Backcountry Frontier of Colonial Virginia", Encyclopedia Virginia http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Backcountry_Frontier_of_Colonial_Virginia#start_entry Quote: "The major push toward the British occupation of the backcountry began with a series of land orders totaling close to 400000 acres west of the Blue Ridge, issued by Lieutenant Governor William Gooch between 1730 and 1732" ..."Settlement of the valley by British subjects would secure and defend Virginia, not only in conflicts with northern and southern Indians, but also in the imperial struggles that had convulsed the Atlantic world for the previous three decades, during which New France had extended settlements and garrisons from Canada to Louisiana along the broad Ohio and Mississippi river systems."