Peggy, Yes, there are both Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia and I have seen the WINCHESTER surname during my research in the area. More accurately, I have been looking at Rockingham Co., VA early land and court records, so that is probably where I saw it. I remember, since I perk up when I see mention of Winchester in another county and I remember being disappointed that it was a person. This happened a few times, but since I am not a WINCHESTER surname researcher, I passed over it. I do not believe the surname WINCHESTER has anything to do with the naming to the Town of Winchester. The street names as well as the town name were patterned after the names found in London, England. The Town of Winchester is also where you would find the Frederick County courthouse and the old records for the area. "Old Winchester" was originally known as Opeckon in 1744 followed by Frederick Town before being known as the Town of Winchester. Frederick County was formed from Orange County in 1738 and in 1836 Clarke and Warren County, Virginia were take from Frederick County. Something good to know about trying to find early settlers, is that sometimes they would travel to Augusta County to file their paperwork instead of the Orange County courthouse. As a baseline for your research, I checked Frederick County, the Independent City of Winchester, Fauquier, Loudoun, Shenandoah, Rockingham, and Orange Counties for the 1815 Landowners with the name WINCHESTER. There were none. Since I remember seeing the name in my recent studies, I checked "Virginia Valley Records" by John W. Wayland (1930). I found nothing on the WINCHESTER names. I also checked some Augusta and Rockingham Counties for 1761-1791 Land Grant Surveys but found no reference to the surname WINCHESTER. I checked a number of other Shenandoah Valley areas for the surname WINCHESTER, including the "Fairfax Land Suit" but found nothing. It is very possible that what I saw in the Rockingham County records were just reference to someone who had an interest in the property or case. Or they may have shared a property line with someone. These people would not show up in the index; however, perhaps you might want to check the index for the earliest records anyhow to see if the surname WINCHESTER is listed there. Sorry I could not be of more help. Best regards, Chocy