As one of the most affluent counties in the United States,^[8] Montgomery County also has the highest percentage (29.2%) of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate degrees.^[9] The county has been ranked as one of the wealthiest in the United States.^[10][11] Like other inner-suburban Washington, D.C. counties, Montgomery County contains many major U.S. government offices, scientific research and learning centers, and business campuses, which provide a significant amount of revenue for the county.^[12][13]Montgomery County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland, located adjacent to Washington, D.C. As of the 2010 census, the county’s population was 971,777, increasing by 8.1% to an estimated 1,050,688 in 2019.^[6] The county seat and largest municipality is Rockville, although the census-designated place of Germantown is the most populous city within the county.^[7] Montgomery County is included in the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn forms part of the Baltimore–Washington Combined Statistical Area. Most of the county’s residents live in unincorporated locales, of which the most urban are Silver Spring and Bethesda, although the incorporated cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg are also large population centers, as are many smaller but significant places.  If you are curious to know Whats my home worth Silver Spring,  find out by clicking here.  

The Maryland state legislature named Montgomery County after Richard Montgomery; the county was created from lands that had at one point or another been part of Frederick County.^[14] On September 6, 1776,^[3] Thomas Sprigg Wootton from Rockville, Maryland, introduced legislation, while serving at the Maryland Constitutional Convention, to create lower Frederick County as Montgomery County. The name, Montgomery County, along with the founding of Washington County, Maryland, after George Washington, was the first time in American history that counties and provinces in the thirteen colonies were not named after British referents. The name use of Montgomery and Washington County were seen as further defiance to Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. The county’s nickname of “MoCo” is derived from “Montgomery County”. Whats my home worth Silver Spring

The county’s motto, adopted in 1976, is “Gardez Bien”, a phrase meaning “Watch Well”. The county’s motto is also the motto of its namesake’s family.

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History

Gaithersburg‘s Summit Avenue in the early 1900s Whats my home worth Silver Spring

The former coat of arms of Montgomery County, used up until 1976.

 The former flag of Montgomery County, used from May 3, 1944 to October 5, 1976.

Early history[edit]

Before European colonization, the land now known as Montgomery County was covered in a vast swath of forest crossed by the creeks and small streams that feed the Potomac and Patuxent rivers. A few small villages of the Piscataway, members of the Algonquian people, were scattered across the southern portions of the county. North of the Great Falls of the Potomac, there were few permanent settlements, and the Piscataway shared hunting camps and foot paths with members of rival peoples like the Susquehannocks and the Senecas.

Captain John Smith of the English settlement at Jamestown was probably the first European to explore the area, during his travels along the Potomac River and throughout the Chesapeake region. Whats my home worth Silver Springs

These lands were claimed by Europeans for the first time when George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore was granted the charter for the colony of Maryland by Charles I of England.^[21] However, it was not until 1688 that the first tract of land in what is now Montgomery County was granted by the Calvert family to an individual colonist, a wealthy and prominent early Marylander named Henry Darnall. He and other early claimants had no intention of settling their families. They were little more than speculators, securing grants from the colonial leadership and then selling their lands in pieces to settlers. Thus, it was not until approximately 1715 that the first British settlers began building farms and plantations in the area.^[22]

These earliest settlers were English or Scottish immigrants from other portions of Maryland, German settlers moving down from Pennsylvania, or Quakers who came to settle on land granted to a convert named James Brooke in what is now Brookeville. Most of these early settlers were small farmers, growing wheat and a variety of other subsistence crops in addition to the region’s main cash crop, tobacco. Many of the farmers owned slaves. They transported the tobacco they grew to market through the Potomac River port of Georgetown.^[23] Sparsely settled, the area’s farms and taverns were nonetheless of strategic importance as access to the interior. General Edward Braddock‘s army traveled through the county on the way to its disastrous defeat at Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War.^[24]

Like other regions of the American colonies, the region that is now Montgomery County saw protests against British taxation in the years before the American Revolution. In 1774, local residents met at Hungerford’s Tavern and agreed to break off commerce with Great Britain.^[25] Following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, representatives of the area helped to draft the new state constitution and began to build a Maryland free of proprietary control.^[26]

