Prior to 1745, the land was granted to individuals by the kings of England, primarily by King George II, because the headwaters of the Rappahannock River were believed to be in the Chester Gap area. Thomas Lord of Fairfax brought suit against the English crown in the mid-1730s and surveying parties determined that the headwaters were the Conway River, which leads into the Rapidan River and then into the Rappahannock River. Because Fairfax won his suit against the Crown, land grants subsequent to 1745 were made by Fairfax.