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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mother Earth, by W. Stitt Robinson, Jr.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mother Earth
+       Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699
+
+Author: W. Stitt Robinson, Jr.
+
+Release Date: April 5, 2009 [EBook #28499]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOTHER EARTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: Extensive research indicates the copyright on this
+book was not renewed.
+
+
+
+_Mother Earth_--
+
+LAND GRANTS IN VIRGINIA
+
+1607-1699
+
+
+
+By
+
+W. STITT ROBINSON, JR.
+Associate Professor of History
+University of Kansas
+
+
+VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION CORPORATION
+WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
+1957
+
+COPYRIGHT(C), 1957 BY
+VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
+CORPORATION, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
+
+Jamestown 350th Anniversary
+Historical Booklet, Number 12
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+The Land and the Indian
+
+
+Among the motives for English colonization of America in the seventeenth
+century, the desire for free land occupied a prominent place. The
+availability of land in the New World appealed to all classes and ranks
+in Europe, particularly to the small landholder who sought to increase
+his landed estate and to the artisans and tenants who longed to enter
+the ranks of the freeholder.
+
+The desire for land and the opportunity to provide a home for one's
+family, according to Professor C. M. Andrews, "probably influenced the
+largest number of those who settled in North America." Land also had its
+appeal as the gateway to freedom, contributing substantially to the
+shaping of the American character. When analyzing the factors that
+helped make this "new man, who acts upon new principles," De Crevecoeur
+in 1782 emphasized the opportunity to "become a free man, invested with
+lands, to which every municipal blessing is annexed!"
+
+Formulation of a land policy confronted the officials of all the
+colonies in early America. Its importance is reflected in the statement
+by C. L. Raper in his study of English colonial government that the
+"System and policy concerning land determine to a very considerable
+extent the economic, social, and political life of the colonists." The
+existence of the American frontier with unoccupied land was a potent
+force in America, and Frederick Jackson Turner stated in his famous
+essay in 1893 that the "Most significant thing about the American
+frontier is, that it lies at the hither edge of free land."
+
+Before analyzing the nature of landholding and the land policy that was
+adopted in early Virginia, let us examine first the problem that arose
+by virtue of the presence of the Indians in North America.
+
+At the time of the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 the area of
+present-day Virginia was occupied by Indians of three linguistic stocks:
+Algonquin, Siouan, and Iroquoian. Generally speaking, the Algonquins
+which included the Powhatan Confederacy inhabited the Tidewater,
+reaching from the Potomac to the James River and extending to the
+Eastern Shore. The Siouan tribes, including the Monacans and the
+Manahoacs, occupied the Piedmont; while the Iroquoian group, containing
+the independent Nottoways and Meherrins, partially surrounded the others
+in a rough semicircle reaching from the headwaters of the Chesapeake
+through the western mountains and back to the coast in the region south
+of the James River.
+
+The presence of these tribes in the areas of proposed colonization
+confronted the colonizers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
+with the same problem that has faced imperialists of a later date, the
+question of "right and title" to land. The British, like other European
+nations, did not recognize the sovereign right of the heathen natives
+but claimed a general title to the area by the prevailing doctrine of
+right by discovery and later by the generally accepted doctrine of
+effective occupation. As stated in the charter to Sir Walter Raleigh in
+1584 with essentially the same provision included in the first charter
+of Virginia in 1606, the colonizers were authorized to occupy land "not
+actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian
+People." Over the Indians the British maintained a "limited
+sovereignty"; and when acknowledging any claim, they recognized only the
+Indian's right of occupation and asserted the "exclusive right" to
+extinguish this title which occupancy gave them.
+
+In the first years of the colony not even these tenure rights were
+recognized by the British. While a few gifts of land had been made by
+the natives and one of these confirmed by the London Company, there was
+no admission, either direct or by inference, that the Indians possessed
+a superior claim to the land. When such an implication was made in a
+land grant to Barkham in 1621, the company reacted with bitter
+resentment. Governor Yeardley, striving to maintain peace with the
+natives, made the grant conditional upon the consent of the Indian chief
+Opechancanough. According to stated practice under the company, the
+grant then had to be approved in England by a quarter court of the
+company's stockholders. When Barkham's petition was presented for
+ratification, the members of the court held the provision concerning the
+Indian chief to be "verie dishonorable and prejudiciall" for it
+infringed upon the company's title by acknowledging sovereignty in that
+"heathen infidell."
+
+Disregard for the aboriginal occupants of Virginia called forth anew the
+question of "right and title," a problem subject to discussion in
+England even before Jamestown. To allay these attacks, several
+proponents of colonial expansion attempted to justify the policy of the
+crown and the London Company.
+
+Sir George Peckham in _A true reporte of the late discoveries_ pointed
+out as early as 1583, relating to the discoveries of Sir Humphrey
+Gilbert, that it was "lawfull and necessary to trade and traficke with
+the savages." In a series of subsequent arguments, he then expounded
+the right of settlement among the natives and the mutual benefit to
+them and to England. This theme was later extended by the author of
+_Nova Britannia_, who maintained that the object of the English was to
+settle in the Indian's country, "yet not to supplant and roote them
+out, but to bring them from their base condition to a farre better" by
+teaching them the "arts of civility." The author of _Good Speed to
+Virginia_ added that the "Savages have no particular propertie in any
+part or parcell of that countrey, but only a generall residencie there,
+as wild beasts have in the forests." This last opinion, according to
+Philip A. Bruce, prevailed to a great extent and was held by a majority
+of the members of the London Company in regard to the appropriations of
+lands.
+
+In spite of these views entertained by the company, there were several
+instances in which the natives were compensated for their territory.
+This was done primarily through the initiative of local authorities, for
+they were usually better informed concerning Indian affairs. They were
+in much closer contact with the natives than the company's Council in
+London and realized that the goodwill of the aborigines could be
+cultivated by giving only minor considerations for the land occupied by
+the English. On other occasions the Indians voluntarily gave up their
+land such as the present from Opechancanough in 1617 of a large body of
+land at Weyanoke. At still other times land was seized by force. When
+any attempt was made to justify the seizure, it was done on the basis of
+an indemnity for damage inflicted upon the colony or for violations of
+agreements by the natives. By 1622 settlements had been made along the
+banks of the lower James River and in Accomac on the Eastern Shore, the
+land having been obtained by direct purchase, by gifts from the natives,
+or by conquest.
+
+Any attempt to determine the extent of the areas acquired by purchase in
+Virginia is hindered by the indefinite nature of the Indian holdings and
+by the lack of complete records for the early periods. Thomas Jefferson
+thought much of the land had been purchased. Writing to St. George
+Tucker in 1798, Jefferson stated:
+
+    At an early part of my life, from 1762 to 1775, I passed much time
+    in going through the public records in Virginia, then in the
+    secretary's office, and especially those of a very early date of our
+    settlement. In these are abundant instances of purchases made by our
+    first assemblies of the indi[ans] around them. The opinion I formed
+    at the time was that if the records were complete & thoroughly
+    searched, it would be found that nearly the whole of the lower
+    country was covered by these contracts.
