Editing Leesburg, Virginia (section)

===18th century===
What later became Old Carolina Road and is present day [[U.S. Route 15]] was a major route of travel between north and south for Native tribes. According to local historians, a pitched battle was fought near present Leesburg between the warring [[Catawba people|Catawba]] and [[Lenape]] tribes, neither of whom lived in the area.

A war party of Lenape had traveled from their home in [[New Jersey]] and neighboring regions, all the way to [[South Carolina]] to inflict a blow on their distant enemies, the Catawba. As they were returning northward, a party of Catawbas overtook them before they reached the [[Potomac River]], but were defeated in a pitched battle {{convert|2|mi|0}} south of Leesburg. The surviving Lenape buried their dead in a huge [[tumulus|burial mound]], and early settlers reported that they would return to this mound to honor their dead on the anniversary of this battle for many years thereafter. The date of this conflict is unknown, but it seems the Lenape and Catawba were at war in the 1720s and 1730s.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38130/38130-h/38130-h.htm |title=Legends of Loudoun |first=Harrison |last=Williams |pages=63–64 |year=1938 |publisher=Garrett & Massie |location=Richmond, VA |access-date=August 10, 2013 |archive-date=October 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013162251/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38130/38130-h/38130-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

European settlement near Leesburg began in the late 1730s as [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater]] planters moved into the area from the south and east, establishing large farms and plantations.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} Many of the [[First Families of Virginia]] were among those to settle in the area, including the Carters, Lees and Masons.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} The genesis of Leesburg occurred sometime before 1755, when Nicholas Minor acquired land around the intersection of the Old Carolina Road and the Potomac Ridge Road on present-day [[Virginia State Route 7|Route 7]] and established a tavern there.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

Despite lack of growth around the tavern, upon Loudoun County's formation in 1757, Minor dubbed the sparse collection of buildings about his tavern "George Town" in honor of the reigning monarch of [[Great Britain]].{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} The village's prosperity changed the following year when the British Colonial Council ordered the establishment of the county courthouse at the crossroads.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

Minor had a town laid out on the traditional Virginia plan of six criss-cross streets. On October 12 of that year (1758), the [[Virginia General Assembly]] founded the town of Leesburg upon the {{convert|60|acre|km2}} that Minor laid out.<ref name="Schneel"/> Leesburg was renamed to honor the influential [[Thomas Lee (Virginia colonist)|Thomas Lee]] and not, as is popular belief, his son [[Francis Lightfoot Lee]], who lived in Loudoun and brought up the bill to establish Leesburg.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leesburgva.gov/visitors/history-of-leesburg |title=Town of Leesburg: A Brief History of Leesburg |work=Official website of the Town of Leesburg, Virginia |access-date=May 11, 2015 |archive-date=March 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315000211/http://leesburgva.gov/visitors/history-of-leesburg |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=February 2021}} When the post office was established in Leesburg in 1803, the branch was named "Leesburgh"; the "h" persisted until 1894.<ref name="Schneel"/><!-- p. 23 -->