In November, 1784, the general assembly of North Carolina, at Newbern, divided the district of Morgan, which had theretofore included all of the state “west of the mountains,” and erected Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Davidson counties into a “Superior Court of Law and Equity” district, by the name of “Washington.” From 1784 to 1788 all of the territory west of the Cumberland mountains was included in Davidson and Sumner counties, then the only organized counties in what is now Middle and West Tennessee. The population of Davidson county had so increased and extended westward from Nashville by the fall of 1788 that the general assembly of North Carolina, at Fayetteville, in November of that year, divided Davidson county by a line “beginning on the Virginia line now Kentucky, thence south along Sumner county to the dividing ridge between Cumberland river and Red river, thence westwardly along said ridge to the head of the main south branch of Sycamore creek, thence down the said branch to the mouth thereof, thence due south across Cumberland river to Davidson county line.” All that part of Davidson county west of this line was erected into a new county, which was named “Tennessee.” Tennessee county, therefore, included all of the territory now within the limits of Montgomery, Robertson, Dickson, Houston and Stewart, and parts of Hickman, Humphreys and Cheatham. The county seat of Tennessee county was fixed at Clarksville. By another act of the general assembly of North Carolina, at Fayetteville, in November, 1788, the counties of Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee were erected into a new district for the holding of “Superior Courts of Law and Equity” therein. When this act forming the new district west of the Cumberland mountains was on its third and final reading, the Speaker called on the author of the bill for the name with which the blank left for that purpose was to be filled. James Robertson and Robert Hays were the members from Davidson, and one of them was the author of the bill providing for the new district. It is a matter of history that, in answer to the Speaker’s call for the name of the new district, James Robertson arose and suggested “Mero.” He evidently gave the name as it is pronounced, without spelling it for the benefit of the clerk, and the latter evidently recorded it phonetically; and thus the name of the new district went upon the official record as “Mero,” which is the correct pronunciation, instead of “Miro,” which is the correct orthography. The error, once committed, was perpetuated; and “Mero” it continued to be, not only in contemporary records and legal documents, but in subsequent histories.[J]