Virginia's Westward Expansion

from A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, by Oren Frederic Morton, published 1920, The McClure Co., Virginia:

The house that John Lewis built near the site of Staunton in the summer of 1732 was not within the recognized limits of any county. Until 1744 the Blue Ridge was the treaty line between paleface and redskin. The first county organization to cross that barrier was Spottsylvania, which became effective in 1721. Yet it came only to the South Fork of the Shenandoah, one extremity of the line touching the river in the vicinity of Elkton, the other about midway between Front Royal and Bentonville. Orange was created in 1734, and organized in 1735. It was defined as extending westward to the uttermost limit claimed by Virginia. Four years later, the portion of Orange west of the Blue Ridge was divided into the counties of Frederick and Augusta by a line running from the source of the Rapidan to the Fairfax Stone at the source of the North Branch of the Potomac. The present boundary between Rockingham and Shenandoah is a portion of this line.
During the westward march of population in Virginia, the practical area of a county has always been co-extensive with its settled portion. The fact that Augusta once extended potentially to the Mississippi, did not mean that a juryman might have to travel hundreds of miles to attend court. When the first division of Augusta took place in 1769, probably not less than three-fourths of the inhabitants were living within a radius of fifty miles around Staunton. Of the other fourth, nearly all were within a few miles of a trail leading from Buchanan to Abingdon.
The first county to be set off from Augusta was Botetourt, which became effective January 31, 1770. ...

Col. John Lewis of Augusta County

From Chronicles of Border Warfare, by Alexander Scott Withers, William Powers, William Hacker, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Lyman Copeland Draper; pub. 1895, R. Clarke Company:

John Lewis, the father of Gen. Andrew Lewis, was probably of Welsh descent, and born in 1678 in County Donegal, Ireland. About 1716 he married Margaret Lynn, of the famous Lynns of Loch Lynn, Scotland. In a dispute over his tenancy (1729), he killed a man of high station,—some say, his Catholic landlord,—and fled to Portugal, whence in 1731, after strange adventures, he emigrated to America, and was joined there by his family. Fearing to live near a sea-port he established himself on the frontier, in the Valley of Virginia, two miles east of the present site of Staunton. His house was of stone, built for defense, and in 1754 it successfully stood an Indian siege. Lewis was colonel of the Augusta county militia as early as 1743, presiding justice in 1745, and high sheriff in 1748. In 1751, then 73 years of age, he assisted his son Andrew, then agent of the Loyal Company, to explore and survey the latter's grant on Greenbrier River. It was because the old man became entangled in the thicket of greenbriers, that he gave this name to the stream. He died at his old fort homestead, February 1, 1762, aged 84.

Mary McDowell Greenlee, re: "Borden's tract"

From Annals of Augusta County by Joseph Addison Waddell, pub. 1902,
C.R. Caldwell, page 31:

Borden's tract was South of Beverley's Manor, and in the present county of Rockbridge. The first settlers on the tract were Ephraim McDowell and his family. His daughter, Mary Greenlee, related in a deposition taken in 1806 [at age 94], and still extant, the circumstances under which her father went there. Her brother, James McDowell, had come into Beverley's Manor during the spring of 1737, and planted a crop of corn, near Woods' Gap; and in the fall her father, her brother John, and her husband [James Greenlee] and herself came to occupy the settlement. Before they reached their destination, and after they had arranged their camp on a certain evening at Linnville Creek, (now Rockingham,) [Benjamin] Borden arrived and asked permission to spend the night with them, being doubtless on his way to his tract from his home in the lower Valley. He informed them of his grant, and offered them inducements to go there. The next day they came on to the house of John Lewis, and there it was finally arranged that the party should settle in Borden's tract. Ephraim McDowell was then a very aged man, and lived to be over one hundred years old. When a youth of 16 he was one of the defenders of Londonderry. He and his family located on Timber Ridge, originally called "Timber Grove," being attracted by the forest trees on the ridge, which were scarce elsewhere in the region. Borden offered a tract of one hundred acres to any one who should build a cabin on it, with the privilege of purchasing more at fifty shillings per hundred acres. Each cabin secured to him one thousand acres. Mrs. Mary Greenlee related in her deposition, referred to, that an Irish girl, named Peggy Millhollan, a servant of James Bell, dressed herself in men's clothes and secured five or six cabin rights. John Patterson, who was employed to count the cabins, was surprised to find so many people named Millhollan, but the trick was not discovered till after the return was made. Among the settlers in "Borden's grant" were William McCausland, William Sawyers, Robert Campbell, Samuel Woods, John Mathews (father of Sampson and George), Richard Woods, John Hays and his son, Charles and Samuel Walker. Borden obtained his patent November 8, 1739.*

*[Benjamin Borden, Sr] died in the latter part of 1743, in Frederick, leaving three sons, Benjamin, John and Joseph, and several daughters. The next spring his son Benjamin appeared in Rockbridge (as it is now) with authority under his father's will to adjust all matters with the settlers on the grant. He had, however, been in the settlement before his father's death.
Mrs. Greenlee says Benjamin Borden, Jr., was "altogether illiterate," and did not make a good impression on his first arrival, but he proved to be an upright man, and won the confidence of the people. The saying: "As good as Ben. Burden's bill," passed into a proverb. He married Mrs. Magdalene McDowell, (originally a Miss Woods, of Rock fish), widow of John McDowell, who was killed by Indians in December, 1742, and by her had two daughters, Martha and Hannah. The former became the wife of Robert Harvey, the latter never married. Benjamin Borden, Jr., died of small-pox in 1753. His will was admitted to record by the County Court of Augusta, November 21, 1758. The executors appointed were John Lyle, Archibald Alexander and testator's wife, but the first named declined to serve. His personal estate was large for the time. During her second widowhood Mrs. Magdalene Borden contracted a third marriage with Colonel John Bowyer.

