The reference to the line lately run "between Virginia and North Carolina" is the famous survey made by Col. William Byrd, Major William Mayo, John Irvine and others which forms the subject of _The History of the Dividing Line_ written by Colonel Byrd. The Mayo River in Patrick and Henry Counties perpetuates the name of Major Mayo, the skilled surveyor in the party. The entire boundary was not surveyed then, in fact it was a good many years later before it was necessary to have a clear limit between the two colonies for the entire area.
[Illustration: Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Lancaster County Clerk's Office, Lancaster, Virginia]
[Illustration: Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Essex County Clerk's Office, Tappahannock, Virginia]
[Illustration: Virginia State Chamber of Commerce Richmond County Clerk's Office, Warsaw, Virginia]
Brunswick County began to function in 1732 and grew rapidly. The "overwrought ground" mentioned long before had in the interval became a more and more disturbing factor in agriculture. Tobacco was king, it demanded new land, hence new land must be provided. In Brunswick there was not only new land but the sort of land to raise good tobacco profitably, a condition equally true today. Settlers from Essex, King and Queen, Gloucester, York, Elizabeth City and other older counties soon made their way into Brunswick. It may not be amiss to observe that with the better living made possible by better tobacco crops a gastronomic delicacy was developed there, a rich and succulent stew called "Brunswick Stew" in honor of the county. So far as the writer is aware no other county in the state has achieved similar fame.
In 1734, an expansion to the northwest took place in the creation of Orange County so named to honor William, Prince of Orange, later William III of England. The City of Williamsburg, King William and King and Queen counties had been prior evidences of his popularity. The new division was to embrace that part of Spotsylvania County lying in Saint Mark's Parish "Bounden southerly by the line of Hanover County, northerly by the grant of Lord Fairfax and westerly by the utmost limits of Virginia." This western boundary was the Mississippi River. The Assembly further enacted "for the encouragement of the inhabitants already settled and which shall speedily settle on the westward of Sherrendo (Shenandoah) River" that "all who had established themselves by 1st January 1734/35 should be free of country, county and parish levies for the next three years."