Leesburg, VA news and local guide

European settlement began in the late 1730s, as Tidewater planters, including the Carters, Lees and Masons, established farms and plantations. Before 1755 Nicholas Minor opened a tavern where the Old Carolina Road crossed the Potomac Ridge Road, today's Route 7, and when Loudoun County was formed in 1757 he called the little settlement George Town, for the king. After the colonial council placed the county courthouse at the crossroads, Minor laid out a town of six crossing streets, and on October 12, 1758, the General Assembly founded Leesburg on his 60 acres, named for Thomas Lee rather than, as often believed, his son Francis Lightfoot Lee. The post office, opened in 1803, was spelled Leesburgh until 1894. During the War of 1812 Leesburg sheltered the U.S. government's archives, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, when they were moved from Washington ahead of the British, and Potomac marble quarried south of town was used in rebuilding the Capitol. Early in the Civil War the Confederates won the small but significant Battle of Ball's Bluff on the Potomac near Leesburg. Sources Wikipedia: Leesburg, Virginia