+
+Jefferson overestimated the amount of land that was purchased by
+Virginia during the early years. While the records now extant show that
+the colony often purchased lands, they likewise indicate that frequently
+land was appropriated without compensation. Especially during the years
+following the first massacre of 1622, "The Indians were stripped of
+their inheritance without the shadow of justice." The greater part of
+the Peninsula between the York and James rivers was taken by conquest;
+the right of possession was later confirmed by a treaty with Necotowance
+in 1646, without, however, any stipulation for compensating the natives
+for the land they relinquished.
+
+The treaty of 1646 with the successor of Opechancanough inaugurated the
+policy of major historical significance of either setting aside areas
+reserved for Indian tribes, or establishing a general boundary line
+between white and Indian settlements. Influenced by the desire of
+individual settlers to fortify their claims and by the opposition of the
+natives to white encroachment, the colony designated definite lands for
+the Virginia Indians and began to follow more closely the custom of
+purchasing all territory received from the natives. To see that this was
+done, the Assembly passed numerous laws, pertaining in most cases only
+to the specific tribes of Indians mentioned in each act.
+
+In 1653 the Assembly ordered that the commissioners of York County
+remove any persons then seated upon the territory of the Pamunkey or
+Chickahominy Indians. At the same time both lands and hunting grounds
+were assigned to the red men of Gloucester and Lancaster counties. The
+following year the Indian tribes of Northampton County on the Eastern
+Shore were granted the right to sell their land to the English provided
+a majority of the inhabitants of the Indian town consented and provided
+the Governor and Council of the colony ratified the procedure. Soon
+other tribes were given the same privilege. So anxious were they to
+dispose of their land when allowed to convey a legal title, that it
+became necessary for the colony to forbid further land transfers without
+the Assembly's stamp of approval. Such a step was taken in order to
+prevent the continual necessity of apportioning new lands to keep the
+natives satisfied.
+
+By 1658 the Assembly had received from several Indian tribes so many
+complaints of being deprived of their land, either by force or fraud,
+that measures were again adopted to protect the natives in their rights.
+No member of the colony was allowed to occupy lands claimed by the
+natives without consent from the Governor and Council or from the
+commissioners of the territory where the settlement was intended. To
+decrease the chances for cheating the Indians, all sales were to be
+consummated at quarter courts where unfair purchases could be prevented.
+
+Efforts to protect the Indians in the possession of their lands were
+subject to modification from time to time. The treaty of 1646 designated
+the York River as the line to separate the settlements of the English
+and the natives. But the colony at that time was on the eve of a great
+period of expansion. With an estimated population of 15,000 in 1650, the
+colony increased by 1666 to approximately 40,000, and by 1681 to
+approximately 80,000. To stem the tide of the advancing English
+settlement was apparently an impossibility. Therefore, Governor William
+Berkeley and the Council, upon representation from the Burgesses,
+consented to the opening of the land north of the York and Rappahannock
+rivers after 1649. At the same time the provision making it a felony for
+the English to go north of the York was repealed. This turn in policy,
+based upon the assumption that some intermingling of the white and red
+men was inevitable, led to the effort to provide for an "equitable
+division" of land supplemented by attempts to modify the Indian economy
+which had previously demanded vast areas of the country.
+
+Endeavoring to provide for this "equitable division" of land, the
+Assembly in 1658 forbade further grants of lands to any Englishmen
+whatsoever until the Indians had been allotted a proportion of fifty
+acres for each bowman. The land for each Indian town was to lie together
+and to include all waste and unfenced land for the purpose of hunting.
+This provision did not relieve all pressure on Indians' lands, partly
+because some of the natives never received their full proportion and
+partly because some had been accustomed to even larger areas. But it did
+serve as a basis for reservation of land for different tribes.
+
+[Illustration: From a portrait reproduced in J. H. Claiborne, _William
+Claiborne of Virginia_.
+    Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce.
+
+William Claiborne, Surveyor for Virginia, Secretary of the Colony of
+Virginia]
+
+[Illustration: _How to reduce all sorts of grounds into a square for
+the better measuring of it._
+
+From John Norden's "Surveior's Dialogue"
+Photo by T. L. Williams]
+
+Two years later the Assembly in 1660 took definite steps to relieve the
+pressure of English encroachments upon the territory of the Accomac
+Indians on the Eastern Shore. Enough land was assigned to the natives of
+Accomac to afford ample provisions for subsistence over and above the
+supplies that might be obtained through hunting and fishing. To insure a
+fair and just distribution of these lands, the Assembly passed over
+surveyors of the Eastern Shore and required that the work be done by a
+resident of the mainland, who obviously would be less prejudiced against
+the aborigines because of personal interest. When once assigned to the
+natives, the land could not be alienated.
+
+By 1662 this last provision, forbidding the Accomacs to alienate their
+lands, was extended to all Indians in Virginia. The Assembly had
+realized that the chief cause of trouble was the encroachment by the
+whites upon Indian territory. Efforts, therefore, had been made to
+remove this cause of friction by permitting purchases from the natives
+provided each sale was publicly announced before a quarter court or the
+Assembly. But the plan had not been a complete success. Various members
+of the colony had employed all kinds of ingenious devices to persuade
+the natives to announce in public their willingness to part with their
+land. Dishonest interpreters had rendered "them willing to surrender
+when indeed they intended to have received a confirmation of their owne
+rights." In view of these evil practices the Assembly declared all
+future sales to be null and void.
+
+Twenty-eight years later in 1690 the Governor and Council in accord with
+this restriction nullified several purchases made from the Chickahominy
+Indians. By order of the Assembly in 1660 this tribe had received lands
+in Pamunkey Neck. Since that time several colonists had either purchased
+a part of their land or encroached upon their territory without regard
+for compensation. In neither case were the white settlers allowed to
+remain. All leases, sales, and other exchanges were declared void by the
+Governor and Council, and all intruders were ordered to withdraw and
+burn the buildings that had been constructed. George Pagitor, being one
+of the settlers affected by this order, had obtained about 1,200 acres
+in Pamunkey Neck from the natives. He had built a forty-foot tobacco
+barn and kept two workers there most of the year. When his purchase was
+declared void, he was ordered to return the land to the natives and to
+burn the barn that had been constructed. Accompanying this executive
+decree was an order to the sheriff of New Kent County authorizing him to
+carry out the will of the officials of the colony and to burn the barn
+himself, if necessary.
+
+Commissioners were also employed for the supervision of Indian lands.
+Upon the recommendation of the committee appointed for Indian affairs,
+the Assembly in 1662 authorized the Governor to appoint a commission "to
+enquire into and examine the severall claimes made to any part of our
+neighboring Indian land, and confirme such persons who have justly
+invested themselves, and cause all others to remove." The English with
+rights to land within three miles of the natives were to assist in
+fencing the Indian corn fields. This was done to prevent harm to the
+Indian crops by hogs and cattle of the colony. Commissioners appointed
+were to designate the time and number of English to aid in the
+construction. Other commissioners were to view annually the boundaries
+separating the two people.
+
+The commissioners diligently enforced the provisions of these laws which
+underwent few changes until the outburst of hostilities in Bacon's
+Rebellion. In 1678 the additional expense of the Indian war led the
+colony to modify temporarily its former provisions in order to obtain
+more revenue from land. All territory recently assigned to the Indians
+but then abandoned and any land then occupied that should later be
+deserted were to be sold. The proceeds from the sale were to be used in
+the public interest to defray the expense of the war.
