1731. In July, 1756, he arrived in New York with the
appointment of governor-in-chief of Virginia, and also with
the commission of commander-in-chief of the British forces in
America, but, proving inefficient, returned to England in
1757. He was made Lieutenant-General in 1758, and General in
1770. He died April 27, 1782, and was succeeded by Norborne
Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, as governor of Virginia, in
1768."


SETTLEMENT AND PERSONNEL.

The permanent settlement of Loudoun began between the years 1725 and
1730 while the County was yet a part of Prince William and the
property of Lord Fairfax, the immigrants securing ninety-nine-year
leases on the land at the rate of two shillings sterling per 100
acres. The above-noted interim saw a steady influx of the fine old
English Cavalier[18] stock, the settlers occupying large tracts of
land in the eastern and southern portions of the County or most of the
territory extending from the Potomac River southward to Middleburg and
from the Catoctin and Bull Run mountains eastward to the eastern
border of the County. It is more to this noble and chivalric strain
than to any other that Loudoun owes her present unrivalled social
eminence.

[Footnote 18: This stock was the first to introduce and foster slavery
in the County.--Goodhart's _History of the Loudoun Rangers_.]

John Esten Cooke's faithful and eloquent delineation of Virginia
character is peculiarly applicable to this Cavalier element of Loudoun