[13] It is believed that most of the early settlers of Augusta County, Virginia were first or second generation Scotch-Irish immigrants who came from Pennsylvania.

[17] In pursuit of this aim, the State granted large amounts of land and delegated authority to a select few early settlers of the region, who quickly formed a frontier elite and fashioned a conservative, hierarchical society which closely mirrored those of eastern Virginia.

[25][26] In 1748, he was identified in county records as a yeoman farmer,[27] but by 1750 he was recognized as a gentleman, or a member of the landed gentry of colonial Virginia.

[30][24] At this time, the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, finding the white settlers of western Pennsylvania and Virginia to be in violation of the 1722 Treaty of Albany, launched numerous offensives against the frontier communities,[31] resulting in significant losses to life and property of Augusta County settlers.

[40] Waddell explains that these dissenting Presbyterians "probably pleaded the necessity" of taking the oaths of allegiance to the established Church of England.

[41] Despite being a numerical minority, the Anglican coalition shaped early religious life in the county and formed an alliance with its Presbyterian counterpart.

[42] The vestry was responsible for the processioning of lands, issuing levies, providing for parish expenses, tending to the poor, and other local administrative needs.

[46] Mathews was recommended justice of the peace of the Magistrate's Court for Augusta County in 1746, and had qualified by the fall of 1751.

[52] They had eleven children: John, Joshua, Richard, Sampson, George, William, Archer, Jane, Anna, Rachel, and Elizabeth.

[53][1] A relative of Joshua Mathews later deeded this land to the trustees of the Falling Springs Presbyterian Church, which now stands on this site.