Romney

Romney, city, seat (1753) of Hampshire county, in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, U.S., on the South Branch Potomac River, 28 miles (45 km) south of Cumberland, Maryland. It developed from the settlement of Pearsall’s Flats (1738), which then expanded around Fort Pearsall (1756); with Shepherdstown, Romney lays claim to being the state’s oldest incorporated town. Chartered in 1762, it was named by Virginia landowner Thomas Fairfax, 6th Baron Fairfax, for Romney, one of...