Perhaps it had not occurred to Gooch that expansion would divide the
colony into two parts--the democratic up-country, and the aristocratic
tidewater. Spotsylvania, Brunswick, Goochland, Amelia, Caroline, and
other counties in the Piedmont were filling up with small farmers from
the east, Frederick with poor Germans and Swiss. It is true that some
well-to-do planters established "quarters" managed by overseers above
the Fall Line, and later invaded parts of the Valley, but even as late
as the French and Indian War frontier conditions persisted in the
regions on either side of the Blue Ridge. The influence of the west grew
steadily as each new county sent its two representatives to the House of
Burgesses. Whereas in 1727 when there were 65 members of the House, only
10 were from the west, in 1752, when the members numbered 104, 46 were
from the western or southwestern counties. The time was not distant when
the up-country members would count a majority. A bewigged Carter, or
Harrison, or Wormeley, in his broadcloth suit with silver buttons, may
have been resentful when a roughly clad delegate from Albemarle or
Frederick took a seat beside him, but he dared not show it.