+
+This regulation applied only to land abandoned by the Indians. The
+colony continued to protect the natives in other lands assigned them as
+is exemplified in the region south of the James River. In 1665 the
+Indian boundary line for the area was designated to run from the
+southern branches of the Blackwater River to the Appomattox Indian town,
+and from there to Manakin Town located only a few miles above the Fall
+Line. By 1674 some of the colonists had crossed this line and were
+settling on the territory of the Nottoway Indians. When the encroachment
+was called to the attention of the Governor and Council, they ordered
+the English to withdraw immediately, and in the next instructions to the
+surveyor of the colony they again forbade the location of new grants in
+the region designated as Indian land.
+
+The number of the aborigines gradually dwindled in this section as in
+other parts of the colony, due mainly to wars, smallpox epidemics,
+spirituous liquors, migration, and the abridgement of territory of a
+people who lived principally on the "spontaneous productions of nature."
+Because of the decrease the Burgesses in 1685 appealed to Governor
+Howard for permission to allow grants to some of the land in the area.
+The Governor failed to comply with their requests. Later, in 1690, an
+order was issued for the immediate removal of several persons who had
+obtained illegal patents to land south of the main Blackwater Swamp. All
+members of the colony were again forbidden to settle beyond the boundary
+line, and any who had already constructed houses were ordered not to
+repair them nor to finish any other uncompleted buildings. The sheriffs
+and justices of the peace of Charles City, Surry, Isle of Wight, and
+Nansemond counties were instructed to be on the alert for violators of
+the order.
+
+However, the Indians themselves, residing in the region on the south
+side of the Blackwater River and in Pamunkey Neck had requested in 1688
+that colonists be allowed to settle across the boundary line in the area
+now made vacant by the gradual dying out of their tribes. The basis for
+the request seems to have been a desire for relief in their precarious
+economic condition and the fear of invasion by hostile Indians, whom
+they regarded with more apprehension than they did the English. By 1705,
+the colony, influenced by the request from the natives revoked its
+former law regarding the Indian boundary, permitting a limited number of
+white settlements in Pamunkey Neck and in the region south of the
+Blackwater Swamp and Nottoway River.
+
+Thus in the seventeenth century the pendulum moved from a position of
+the colony ignoring any Indian rights in the land to a gradual
+recognition of the Indian right of occupation. This sweep of the
+pendulum brought the establishment of boundary lines between the whites
+and the Indians with reservations being designated for certain tribes.
+By the end of the century the diminution of the tribes found the
+pendulum swinging back to open the area to white settlement which had
+once been reserved to the natives, yet still retaining the recognition
+of the Indian's right of occupation where tribes survived. With this
+survey of the problem of the red man's title to land, let us now turn to
+a consideration of the white man's title and how it was obtained in
+seventeenth-century Virginia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+The London Company
+
+
+General boundaries for English settlement were designated in the charter
+of 1606 creating the London Company and the Plymouth Company to settle
+the area in America known as Virginia. The London Company was authorized
+to settle a tract of land 100 miles square in the southern part of the
+area extending from the thirty-fourth to the forty-first degrees north
+latitude, or from the Cape Fear River in present North Carolina to New
+York City. The boundaries for the Plymouth Company were from the
+thirty-eighth to the forty-fifth degrees north latitude, or from
+approximately the mouth of the Potomac River to a line just north of
+present Bangor, Maine. In the overlapping area between the thirty-eighth
+and forty-first degrees, which in effect created a neutral zone between
+the present location of Washington, D.C., and New York City, provision
+was made for a distance of at least 100 miles to separate the sites that
+might be selected by the two companies.
+
+As stated in the charter of 1606, "all the lands, tenements, and
+hereditaments" were to be held "as of our Manor at East-Greenwich in the
+County of Kent, in free and common soccage only, and not in capite." The
+"Manor at East-Greenwich" refers to the residence of King James I at the
+royal palace of Greenwich and was used as a descriptive term in many
+grants to indicate that the land in America was also considered a part
+of the demesne of the King. The land was held not "in fee simple" with
+absolute ownership, a concept which was not a part of English law at the
+time; but it was granted "in free and common soccage" with the holder a
+tenant of the King with obligations of fealty and of the payment of a
+quitrent. The fixed rent replaced the service, military or personal,
+required under feudal law; and the socage tenure in effect did not
+subject the land to the rules of escheat or return of the land to the
+King if inherited by minors or widows. For Englishmen in America, the
+"Instructions for the government of the colonies" in 1606 were explicit
+in showing that their legal and tenurial rights were the same as
+residents of the mother country by stating that "All the lands,
+tenements, and hereditaments ... shal be had and inherited and enjoyed,
+according as in the like estates they be had and enjoyed by the lawes
+within this realme of England."
+
+Government by the charter of 1606 provided for a strong exercise of
+control by the crown over the colonies of both companies. This was
+achieved through the establishment of the Council for Virginia that was
+appointed by the King, was resident in England, and answered to the King
+through the Privy Council for its actions. For local control of each
+company, authorization was made for a Council in America with its
+initial membership determined by the Council for Virginia and with a
+president selected by the local group.
+
+Few details were given either in the charter or "Instructions" of 1606
+about distribution of land. Provisions did state that grants of land in
+the colony would be made in the name of the King to persons whom the
+local Council "nominate and assign"; but no details were given of the
+method of land distribution. From the scant records that survive, it is
+evident that promises of land were made to individuals who were willing
+to hazard the dangers of the new country. From a bill of adventure that
+goes back to 1608, the nature of the promise of land is revealed in the
+agreement between Henry Dawkes and Richard Atkinson, clerk of the
+Virginia Company. Fortunately the bill of adventure of 1608 was recorded
+with the patent by Governor John Harvey in 1632 to William Dawkes, son
+and heir of Henry Dawkes. The commitments in the bill of adventure were
+as follows:
+
+    _Whereas_ Henry Dawkes now bound on the intended voyage to Virginia
+    hath paid, in ready money, to Sr. Thomas Smith Kt. treasurer for
+    Virginia the some of twelve pounds tenn shillings for his adventure
+    in the voyage to Virginia.
+
+    _It is agreed_ that for the same the said Henry Dawkes his heires,
+    executors, admrs. and assignes shall have rateably according to his
+    adventure his full pte. of all such lands tenemts and hereditamts.
+    as shall from time to time bee there planted and inhabited, and of
+    all such mines and minneralls of gould, silver, and other mettalls
+    or treasures, pearles, pretious stoanes or any kinds of wares or
+    merchandize, comodities or pfitts. whatsoever, which shal bee
+    obtained or gotten in the said voyage, according to the portion of
+    money by him imployed to that use, In as large and ample manner as
+    any other adventurer therein shall receave for the like some.
+
+    Written this fowerteenth of July one thousand six hundred and eight.
+
+    Richard Atkinson
+    [Clerk of the Virginia Company].
