Lunenburg County was formed in 1746 from Brunswick County and named for King George II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a German possession of England's Hanoverian kings; its territory originally included Bedford, Campbell, Charlotte, Franklin, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Patrick, Pittsylvania, and part of Appomattox County. During the Revolutionary War, British cavalry commander Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton's troops conducted raids there and throughout Southside Virginia in Jul. 1781. The county seat is Lunenburg, where William A. Howard and Dabney Cosby, Sr., completed the county's Roman Revival courthouse in 1827, modeled after a Thomas Jefferson design. Nottoway County was formed from Amelia County by the General Assembly in 1788. In July 1781, at Ward's Tavern, American Revolutionary soldier Peter Francisco encountered about nine of British Lt. Gen. Banastre Tarleton's dragoons and, using his strength and cunning, single-handedly bested them. The county seat is Nottoway, where Branch H. Ellington completed a Roman Revival courthouse in 1843 to replace a 1798 courthouse, incorporating elements of Thomas Jefferson's architectural style. Former Virginia Governor William Hodges Mann lived in the county.