Bath County, Virginia: History
Bath County was created on December 14, 1790 from parts of Augusta, Botetourt, and Greenbrier counties. Due to the many mineral springs found in the area, the county was named for the English spa and resort city of Bath. In the early 1700s, before the county was formed, the area that subsequently became Bath County was settled by people with ancestry principally in England, Scotland, Germany, Wales, Ireland and France. The families who settled in what has since become Bath County who came to Virginia from England predominantly came from the counties of Derbyshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, the western portion of Sussex, Dorset, Somerset (where Bath in England is located), Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Kent and Lincolnshire.
Like much of the Shenandoah Valley region, Bath had a relatively large share of residents descended from Scots-Irish immigrants and German farmers, both of which groups were moving southward from the back country of Pennsylvania. By 1800, Bath County's population consisted mostly of subsistence farmers, though some were also artisans and a smaller number were shopkeepers.