+
+The first two years at Jamestown brought disappointments, but the
+adventurers of the London Company found grounds for new hope in the
+enlarged and expanded program that was inaugurated in 1609. A new
+charter was sought from the King to make possible reforms in
+governmental organization both in England and Virginia; and a broader
+base for financial support was laid by inviting the public to subscribe
+to a joint-stock fund. By the charter of 1609 the new organization was
+incorporated as the Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of
+the City of London for the First Colony in Virginia. In England the head
+of the reorganized company was designated as treasurer, and the major
+change in control was the transfer of authority over the colony from the
+crown to the company with the powers of government in the hands of the
+treasurer and Council. This Council in England, which continued for some
+time to be called the Council for Virginia, had its jurisdiction limited
+to the exploits of the London Company; its membership came entirely from
+the company; and its members were in effect selected by the leading
+promoters of the company. One major governmental change occurred in the
+colony by the president and Council being eliminated in favor of a
+strong Governor to be advised by a Council. The former provision for
+title to an area of land 100 miles square was changed to give title to
+"all that space and circuit of land" lying 200 miles north and 200 miles
+south of Point Comfort from the sea coast "up into the land, throughout
+from sea to sea, west, and northwest" plus islands within 100 miles of
+the coast.
+
+Provisions relative to distribution of land were more specific in the
+1609 charter and provided that land should be conveyed by majority vote
+of the company under its common seal. Consideration in distribution of
+land was to be given both to the amount invested by adventurer as well
+as "special service, hazard, exploit, or merit of any person."
+
+In the third charter of 1612 no major changes were included relative to
+land. Boundaries of the colony were extended from 100 miles to 300
+leagues to include the newly discovered Bermuda Islands. And greater
+governmental authority was placed in the generality of the company by
+providing for quarterly court meetings of the company to handle "matters
+and affairs of greater weight and importance" than were resolved by
+lesser courts of a smaller portion of the company.
+
+No immediate grants of land to individuals were forthcoming with these
+charters. Only promises were made to those who subscribed to the
+joint-stock undertaking. The adventurer invested only his money and
+remained in England with each unit of investment set at L12 10s. per
+share. The term planter was applied to one who went to the colony, and
+his personal adventure was equated to one unit of investment at the
+same rate as above. Both adventurer and planter were promised a
+proportionate share of any dividends distributed, whether in land or in
+money. The joint-stock arrangement was originally set to continue seven
+years from its inception in 1609, thus making 1616 as the terminal
+date. During this period monetary dividends might be declared, and at
+the end of the period the land suitable for cultivation was to be
+divided with at least 100 acres to be given for each share of stock.
+The tract _Nova Britannia_ of 1609, written by Robert Johnson as a part
+of the promotional campaign of the London Company, outlined these major
+provisions concerning land and included the optimistic prediction that
+each share of L12 10s. would be worth 500 acres at least. But an
+attempt fourteen years later by Captain Martin to justify a patent
+based on this figure of 500 acres per share failed because the promise
+was held to be the work of a private individual and not a commitment by
+the court of the company.
+
+In the absence of private title to land in the early years of the
+Virginia colony, the company relied upon a corporate form of management
+with the pooling of community effort to clear the land, construct
+buildings, develop agriculture, and engage in trade with the Indians.
+This was not an experiment based on a theory of communism for the
+joint-stock claims were limited in time. Most of the settlers were more
+in a position of contract laborers performing services for the company,
+and plans were devised for monetary dividends even before 1616 if the
+colony prospered. Inadequate supplies from England, severe weather
+conditions, hostility of the Indians, and the lack of willingness for
+industrious labor on the part of the early settlers depleted the common
+storehouse upon which the colonists were forced to rely, leading to the
+exercise of stern and autocratic measures by John Smith and some of his
+successors as leaders in the colony. Among the factors that contributed
+to the lack of zeal among the settlers was the absence of private
+ownership of land.
+
+Prior to the promised distribution of land in 1616, there was granted
+private use of land under a tenant-farm policy which most probably was
+first inaugurated in 1614 under Sir Thomas Dale, although there is some
+uncertainty about the date. Three acres of "cleare ground" were allotted
+to men of the old settlement. In effect they became tenants of the
+company and were obligated to render only one month's service to the
+colony at some period other than the planting and harvesting time and to
+contribute annually to the common magazine two barrels and a half of
+corn on the ear. This tenant-farm policy worked well and better
+conditions resulted with increased production of crops and stock.
+According to one account in 1616:
+
+    They sow and reape their corne in sufficient proportion, without
+    want or impeachment; their kine multiply already to some hundreds,
+    their swine to many thousands, their goates and poultry in great
+    numbers, every man hath house and ground to his owne use....
+
+In the same year this policy was extended to include eighty-one farmers
+or tenants in the colony's total population of 351.
+
+Despite improvement in the supply of provisions, the company still had
+to face the harsh facts that in 1616 there were only 351 persons alive
+in the colony, and funds were low in the treasury. There had been only a
+limited number of new subscribers; some of the earlier subscribers had
+defaulted on their second or third payments; and the use of lotteries
+had failed to provide adequate money. This was the year set for the end
+of the joint ownership of land with the declaration of land dividends.
+But the company could not provide the necessary funds to defray the
+administrative costs for the land divisions; and furthermore, many were
+of the opinion that not enough land in possession had been cleared of
+trees and surveyed. The arbitrary conduct of the Deputy Governor Captain
+Samuel Argall, who arrived in Virginia in May, 1617, also contributed to
+the delay in carrying out the plan for land distribution.
+
+_In A Briefe Declaration of the present state of things in Virginia_,
+adventurers were told that "this course of sending a Governor with
+commissioners and a survayor, with men, ships, and sundry provisions"
+would be expensive, and plans were announced for only a preliminary or
+"first divident" of fifty acres with the expressed hope that a later
+division would bring at least 200 acres for every share. But even for
+the preliminary division, more money was needed and shareholders were
+asked to subscribe another L12 10s. to help pay for the administrative
+cost. For each additional subscription of L12 10s., a fifty-acre grant
+would be made. Here we have provisions for obtaining land by "treasury
+right," a method remaining in effect only until dissolution of the
+company in 1624 and not reappearing until 1699. Planters in the colony
+were also to receive a fifty-acre grant for their personal adventure.
+Even new adventurers were invited to buy shares at L12 10s. and were
+promised fifty-acre grants with the same privileges of the old
+adventurers. But the response was poor. Most of the grants that were
+made were either irregular in form or contained unreasonable provisions
+dictated by the exigency of the situation, thereby being later
+repudiated by the company.
+
+The financial embarrassment of the company and the need for further
+colonization led to grants of land in return for service to the company
+by officials or for promoting the transportation of colonists. For the
+services of Sir Thomas Dale to the colony, the Council for Virginia
+awarded him the value of 700 pounds sterling to be received in land
+distribution; to Sir Thomas Smith for his noteworthy efforts as
+treasurer or chief official of the company, 2,000 acres; and to Captain
+Daniel Tucker for his aiding the colony with his pinnace and for his
+service as vice-admiral, fifteen shares of land. Similar rewards could
+be made under the company to ministers, physicians, and other government
+officials.
+
+As a further stimulus to expand the population of the colony and to
+enhance agricultural production, the company beginning in 1617
+encouraged private or voluntary associations, organized on a joint-stock
+basis, to establish settlements in the area of the company's patent.
