Fincastle County, Virginia, was created by act of the Virginia General Assembly April 8, 1772 from

Botetourt County Botetourt County ( ) is a US county that lies in the Roanoke Region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Located in the mountainous portion of the state, the county is bordered by two major ranges, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachian Mou ...

.Pendleton, William C. (1920)
''History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia: 1748-1920''
pp. 255-57. W. C. Hill Printing Company. As colonial government considered Virginia's western extent to be the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, that became Fincastle's western limit. Its eastern boundary was essentially the New River (Wood's River at the time, including what is today the

Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its valley has been a significant industrial region of the stat ...

), thus dividing Botetourt County from north to south. The new county encompassed all of present day Kentucky, plus southwestern West Virginia and a slice of Virginia's western "tail". Although no

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

was designated by the act creating the county, the colonial governor ordered it to be placed at the "Lead Mines" of present day

Wythe County Wythe County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,290. Its county seat is Wytheville. History Wythe County was formed from Montgomery County in 1790. It wa ...

; the community of Austinville later developed there. The governor of Virginia Colony, John Murray,

Earl of Dunmore Earl of Dunmore is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. History The title was created in 1686 for Lord Charles Murray, second son of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. He was made Lord Murray of Blair, Moulin and Tillimet (or Tullimet) and V ...

and Viscount of Fincastle, had succeeded

Lord Botetourt Baron Botetourt ( ) is an abeyant title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ of summons on 19 June 1305. It became abeyant in 1406, was recalled from abeyance in 1764 for Norborne Berkeley. However, it became abeyant again on his dea ...

, the namesake of Fincastle's "parent" county, upon the latter's death in 1770. Botetourt County was established that same year, and two years later, the newly laid out town of Fincastle was chosen as its county seat. Fincastle County's name, like the town's, may have been selected to honor George, Lord Fincastle, the eldest son of Lord Dunmore. Initially, land claims in the county were pursuant to warrants for service in the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

; later preemption claims were allowed. Many of the earliest settlements in Kentucky, including its first town,

Harrod's Town Harrodsburg is a home rule-class city in Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 9,064 at the 2020 census. Although Harrodsburg was formally established by the House of Burgesses after Boonesbor ...

Boonesborough Boonesborough or Boonesboro may refer to a place in the United States: * Boonesboro, Iowa, now part of Boone, Iowa *Boonesborough, Kentucky *Boonesboro, Missouri Boonesboro is a community in Howard County, Missouri, United States. It is located o ...

, Logan's Station, and Lexington were founded when it was known as part of Fincastle County. That the County was named for a loyalist was reason for the American rebels to change its name in 1776. Lord Dunmore ''in absentia'' led the military opposition to the rebels in Virginia. He had already issued

Dunmore's Proclamation Dunmore's Proclamation is a historical document signed on November 7, 1775, by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of the British Colony of Virginia. The proclamation declared martial law and promised freedom for slaves of America ...

, offering freedom to any of the rebels' slaves who fled their Virginia masters and joined the British forces, which was much resented by the rebel planters and slaveholders. In December 1776, the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

abolished Fincastle County and organized three new counties from it: Montgomery,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. In 1792, the successor counties established from Kentucky County were collectively

admitted to the Union ''Admitted'' is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language docudrama film directed by Chandigarh-based director Ojaswwee Sharma. The film is about Dhananjay Chauhan, the first transgender student at Panjab University. The role of Dhananjay Chauhan has been p ...

as the 15th

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

, the

Commonwealth of Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

See also

References

Further reading