As tensions flared into protest and then battle during the American Revolution, large numbers of Virginia settlers began migrating through the Cumberland Gap into what is now Kentucky. This region was originally governed as part of Fincastle County, Virginia, but was split off in 1776, and organized as Kentucky County. Four years later it was divided into Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln counties. New counties were subsequently created from portions of those counties, and in 1792, the region, then containing nine counties, separated from Virginia to form the Commonwealth of Kentucky.