+These "societies of adventurers" were to send to Virginia at their own
+expense, tenants, servants, and supplies; and the associates were given
+certain governmental powers over the settlement that approached the
+position of an independent colony. They were authorized "till a form of
+government is here settled over them" to issue orders and ordinances
+provided they were not contrary to the laws of England. In relation to
+the four original boroughs of James City, Charles City, Henrico, and
+Kecoughtan (later Elizabeth City), the hundreds or particular
+plantations in government were "co-ordinate and not subordinate"; and
+some of them sent representatives to the first Assembly held in 1619
+under Governor Yeardley.
+
+The amount of land in these sub-patents depended upon the number of
+shares of stock of the associates, and in effect the grants served as
+dividends to the shareholders. One hundred acres were granted for each
+share with the first division of land, and the promise was made for an
+equal amount upon a second division of land provided the first was
+"sufficiently peopled." There was to be some choice in location by the
+associates, although certain restrictions were imposed. No grant was to
+be located within five miles of the four original boroughs, and the
+plantation should be ten miles from other settlements unless on opposite
+sides of an important river. These provisions were designed to provide
+for expansion and at the same time avoid conflict among plantations, yet
+they tended to disperse the colony and complicate efforts to maintain
+adequate protection from the imminent threat of hostile natives.
+
+The term hundred was applied to some, but not all, of these particular
+plantations. The origin of this designation has sometimes been explained
+as a derivation from the English administrative system, but this seems
+valid only as it pertains to the name. There was no attempt to establish
+a system based on English counties and hundreds, rather the Virginia
+hundreds were closer to the feudal manor with a degree of economic and
+political independence. In the light of these conditions, Professor
+Wesley Frank Craven suggested the possibility that the term might have
+been a "colloquial designation" applied to plantations with no definite
+name and related to the units of 100 acres included in the grants or by
+the requirement to seat 100 settlers on the land.
+
+There were three general types of particular plantations. The first of
+these represented the voluntary pooling of land and resources by several
+adventurers of the company, since few had adequate land or financial
+support to go it alone. The company granted a patent to contiguous areas
+of land according to the number of shares of stock possessed by the
+group. Examples of this type include the Society of Smith's Hundred and
+Martin's Hundred. Smith's Hundred, later called Southampton Hundred, was
+organized in 1617 and included among its adventurers Sir Thomas Smith,
+Sir Edwin Sandys, and the Earl of Southampton. The grant included 80,000
+acres and was located on the north side of the James River in the area
+between "Tanks Weyanoke" and the Chickahominy River. The society was
+administered by a treasurer and committees selected by a meeting of the
+adventurers. The associates settled at least 300 colonists within their
+boundaries and reported in 1635 the expenditure of L6,000 on the
+settlement. Martin's Hundred, organized in 1618, was named for Richard
+Martin and should be distinguished from (John) Martin's Brandon
+organized the previous year. The Society of Martin's Hundred held patent
+to 80,000 acres and dispatched over 250 colonists, but only a part of
+the tract was ever occupied.
+
+The second type of particular plantation involved an adventurer who
+combined with persons outside the company to obtain a grant. The title
+usually resided in the original adventurer, and the nature of government
+and special privileges was similar to grants of the first kind discussed
+above. The grant made to Captain Samuel Argall was of this type. So was
+the grant of John Martin's Brandon in 1617, a plantation of 7,000 acres
+situated seven miles upstream from Jamestown.
+
+The third type of grant involved new adventurers whose major purpose in
+buying stock in the company was to organize a particular plantation.
+Illustrative of this category was the plantation of Christopher Lawne,
+who transported 100 settlers in 1619 to Warrosquoik and established
+Lawne's Hundred. During the following year the hundred was dissolved and
+thereafter called Isle of Wight Plantation.
+
+Beginning with the election of Sir Edwin Sandys as treasurer in 1619 and
+including the next four years, there were forty-four grants made for
+particular plantations; and the company declared six others to have been
+made prior to this time under Sir Thomas Smith. All of the projected
+plantations, however, were never located; and few were settled to the
+extent planned by the company. Historical records are scarce for these
+projects and this paucity of material has left much of the story
+incomplete. It is certain that the following additional plantations were
+actually established in Virginia: Archer's Hope on the James River,
+Bargrave's Settlement, Bennett's Welcome, Society of Truelove's
+Plantation, Persey's or Flowerdieu Hundred, and Berkeley Town or
+Hundred. For the last of these, Berkeley Hundred, there is an extensive
+set of records in the Smyth of Nibley Papers that gives considerable
+insight into the organization and activities of the adventurers under
+the leadership of Richard Berkeley, George Thorpe, William Throckmorton,
+and John Smyth of Nibley.
+
+Resembling its larger prototype, the London Company, the Berkeley
+Hundred group had a governor and council. The adventurers were granted
+100 acres of land for each share of stock with the promise of an equal
+amount when the first grant was settled; likewise they were promised
+fifty acres without quitrent for every person transported at their
+expense who remained for three years or died within this period. For
+promoting both a church and school, the adventurers were also granted
+1,500 acres. With these grants and with exemptions from both the
+company's trade rules and from taxation except by consent, the leaders
+of Berkeley Hundred inaugurated a vigorous campaign to provide the
+necessary provisions and personnel, including farmers, artisans,
+overseers, a minister, and a doctor. Over ninety people were dispatched
+to the colony in 1619 and 1620 at a cost of approximately L2,000. This
+settlement, however, did not thrive. Many of the settlers died of
+disease and eleven were killed in the Indian massacre of 1622. By 1636
+the adventurers had abandoned their plans to continue the settlement and
+sold their interests to London merchants.
+
+In addition to the stimulus to migration by the three foregoing types
+of grants for particular plantations, the company took steps in 1618
+toward reorganization of its administration. Sir Thomas Smith was still
+in control of the company as treasurer and contributed to the reforms,
+but the major contribution came from Sir Edwin Sandys who succeeded to
+the position of treasurer in the spring of the following year. Rules
+and by-laws were restated in the "Orders and Constitutions," which were
+largely prepared in 1618 although not formally adopted until June,
+1619. One additional document of 1618 was very significant because it
+outlined a uniform land policy. Identified by the term "the greate
+charter," it is listed in the _Records_ of the London Company as
+"Instructions to Governor Yeardly" under the date November 18, 1618.
+
+This "charter" outlined plans for distribution of the land dividend and
+contained provisions for the headright system which became a basic
+feature of the colony's land policy. One hundred acres were promised as
+a first dividend to all adventurers for each paid-up share of stock at
+L12 10s., another 100 acres as a second dividend when the first had been
+settled ("sufficiently peopled"). "Ancient planters," that is, those who
+had come to the colony prior to the departure of Sir Thomas Dale in
+1616, were to receive similar grants if they had come to the colony at
+their own expense. These foregoing grants were to be free of quitrent.
+"Ancient planters" who came to the colony at the company's expense would
+receive the same amount of land after a seven-year term of service but
+would be required to pay a quitrent of two shillings for every 100
+acres.
+
+For settlers arriving after the departure of Dale in 1616 or those
+migrating during the seven-year period following Midsummer Day of 1618,
+separate regulations applied. If transported at company expense, the
+colonist was to serve as a half-share tenant for seven years with no
+promise of a land grant; if at his own expense, he was to receive as a
+headright fifty acres on the first dividend and the same amount on the
+second dividend. This provision for the fifty-acre headright was set up
+for the seven-year period prior to Midsummer Day of 1625, but it
+continued beyond this date as the essential key to Virginia's land
+policy of the seventeenth century.
