southward to Georgia and Alabama.]

The particular geographic location of Loudoun has been most accurately
reckoned by Yardley Taylor, who in 1853 made a governmental survey of
the county. He placed it "between the latitudes of 38° 52-1/2" and 39°
21" north latitude, making 28-1/2" of latitude, or 33 statute miles,
and between 20" and 53-1/2" of longitude west from Washington, being
33-1/2" of longitude, or very near 35 statute miles."

Loudoun was originally a part of the six million acres which, in 1661,
were granted by Charles II, King of England, to Lord Hopton, Earl of
St. Albans, Lord Culpeper, Lord Berkeley, Sir William Morton, Sir
Dudley Wyatt, and Thomas Culpeper. All the territory lying between the
Rappahannock and Potomac rivers to their sources was included in this
grant, afterwards known as the "Fairfax Patent," and still later as
the "Northern Neck of Virginia."

"The only conditions attached to the conveyance of this domain, the
equivalent of a principality, were that one-fifth of all the gold and
one-tenth of all the silver discovered within its limits should be
reserved for the royal use, and that a nominal rent of a few pounds
sterling should be paid into the treasury at Jamestown each year. In
1669 the letters patent were surrendered by the existing holders and
in their stead new ones were issued.... The terms of these letters
required that the whole area included in this magnificent gift should
be planted and inhabited by the end of twenty-one years, but in 1688
this provision was revoked by the King as imposing an impracticable
condition."[2]

[Footnote 2: Bruce's _Economic History of Virginia_.]