Transcription contributed by Arne H Trelvik 2 June, 2003

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VIRGINIA COUNTIES

But at still earlier dates, our territory had been made a part of political divisions called counties. During the Revolution, this region would have been marked on a map of the North American Colonies as a part of Virginia, whose extensive domain, making her the mother of States as well as of Presidents, reached to the Mississippi. Out of this broad territory, vast counties were formed. The county of Kentucky included the whole of the present State of that name. In October, 1778, Virginia, by statute, declared that: “All the citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia, who are already settled or who shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct county, which shall be called Illinois County,” Our territory, then, once formed a part of the vast western county of Virginia called Illinois.

But going back a few years further, we find this region included in a county of still more vast extent. south of the Natural Bridge, between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, and intersected by the James River, is a county of Virginia, with Fincastle for its seat of justice, named Botetourt, in honor of Norborne Berkeley, Lord Botetourt, a conspicuous actor in American colonial history, and Governor of Virginia. That county was established in 1769, and originally included our county within it limits. It was bounded on the east by the Blue Ridge, on the west by the Mississippi, and comprised Western Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Fincastle, then, as now, was the county seat.

The following curious provision is found in the act of Virginia creating Botetourt County:

And whereas, the people situated on the Mississippi, in the said county of Botetourt, will be very remote from the court house, and must necessarily become a separate county as soon as their numbers are sufficient – which probably will happen in a short time: Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid (House of Burgesses) that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Botetourt which lies on the said waters, shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by the said county court for the purpose of building a court house and prison for said county.