+
+Out of the number of people who purchased a share in the company and
+thereby received a bill of adventure, Alexander Brown in his _Genesis
+of the United States_ estimated that about one-third came to Virginia
+and took up their land claim; approximately one-third sent over agents,
+or in some cases heirs, to benefit by the grants; and the remaining
+one-third disposed of their shares to others who occupied the lands.
+
+Provisions for special lands were also stated in "the greate charter."
+At each of the four focal points of settlement--James City, Charles
+City, Henrico, and Kecoughtan, 3,000 acres were to be set aside as the
+company's land. Half-share tenants were to cultivate the lands and half
+of the company's profits was to be used to support several of the
+colonial officials. For the Governor, a special plot known as the
+Governor's land was to be designated at Jamestown, and half of the
+proceeds of the tenants was to go to the Governor. For local government,
+additional provisions were made for support by setting aside 1,500 acres
+as "burroughs land" at the four points of settlement listed above.
+
+Support of cultural activities, as well as governmental, was also
+provided by land. Glebe lands were authorized at each borough, including
+100 acres for the minister with a supplement from church members to pay
+a total of L200 per annum. For the promotion of education, "the greate
+charter" set aside 10,000 acres at Henrico as an endowment for a
+"university and college." The primary aim of the college in 1618 was to
+serve as an Indian mission, although the training of English students
+was probably a part of the plan. Tenants were dispatched to Virginia to
+work at Henrico as "tenants at halves," one-half of the proceeds of
+their labor to go to the tenant, the other half to be used for the
+building of the college and for support of its tutors and students. One
+hundred and fifty tenants were sent over for the college land; and to
+improve the returns from this enterprise, Sir Edwin Sandys engaged that
+"worthy religious gentleman" George Thorpe as deputy to supervise the
+investment in the college land. Patrick Copland, projector of the first
+English free school in North America, was designated president-elect of
+the Indian college; and Richard Downes, a scholar in England, came to
+Virginia in 1619 with plans to work in the proposed college. All of
+these hopeful plans were suddenly blasted by the eruption of the Indian
+massacre of 1622. For all practical purposes the project was ended,
+although some efforts were made after 1622 by the company to have the
+remaining tenants cultivate the land and to hold the bricklayers to the
+obligations of their contract.
+
+The trace of these grants, including the company land, the Governor's
+land, and the "burroughs land" fades out in the absence of complete
+records for this period of the colony. Use of the glebe land as partial
+support for the minister was continued in later years, although details
+of the disposition of these early plots are missing. And the
+appropriation of lands for support of education and other public
+purposes was a recognized concept in later American history.
+
+The issuing of patents in fee simple to land promised under the general
+land dividend did not reach the extent planned by the company until the
+arrival of Governor George Yeardley in 1619. There seems to be adequate
+evidence to prove, as Bruce contended, that a few grants had been made
+prior to this time, even prior to 1617; but no record has been preserved
+in the Virginia Land Office. However, even if such grants were
+authorized, it is unlikely that the proper surveys were made for many of
+them.
+
+As early as 1616 there were references by the company to send to
+Virginia a surveyor who could lay out the lands to be distributed to the
+adventurers. It is probable that a surveyor accompanied Captain Samuel
+Argall to the colony in 1617, but the first name on record in this
+position seems to be that of Richard Norwood who had previously engaged
+in surveying in the Somer Isles. There is little to indicate that much
+was done by Norwood. In 1621 William Claiborne accompanied Governor
+Francis Wyatt to Virginia, and the arrival of these two men actuated the
+granting of many tracts.
+
+One of these grants by Governor Wyatt is the earliest extant form of the
+headright franchise. Dated January 26, 1621/22, it conveyed to Thomas
+Hothersall 200 acres of land at Blunt Point located in later Warwick
+County. The grant read as follows:
+
+    _By the Governr and Capt: Generll: of Virginia_
+
+    _To all to whome these prsents shall come_ greeting in our Lord God
+    Everlasting.
+
+    _Know Yee_ that I sr Francis Wyatt Kt, Governr and Capt: Generall
+    of Virginia, by vertue of the great charter of orders and lawes
+    concluded on and dated at London in a generall quarter court the
+    eighteenth day of November one thousand six hundred and eighteene
+    by the treasurer Counseil and company of adventurers for the first
+    southerne colony of Virginia, according to the authority graunted
+    them from his Matie under his great seale, the said charter being
+    directed to the Governr and Counseil of State here resident, and by
+    the rules of justice, equity & reason, doe wth the approbation and
+    consent of the same Counseil who are joyned in commission with mee,
+    give and graunt unto Mr. Thomas Hothersall of Paspehay gent., and
+    to his heires and assignes for ever, for his first generll:
+    devident, to bee augumented and doubled by the said company to him
+    and his said heires and assignes when hee or they shall once
+    sufficiently have planted and peopled the same.
+
+    Two hundred acres of land scituate and being at Blunt Point,
+    confining on the east the land of Cornelius May, on the south upon
+    the great river, on the north upon the maine land and on the west
+    runing towards a small creek one hundred rod (at sixteene foote and
+    a half the rod);
+
+    Fifty acres whereof is his owne psonall right and fifty acres is
+    the psonall right of Frances Hothersall his wife, the other hundred
+    acres in consideration of his transportacon of twoe of his children
+    out of England at his owne cost & charges, Viz: Richard Hothersall
+    and Mary Hothersall,
+
+    _To Have and to Hold_ the said twoe hundred acres of land with all
+    and singular the apptennces, and with his due share of all mines &
+    minneralls therein conteyned, and wth all rights and privileges of
+    hunting, hawking and fowling and others within the prcincts and
+    upon the borders of the said land, To the only pper use benifitt
+    and behoofe of the said Thomas Hothersall, his heires and assignes
+    for ever,
+
+    In as large and ample manner to all intents and purposes as is
+    specified in the said great charter or by consequences may justly
+    bee collected out of the same, or out of his Ma'ties letters
+    patents whereon it is grounded.
+
+    _Yeilding and paying_ to the treasurer and company and to their
+    successors for ever, yearely at the feast of St. Michael the
+    Archangell [September 29], for every fifty acres, the fee rent of
+    one shilling.
+
+    _In witness whereof_ I have to these presents sett my hand and
+    the great seale of the colony, given at James Citty the six and
+    twentieth day of January one thousand six hundred twenty one [o.s.]
+    and in the yeares of the raigne, of our Soveraigne Lord, James by
+    the Grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland,
+    Defender of the faith &c., Vizt: of England, France and Ireland the
+    nineteenth and of Scotland the five and fiftieth, and in the
+    fifteenth yeare of this plantacon.
+
+Claiborne supervised most of the surveys included on the list of patents
+that was drawn up by Governor Wyatt in 1625. Out of 184 patents that
+were issued to individual planters, over seventy-five per cent included
+only 200 acres or less with the most frequent grant being the 100-acre
+grant to the "ancient planter." For the remaining individual grants,
+approximately one-sixth were between 201 and 600 acres; four were
+between 601 and 1,000 acres; and four exceeded 1,000 acres.
