The Woods River Grant was issued to James Patton in 1745, soon after the Haudenosaunee relinquished land claims in the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster to lands west of the Blue Ridge.
Starting in the 1730's, Patton had allied with William Beverley and John Lewis to recruit settlers from Ireland to purchase parcels west of the Blue Ridge on the Calfpasture River and Beverley Manor in what became Augusta County. In 1743 he asked the Governor's Council for a 200,000 acres of land grant. He was awarded 100,000 acres, with the potential of receiving another 100,000 acres later, and organized the Woods River Company to survey and sell his land along the New, Holston, and Clinch rivers. The Woods River Company was later renamed the New River Company.
Patton was a key leader in the Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church and Augusta County government, but he quarreled with other land speculators. The Loyal Land Company sued to restrict his ability to survey parcels on land that syndicate claimed. The Ohio Company helped to block his 1753 effort to obtain an additional 100,000 acres.
The potential to attract settlers south to the Woods River Grant was increased when some Iroquois chiefs signed the Treaty of Logstown in 1752. The treaty affirmed the cession of the Woods River Grant territory, but the full tribal leadership did not ratify the treaty before the outbreak of the French and Indian War.
Patton was killed at Draper's Meadows on the New River when the Shawnee attacked on July 30, 1755. The New River Company did not remain active after his death.1