General Horatio Gates was born in England and later lived in what is now the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. He had served overseas in the British army during the French and Indian War and came back to America in 1772. He bought a farm in Berkeley (present Jefferson) County and started building his home, Traveller’s Rest, in 1773.

Gates became a general in the American army during the Revolutionary War. In 1777, he led American troops to a major victory at Saratoga, but in 1780, he was defeated in humiliating fashion at Camden and lost his command. He visited Traveller’s Rest during the war and sold it in 1790. Before moving to New York, he freed his enslaved population.