Celebration 250th History facts
photo by Anita Firebaugh.
Here we have the weekly 250th anniversary facts for Botetourt County’s 250th anniversary.
This week we explore names and roots of a people and a place.
Murray is a Botetourt name known in southern and eastern Botetourt County for Apple Orchards and Cider particularly in the 20th Century. The cider is particularly well known to those of us over the age of 50.
Murray Drive in the Blue Ridge area, with that fun US Postal Service Troutville address, is the location of the new Colonial Elementary School.
William Murray the Earl of Dunmore was a Viscount of Fincastle. B. 1696 and died in 1756. The old boy died when we were still part of Augusta County. The budding town was the wild west of Virginia and on the cusp of being the county seat, Fincastle in Botetourt County. It was a county that stretched all the way to the Mississippi River in 1770, 250 years ago. Do not know if any Murrays in the area trace lineage to the Viscount, but they share the surname.
The last Viscount of Fincastle was Alexander Murray b. 1871 d. 1962. He was a British soldier. The title was longer used after 1907.
So, to take it farther afield, there are still Murrays all over the place, but none of them are Viscounts of Fincastle. There are however a couple of communities I have visited with the name of Fincastle that reflect the migration of settlers from this area in the 18th and 19th centuries. Fincastle, TN where an earthquake was centered a couple of weeks ago is one of them. It was not shaking when I traveled through. The other is Fincastle, Texas near Dallas-Fort Worth. We got a speeding ticket there which is the most memorable piece of information you need if you go driving through Fincastle, TX!
Sources—Wikipedia, Burke’s Peerage, Google Maps and the US Geological Survey.
–Cathy Benson, The Botetourt Bee.
