Ever read the name of a county or a town and wondered “Who was that?” Here are a few of NoVA’s most notable namesakes.
Loudoun County
At the time the county was founded in 1757, the fourth Earl of Loudoun, John Campbell, was commander of all British troops in America and the governor of Virginia, despite never setting foot there. When we read in the Declaration of Independence about King George’s “long train of abuses” (forcing colonists to house British soldiers for free, drafting colonists into the British army), the person they’re really complaining about is often Lord Loudoun.
Fauquier County
Francis Fauquier was lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1758 until he died in 1768. He did the actual work during Loudoun’s time as absentee governor and was part of one of the first acts of colonial defiance against the British Crown.
The decimation of the tobacco crop in 1758 led to the second Two Penny Act — a Virginia law limiting the pay of officeholders — including clergymen, who were not pleased and appealed to the British. They ordered the act rescinded, but Fauquier sided with Virginia against Britain. The whole issue became moot (and it’s quite complicated), but the seed of the idea that colonists could go their own way was planted.
Reston
It’s easy to think there was some British lord named Reston in the 18th century, but in fact Reston is a planned community incorporated in 1964. It takes its name from the initials of Robert E. Simon, the real estate developer who planned the town. There’s a statue of him on a bench near Lake Anne.
Fairfax County
George Washington very well might not have become the George Washington we remember without the sixth Lord Fairfax. A neighbor of the future president, Thomas Fairfax gave him his first job as a surveyor and helped arrange his first military commission. Fairfax was loyal to the British in the Revolution, but nobody, much less Washington, held that against him after the war. A Black branch of the family most notably includes former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
McLean
John Roll McLean was owner and publisher of The Washington Post in the early 20th century and was the co-founder of the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad, a trolley line in Northern Virginia. Around 1910, he named one of the stations on Chain Bridge Road after himself, and the town eventually grew around it.
Feature images of Francis Fauquier, John Campbell, and John Roll McLean, public domain
This story originally ran in our January issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
