usand acres of land in the valley. He settled on the south
fork of the Shenandoah. John Preston, a shipmaster in Dublin, a
brother-in-law of Patton, came over with him, and subsequently
established himself near Staunton--the progenitor of a distinguished
race of his own name, and of the Browns and Breckenridges.[432:A] While
the first settlement of the valley took place in Hite's patent, nearer
to Pennsylvania, the filling up of that region was somewhat retarded by
a claim which Lord Fairfax set up for a region westward of the Blue
Ridge, comprehending ten counties. This claim was grounded upon the
terms of the conveyance which included all the country between the head
of the Rappahannock and the head of the Potomac; and this river was
found to have its source in the Alleghanies. Although the claim was not
admitted by the Governor of Virginia, yet, as it involved settlers in
the danger of a lawsuit, they preferred moving farther on to the tract
of country in Augusta County, included in the grants to Beverley and to
Burden.

FOOTNOTES:

[423:A] Milton's Prose Works, i. 422, 430, 437.

[424:A] Foote's Sketches of North Carolina; Grahame, ii. 57; Davidson's
Hist. of Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, 16.

[424:B] Va. Convention of '76, by Hugh Blair Grigsby, 77, citing
Carrington Memoranda. Mr. Grigsby has given an interesting account of
several of the distinguished Randolphs in a newspaper article, entitled
"The Dead of the Chapel of William and Mary."

[426:A] De Hass's Hist. of Western Va., 37; Kercheval, 70.

[427:A] Jefferson's Notes, 16.

[428:A] Ruffner, in Howe's Hist. Coll. of Va., 451.

[429:A] Ruffner, ubi supra.

[429:B] The Grigsbys, from whom is descended Hugh Blair Grigsby, removed
into the valley from Eastern Virginia, having originally come into the
colony at the time of the restoration.

[430:A] Ruffner.

[431:A] So called, being a high strip of timber in an open prairie, at
the first settlement.

[431:B] Kercheval's Hist. of the Valley of Virginia, 69; Foote's
Sketches, second series, 14.

[432:A] Foote's Sketches, ii. 36.

CHAPTER LVII.

1744-1747.

Treaty with the Six Nations--Death and Character of Rev. James
Blair--Colonel William Byrd--The Pretender's Rebellion--
Governor Gooch--Dissent in Virginia--Whitefield--Origin of
Presbyterianism in Hanover--Morris--Missionaries--Rev. Samuel
Davies--Gooch's Measures against Moravians, New Lights, and