+
+In an analysis of the status of the Virginia population with regard to
+landholding at the time of the dissolution of the company in 1624,
+Professor Manning C. Voorhis concluded that only about one-seventh of
+the 1,240 population obtained land from the company. This would leave
+the remainder of the settlers as indentured servants or tenant farmers
+who worked out their maintenance or transportation either for the
+company or for private individuals who financed their trip to America.
+The tenant farmers constituted the larger group. In the chapter that
+follows, some attention will be given to the status of these immigrants
+and the extent to which they were able to become independent landowners
+in the colony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+Virginia as a Royal Colony
+
+The Nature and Size of Land Grants
+
+
+A variety of reasons led the King to dissolve the London Company and to
+assume royal control over the first experiment in colonization under an
+incorporated company. Failure of the colony to thrive economically, the
+poor financial condition of the company, political differences between
+Sir Edwin Sandys and the King, internal dissensions between the Sandys
+faction and the Smith-Warwick group, the extremely high death rate in
+the colony, and the impact of the Indian massacre of 1622--all
+contributed in varying degrees of importance to the dissolution. The
+company rejected efforts of the crown to substitute a new charter drawn
+up in 1623 providing for the King to resume control of the colony by
+establishing a royal Council in England and a Governor and Council in
+Virginia. Consequently the Privy Council obtained a writ of _quo
+warranto_ which terminated with a decision by the court of King's Bench
+in May, 1624, annulling the charter of the company.
+
+With the advent of royal control there was a significant continuity in
+practice in the colony, and the political framework was little changed.
+The Governor and Council were then appointed by the King, but the House
+of Burgesses continued without major revision. In order to assure
+continued respect for public authority, a royal commission was
+dispatched to Governor Wyatt and an eleven-man Council empowering them
+to act "as fully and ampley as anie Governor and Councell resident there
+at anie tyme within the space of five yeares now last past." A similar
+commission was issued to Sir George Yeardley in 1626, and for the next
+sixteen years royal instructions to the Governors reflected a striking
+resemblance.
+
+A similar continuity was evident in economic affairs as revealed in land
+policy. The London Company as a corporate body in charge of the colony
+terminated in 1624 after eighteen years, and the following year after
+the death of King James I the colony of Virginia by proclamation was
+made a part of the royal demesne. The landholder in Virginia became then
+in effect a freehold tenant of the King. The rights and property of the
+company were taken over by the crown, but recognition was made of the
+private property right of the planter and of individual claims of those
+who had invested in the company. Even land rights to planters and
+adventurers that had not been taken up were recognized, but few
+proceeded to effect settlement or to exercise the right of taking up 100
+acres per share of stock.
+
+The land rights of the private joint-stock associations also continued
+to be recognized, but there was less enthusiasm on the part of
+individual adventurers to promote the projects started some years
+earlier. This development was indicative of the major change in the
+economic life of the colony that resulted in the decline, if not
+disappearance, of absentee ownership. As previously noted, Berkeley
+Hundred had suffered the loss of many of its settlers in the massacre of
+1622; and upon expiration of term of service of the few remaining
+servants, only the land and a few cattle were left in the settlement. By
+1636 the adventurers had sold their claims to London merchants. In the
+case of Martin's Hundred located about seven miles from Jamestown, the
+massacre doomed the active settlement and only the title to the land
+continued. Eventually the title to this hundred was withdrawn to permit
+natural expansion of the colony, and the associates or adventurers were
+awarded claims to land allotments commensurate with the number of shares
+held in the joint stock.
+
+The tracts known as company land were maintained for a while under royal
+control. The role of the public estate, however, never assumed great
+significance, yet there is evidence of the continued practice during the
+seventeenth century of endowing an office such as Governor or secretary
+with the proceeds of a land grant.
+
+Theoretically tenants and contract laborers who were still alive at the
+time of the dissolution of the company were to continue their labor
+either on the public land or on private associations. In practice,
+however, it is likely that lax enforcement of the contracts resulted in
+a substantial diminution of the obligations of many workers. The
+scarcity of records for this period makes it impossible to trace all of
+this group, but there is enough evidence to indicate that some continued
+to serve out their term of labor. The General Court in 1627 expressed
+concern about the approaching expiration of leases and indentures of
+persons for whom there were no provisions for lands; and action was
+taken to permit them to lease land for a period of ten to twenty-one
+years in return for which they were to render a stipulated amount of
+tobacco or corn for each acre, usually one pound of tobacco per acre.
+This lenient provision notwithstanding, only about sixty persons availed
+themselves of the opportunity, the remainder presumably either squatting
+on frontier land, working as laborers, or eventually obtaining title to
+land by purchase from an original patentee.
+
+With the dissolution of the company the issuing of land patents
+continued in the hands of the Governor and Council. The King and Privy
+Council assumed power over land distribution but apparently left the
+issuing of patents as it had been before. Up until January, 1625,
+Governor Wyatt issued patents in the name of the company. At that time
+news reached Virginia that the writ of _quo warranto_ of June, 1624,
+had dissolved the company and that King James I upon assumption of
+control of the colony had issued on August 26, 1624, the first
+commission of a royal Governor to Wyatt. But the commission made no
+reference to land grants, and Governor Wyatt issued none after January,
+1625.
+
+Charles I succeeded to the throne following the death of James I on
+March 27, 1625. His proclamation stating policy relative to Virginia
+professed protection of the interests of private planters and
+adventurers but made no direct reference to land grants. Governor
+Yeardley replaced Wyatt by a commission of March 14, 1625/26 and arrived
+in Virginia in May, 1626. There is no record extant to show that
+Yeardley received direct instructions to start issuing grants; but it is
+certain that he did begin in February, 1626/27, interpreting his
+instructions and commission as authorizing the action.
+
+Land patents during this period were to be issued on four main
+conditions: (1) as a dividend in return for investment in the founding
+of the colony; (2) as a reward for special service to the colony; (3) as
+a stimulus to fortify the frontier by using land to induce settlement;
+and (4) as a method of encouraging immigration by the headright.
+
+The first of these was simply an assurance by the King that the former
+stockholders in the company still had the right to take up land at the
+rate of 100 acres for each share of stock owned. As late as 1642 this
+privilege was still being confirmed in instructions to the Governor; but
+the stockholders appeared to be little interested at this time in coming
+to Virginia, for very few took up their claim and apparently the shares
+bearing the holder's name could not be transferred after the
+dissolution. The plan for the distribution of the first dividend in 1619
+also provided for a second allotment. As late as 1632 patents still
+included authorization for a second dividend when the first had been
+cultivated. But no second allotment was ever made. There are, however,
+examples to indicate that claims for the first dividend were upheld
+after the company was dissolved. In 1628 Thomas Graies obtained a patent
+as a dividend for his subscription of twenty-five pounds sterling; in
+1636 Captain John Hobson was issued a patent covering a bill of
+adventure that went back to 1621; and on another occasion the land
+dividend due a deceased father was awarded to his son.
+
+The next condition of awarding patents for meritorious service to the
+colony was of long standing. Used to award ministers, political
+officials, physicians, sea captains, and various other individuals under
+the company, the practice continued under royal control after 1624.
