What I have learned from this wonderful old yard sale book has been valuable and would like to pass some more knowledge along to you. Some people of English descent settled the Shenandoah Valley and brought the customs and habits of the Tidewater. ( One group settled around Thomas Lord Fairfax's home at Greenway Court about 12 miles southwest of Winchester. Wealthy men from the Tidewater needed fresh land to raise tobacco. The Randolph family was one of the wealtiest to go up the James river and were followed by friends and relatives. William Byrd had many acres along the Roanoke River and Sir Peyton Skipwith built a plantation in 1765 called Prestwood near Clarksville. Peter Jefferson the father of Thomas Jefferson went into what is now Albemarle County. Colonel Nicholas Meriwether was probably the earliest and largest landowner in that section of the Piedmont at the time. Tidewater planters would send their overseer and a gang of slaves to the Piedmont to clear land and build a home before the planter and family moved in. The General Assembly passed laws to prevent selfish men from controlling the land. Cash payment was the only accepted way to get land in the Piedmont, and landowners were required to pay a land tax and to cultivate 3 out of every 50 acres they owned. The land was so cheap that even smaller farmers not so wealthy could afford to buy a small tract of land.The Tidewater people outnumbered the Scotch-Irish in the Piedmont region. In 1743 Colonel James Patton found a river west of New River , but it did not flow into it. Three yrs. later Stephen Holston built a home at the source of this river. In 1748 he explored the lower part of this stream and discovered it flowed into the Tennessse River. The river and the valley is named Holston in his honor.