1777 was of the same type. This county embraced the portion of Cumberland lying on the south side of James River and in Southam Parish, which was the eastern end of Cumberland and adjoined Chesterfield County. The name Powhatan honored the celebrated Indian chieftain.
In 1778, the vast sprawling territory of Augusta underwent changes. One was an addition to Hampshire County of the territory on the north of "a line beginning at the north side of the North Mountain opposite to the upper end of Sweedland Hill and running a direct course so as to strike the mouth of Seneca creek on the north fork of the south branch of Potomac river and the same course to be continued to the Allegheny mountain, thence along the said mountain" to the county line. "The residue of the county and parish of Augusta" was divided by a line beginning "at the South Mountain and running thence by Benjamin Yardley's plantation so as to strike the north river below James Byrd's house thence up the said river to the mouth of Naked creek, thence leaving the river a direct course so as to cross the said river at the mouth of Cunningham's branch in the upper end of Silas Hart's land to the foot of North Mountain, thence fifty-five degrees west to the Allegheny mountain and with the same to the line of Hampshire"; all the portion north eastward of this line was to be called Rockingham. It is supposed the name of this county honors the Marquis of Rockingham, Prime Minister of England in 1765-66 when the unpopular Stamp Act was repealed.
In the same Act of Assembly, 1778, by which Rockingham was created Greenbrier County, now in West Virginia, was formed from Montgomery and Botetourt Counties to the west of "a line beginning on the top of the ridge which divides the Eastern from the Western Waters, where the line between Augusta and Botetourt crosses the same, and running thence the same course continued north fifty-five degrees west to the Ohio, thence beginning at the said ridge at the said lines of Botetourt and Augusta, running along the top of the said ridge, passing the Sweet Springs to the top of Peter's mountain, thence along the said mountain to the line of Montgomery county, thence along the same mountain to the Kanawha or New river, thence down the said river to the Ohio." Greenbrier County takes its name from its principal river. It is the anglicized version of the French word "ronce" for brier or bramble and "verte" for green. The town Ronceverte, situated on the river, keeps the French word.