obtained from Governor Gooch a warrant for 40,000 acres of land to be located in the lower valley, and within the present counties of Frederick, Jefferson, etc. This warrant was sold in 1731, by the grantees, to Joist Hite, also of Pennsylvania. Hite proceeded to make locations of his land, and to induce immigrants to settle on his grant. He removed his family to Virginia, in 1732, and fixed his residence a few miles south of the present town of Winchester, which is generally believed to have been the first permanent settlement by white men in the Valley.
Population soon flowed in to take possession of the rich lands offered by Hite; but a controversy speedily arose in regard to the proprietor's title. Lord Fairfax claimed Hite's lands as a part of his grant of the "Northern Neck." Fairfax entered a caveat against Hite, in 1736, and thereupon Hite brought suit against Fairfax. This suit was not finally decided till 1786, long after the death of all the original parties, when judgment was rendered in favor of Hite and his vendees. The dispute between Fairfax and Hite retarded the settlement of that part of the Valley, and induced immigrants to push their way up the Shenandoah river to regions not implicated in such controversies. In 1738 there were only two cabins where Winchester now stands. That town was established by law in 1752.
A strange uncertainty has existed as to the date and some of the circumstances of the first settlement of Augusta county Campbell, in his "History of Virginia" (pages 427-9), undertakes to relate the events somewhat minutely, but falls into obvious mistakes. He says: "Shortly after the first settlement of Winchester (1738), John Marlin, a peddler, and John Sailing, a weaver, two adventurous spirits, set out from that place" (Winchester) "to explore the 'upper country,' then almost unknown." They came up the valley of the Shenandoah, called Sherando, crossed James river, and reached the Roanoke river, where a party of Cherokee Indians surprised and captured Sailing, while Marlin escaped. Sailing was detained by the Indians for six years, and on being liberated returned to Williamsburg. "About the same time," says Campbell, "a considerable number of immigrants had arrived there, among them John Lewis and John Mackey. * * Pleased with Sailing's glowing picture of the country beyond the mountains, Lewis and Mackey visited it under his guidance," and immediately all three located here.