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By 1776, there was a growing movement to form a new, strong federal government, with each colony retaining the authority to govern its local affairs.^[27] Member of the Maryland Constitutional Convention Thomas S. Wootton thought that dividing large Frederick County into three counties, each governed by elected representatives, would result in greater self-government.^[27]

When Wootton discussed his idea with the residents of southern Frederick County, the residents supported his idea for a different reason.^[27] At some point, almost everyone had needed to travel to the courthouse in Frederick Town, and the travel cost and time was prohibitive.^[27] The residents wanted a county courthouse to be located closer to them.^[27]

On August 31, 1776, Wootton introduced a measure to form a new county from the southern portion of Frederick County. Whats my home worth Silver Springs

Resolved, That after the first day of October, next, such part of the said county of Frederick as is contained within the bounds and limits following, to wit: beginning at the east side of the mouth of Rock Creek, on the Potomac River, and running thence with the said river to the mouth of Monocacy, then with a straight line to Parr’s Spring, from thence with the lines of the county to the beginning shall be and is hereby erected into a new county called Montgomery County.^[27]

Wootton proposed naming the new county after the well-known Major General Richard Montgomery, who had served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.^[27][28] Eight months prior, Montgomery had died in Quebec City while attempting an ultimately unsuccessful invasion of the Province of Quebec.^[27] Montgomery had never actually set foot on the land that would bear his name.^[27]

Wootton also proposed forming a new county from the northwestern portion of Frederick County, named Washington County, named after another well-known leader of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington.

Several members of the Maryland Continental Convention opposed Wootton’s proposal, and it was tabled.^[27] Six days later, Wootton pressed for his proposal again, and it passed by a slim majority. As a result, Montgomery County came into existence on October 1, 1776. Whats my home worth Silver Spring

In 1777, the leaders of the new county chose as their county seat an area adjacent to Hungerford’s Tavern near the center of the county, which became Rockville in 1801.^[29][30] When deciding its name, the original idea was to call it Wattsville, after Watts Branch, a stream that runs through the land.^[30] Because Watts Branch is a small stream, the idea was reconsidered, and the area was ultimately named Rockville after the nearby and larger Rock Creek.^[30]

For tax purposes, Montgomery County was divided into eleven districts, called hundreds.^[31] The names and areas of each hundred carried over from when the area was still part of Frederick County.^[31] The eleven districts were named as follows. Whats my home worth Silver Spring

• Linganor Hundred (now Clarksburg, Damascus, and Hyattstown);
• Upper Newfoundland Hundred (Brookeville, Laytonsville, Olney, Sandy Spring);
• Lower Newfoundland Hundred (Ashton, Brighton, Burtonsville);
• Rock Creek Hundred (Colesville, Layhill, Norbeck);
• Northwest Hundred (Kensington, Wheaton, Silver Spring, Takoma Park);
• Lower Potomac Hundred (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Georgetown);
• Middle Potomac Hundred (Potomac, Rockville);
• Upper Potomac Hundred (Darnestown, Dawsonville, Seneca);
• Seneca Hundred (Gaithersburg);
• Sugar Loaf Hundred (Barnesville, Beallsville, Germantown);
• Sugarland Hundred (Poolesville).^[31]

The first court was held at Hungerford’s Tavern on May 20, 1777.^[30] Court was held by Charles Jones, Samuel W. Magruder, Elisha Williams, William Deakins, Richard Thompson, James Offutt, and Edward Burgess, with Brook Beall as clerk.^[30] Clement Beall served as the county’s first sheriff.^[30] The county’s first courthouse was built soon thereafter, and the court was held at the new courthouse beginning in 1779.^[30]

According to the 1790 census, the county’s first, 18,000 people lived in the county, of which about 35 percent were black. Whats my home worth Silver Spring

Montgomery County supplied arms, food, and forage for the Continental Army during the Revolution, in addition to soldiers.^[32]

In 1791, portions of Montgomery County, including Georgetown, were ceded to form the new District of Columbia, along with portions of Prince George’s County, Maryland, as well as parts of Virginia that were later returned to Virginia.

Whats my home worth Silver Spring