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 In
1744 the Virginia General Assembly created Albemarle County
by cutting off the upper portion of Goochland County. The
sprawling new county, which included all or parts of seven
future counties, was named Albemarle in honor of William Anne
Keppel, Second Earl of Albemarle and titular Governor of Virginia
at the time. The county seat was established at Scott's landing
on the James River, in the heart of the new Albemarle, when
six magistrates met at and were sworn in on the last day of
February 1745.
 Hundreds
more moved into Albemarle over the next two decades. By 1761,
as the population settled even farther west and south, Scott's
Landing had become too far to travel for court, business,
and elections. The Assembly repeated its pattern, carving
new counties from Albemarle. The James River, once the county's
central artery for transportation and commerce, became the
new southern boundary.
In 1790 Albemarle County's population was 12,585. Charlottesville
received an additional twenty acres of land that same year.
Ten years later the size of the town required some form of
self-governance and the General Assembly provided for the
creation of a board of trustees to be elected by free white
male residents age twenty-one or older. Their jurisdiction
extended to a half mile beyond the town's boundaries. Today
Albemarle County's population is over 85,000 and consists
of 723 square miles.
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