John Lewis, First Settler of Augusta County

From History of Augusta County, Virginia, by John Lewis Peyton, pub. 1882, Samuel M. Yost & Son:

Among those whose attention was now directed to our Valley was John Lewis, who had been for some time in Pennsylvania, quietly awaiting the arrival from Europe of his wife and children. This remarkable man was born in the north of Ireland, descended from a French-Protestant family, and was educated in Scotland. In Ulster, where he resided until fifty years of age, he commanded the confidence, respect and esteem of the people, and occupied that position of influence, and took that leading part in society and county affairs, which had been traditionally the role of the O'Donnells, Chichesters and O'Doghertys. In youth he was of impetuous temper, but the varied experience of an active life had taught him to control his spirit. He was endowed with a high order of intellect, a valorous soul, and soon became noted for his virtuous principles. A deplorable affair, but one alike honorable to his spirit and manhood, terminated his career in Ireland. He had been sometime in America, when, in 1732, Joist Hite and a party of pioneers set out to settle upon a grant of forty thousand acres of land in the [Shenandoah] Valley, which had been obtained, in 1730, by Isaac Vanmeter and his brother, by warrant from the Governor of Virginia. Lewis joined this party, came to the Valley, and was the first white settler of Augusta....John Lewis' settlement was a few miles below the site of the town of Staunton, on the banks of the stream which still bears his name. It may be proper to remark here, that when the circumstances of the affray [in Ireland] became known, after due investigation, a pardon was granted to John Lewis, and patents are still extant, by which his Majesty granted to him a large portion of the fair domain of Western Virginia.
For many years after the settlement of Fort Lewis, great amity and good will existed between the neighboring Indians and the white settlers, whose numbers increased apace, until they became quite a formidable colony.

John Lewis (1678-1782)

John Lewis was descended from Huguenots who emigrated from France to Ireland in 1685 (at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.) He left Ireland in 1729, a fugitive, after his oppressive landlord Charles of Clonmithgairn launched a brutal attack to evict Lewis’ family from premises of which he held a freehold lease. During the attack, Lewis’ wife was wounded and his invalid brother Edward was killed. John Lewis defended his family, slaying the landlord and one of his henchmen in the process.
In Virginia, shortly after William Beverley received his grant of 118,000+ acres in 1736, a grant of 100,000 acres was made to John Lewis and his associates, under the name of the “Greenbrier Company.” (John Lewis had been occupying previously unsettled land, afterwards granted to Beverley, which in the interim made Lewis a "squatter" after Beverley took possession.) Much of this land was located on the Greenbrier River, a name given to the stream by Col. Lewis. John Lewis, along with his son Thomas, were of the first magistrates of Augusta County, Virginia at the formation of the county in 1738. In 1751, John Lewis and his son Andrew would survey the Greenbrier tract.
In 1900 Joseph L. Crowder, a Staunton, Virginia citizen, realised that the grave of John Lewis was in a dilapidated state, and the inscription on the monument was even then very hard to read. On 18 November 1900, Mr. Crowder, with great effort, copied this inscription:

Here Lie the Remains of
John Lewis
Who Slew the Irish Lord
Settled Augusta County,
Located the City of Staunton
And furnished five sons to
Fight the Battles of the
American Revolution.
He was the son of
Andrew Lewis and Mary Calhoun
Was born in Donegal County
Ireland 1678 and
Died February 1, 1762 aged
84 years.
He was a brave man
A true patriot and a Friend of
Liberty
Throughout the World.
“Morta litate Relicta Vivit”

The McDowell & Lewis Families

From Peyton's History of Augusta County, Virginia (1882):

Though the founder of this family settled on Burden’s grant, the whole of which lies in the present county of Rockbridge, it is intimately connected with many of our people. The McDowells and Lewises were relatives and lived near each other, previous to 1732, in Ireland. They intermarried so extensively with the McCues, Prestons, Pattons, Cochrans, Moffetts, Bells, Alexanders, &c., of our county, that we take pleasure in inserting the following brief account prepared by our esteemed friend, Judge John H. McCue:

“Ephraim McDowell came to this country and settled in Pennsylvania previous to 1735, and between 1735 and 1740, with his son, John, who had married Magdalene Woods, in Pennsylvania, came to the home of his relative, John Lewis, the Founder. There they met with Burden,* and became settlers on his grant near Fairfield, in what is now Rockbridge. John McDowell was Burden’s Surveyor...."

*Benjamin Borden, Sr, owner of "Borden's Grant"