Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE WESTWARD EXPANSION OF VIRGINIA AND GENESIS OF THE EXPEDITION OF 1778. The western claims of Virginia, based on her old charter of 1609, have been referred to. This charter, it is true, was revoked in 1624 when Virginia became a royal province, and all ungranted and unsettled lands in royal provinces were subject to any disposition which the crown might see fit to make.1 Extensive areas, carved out of the territory included within the boundaries of the grant of 1609, had been regranted, and removed from the jurisdiction of Virginia. This was the case with the provinces of Maryland, Carolina and Pennsylvania. But the Old Dominion, though proud of its connection with the crown, cherished with tenacity the claims which were supposed to be derived from the charter, and. regarded all territory included in the old grant, except those parts which had been specifically regranted, as rightfully within its jurisdiction. It was on this hypothesis that Virginia maintained her claims to the West before and during the Revolution.2 In 1720, the General Assembly took the first step, in the sphere of legislative action, in what may be called the movement of westward expansion. As already explained, the presence of the French on the Great Lakes and on the Mississippi aroused interest in the country beyond the mountains. In that year, partly as a measure of defense against the French, Spotsylvania and Brunswick counties were established, including passes over the mountains within their boundaries.8 In 1734, a division of Spotsylvania was made by the assembly to take effect the next year. Thewestern part was formed into Orange County, which was bounded on the west by "the utmost limits of Virginia."4 As early as 1738 settlers from Virginia had crossed the Blue Ridge. This exp... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.