+Governor Wyatt in 1638 was instructed to issue land patents for
+meritorious service according to provisions previously adopted for such
+cases. And a few years later Charles II awarded lands in Virginia to
+servants or others who aided him, although it is not certain whether
+these individuals were ever able to take up the claim bestowed upon
+them.
+
+The third condition for a patent was practically a corollary to the
+second, for it involved rendering service to the colony by settling and
+fortifying the frontier. One example during this period may be found in
+securing the Peninsula. Following the massacre of 1622 Governor Wyatt
+and his Council wrote to the Earl of Southampton about a plan for
+"winning the forest" by running a pale between Martin's Hundred on the
+James River and Cheskiack on the York. Again in 1624 the suggestion was
+made to the royal commissioners who were sent over by the King to
+determine the most suitable places for fortification. To effect the
+construction of this palisade, the General Assembly in 1633 offered land
+as an inducement to settle between Queen's Creek and Archer's Hope
+Creek, promising fifty acres and a period of tax exemption to freemen
+who would occupy the area of Middle Plantation, later Williamsburg. In
+February, 1633, the order was issued for a fortieth part of the men in
+the "compasse of the forest" between the two previously mentioned creeks
+and Chesapeake Bay to meet at Dr. John Pott's plantation at the head of
+Archer's Hope Creek for the purpose of erecting houses to secure the
+neck of land known as the Peninsula. With this encouragement by the
+Assembly, a palisade six miles in length was completed, running from
+Queen's Creek to Archer's Hope Creek and passing through Middle
+Plantation. Houses were constructed at convenient distances, and a
+sufficient number of men were assigned to patrol the line of defense
+during times of imminent danger. By setting off a little less than
+300,000 acres of land, this palisade provided defense for the new
+plantations between the York and James rivers and served as a
+restraining barrier for the cattle of the colony.
+
+Granting of land was again used on a large scale for the establishment
+of forts after the Indian massacre of 1644. By order of the Assembly in
+1645 blockhouses or forts were established at strategic points: Fort
+Charles at the falls of the James River, Fort Royal at Pamunkey, Fort
+James on the ridge of Chickahominy on the north side of the James, and
+in the next year Fort Henry at the falls of the Appomattox River. The
+maintenance of these forts involved considerable expense, more than the
+officials of the colony wished to drain from the public treasury.
+Therefore, they decided to grant the forts with adjoining lands to
+individuals who would accept the responsibility of their upkeep as well
+as the maintenance of an adequate force for defense. Fort Henry, located
+at present-day Petersburg, was granted to Captain Abraham Wood with 600
+acres of land plus all houses, edifices, boats, and ammunition belonging
+to the fort. Wood was required to maintain and keep ten persons
+continuously at the fort for three years. During this time he was
+exempted from all public taxes for himself and the ten persons. Upon
+similar terms Lieutenant Thomas Rolfe, son of Pocahontas and John Rolfe,
+received Fort James and 400 acres of land; Captain Roger Marshall, Fort
+Royal and 600 acres. Since there was no arable land adjoining Fort
+Charles at present-day Richmond, other inducements were made for its
+maintenance. These forts served as the first line of defense against
+possible attacks by the natives. Being the center of the varied
+activities of the frontier, they also were the starting point for
+expeditions against the Indians and became the center of trade for the
+outlying regions.
+
+The fourth condition for granting of land--the headright--was by far the
+most important and became the principal basis for title to land in the
+seventeenth century. Its origin goes back to "the greate charter" of
+1618 in which the following provision was included:
+
+    That for all persons ... which during the next seven years after
+    Midsummer Day 1618 shall go into Virginia with intent there to
+    inhabite If they continue there three years or dye after they are
+    shiped there shall be a grant made of fifty acres for every person
+    upon a first division and as many more upon a second division (the
+    first being peopled) which grants to be made respectively to such
+    persons and their heirs at whose charges the said persons going to
+    inhabite in Virginia shall be transported with reservation of twelve
+    pence yearly rent for every fifty acres to be answered to the said
+    treasurer and company and their successors for ever after the first
+    seven years of every such grant.
+
+Under these provisions of "the greate charter," it is evident that not
+only was the headright grant of fifty acres per person open to
+shareholders who brought settlers to the colony, but also to anyone who
+had migrated to the colony at his own expense or who had financed the
+expedition of other persons. Individuals paying their own transportation
+were entitled to fifty acres for themselves and for every member of the
+family, providing they fulfilled the residence requirement of three
+years.
+
+Governors under the company issued patents based on the headright until
+dissolution by the crown in 1624. Beyond that time the status of the
+headright was uncertain. The "charter" of 1618 had specified a term for
+this right for seven years ending on Midsummer Day of 1625. After this
+term expired, royal governors continued to honor headright claims based
+on immigration, although no direct authorization for such action had
+come from the crown. Therefore, the issuance of these claims after 1625
+was based primarily on custom, brief as it was, until more direct
+instructions were issued to Governor John Harvey in 1634 following the
+proprietary grant of Maryland in 1632.
+
+The Maryland grant enhanced the concern of the Virginia inhabitants
+about their title to land, and correspondence conducted by Governor
+Harvey finally brought forth a statement from the Privy Council.
+Apprehension over Maryland led to assurance of the headright for
+Virginia as the Privy Council issued the following dispatch of July 22,
+1634, to the Governor:
+
+    We have thought fit to certify you that his Majesty of his royal
+    favor, and for the better encouragement of the planters there doth
+    let you knowe that it is not intended that the interestes which men
+    had settled when you were a corporation should be impeached; that
+    for the present they may enjoy their estates and trades with the
+    same freedom and privileges as they did before the recalling of
+    their patents: To which purpose also in pursuance of his Majesty's
+    gracious intention, wee doe hereby authorize you to dispose of such
+    proportions of lands to all those planters beeing freemen as you had
+    power to doe before the yeare 1625.
+
+With this explicit royal endorsement of land patent principles followed
+under the company and confirmation of the headright, Governor Harvey
+modified the wording in the patents and adopted the following form
+illustrated in a grant of 2,500 acres to Captain Hugh Bullocke:
+
+    _To all to whome these prsents. shall come_, I Sr. John Harvey Kt.
+    Governr. and Capt. Generll. of Virginia send greeting in our Lord
+    God Everlasting.
+
+    _Whereas_ by letters pattents bearing date the twoe and twentieth
+    of July one thousand six hundred thirtie fower from the Rt. Honble.
+    the Lords of his Majties. most Honoble. Privie Councell their
+    lordshipps did authorize the Governr. and Councell of Virginia to
+    dispose of such pportions of land to all planters being freemen as
+    they had power to doe before the yeare 1625, whene according to
+    divers orders & constitutions in that case provided and appointed
+    all devidents of lands any waies due or belonging to any
+    adventurers or planters of what condicon soever were to bee laid
+    out and assigned unto them according to the severall condicons in
+    the same menconed.
+
+    _Now Know Yee_ therefore that I the said Sr. John Harvey doe, with
+    the consent of the Councell of State give and graunt unto Capt.
+    Hugh Bullocke and to his heires and assignes for ever by these
+    prsents
+
+    Twoe thousand five hundred and fiftie acres of land, scituate, lying
+    & being from the runn that falleth downe by the eastern side of a
+    peece of land knowne by the name of the Woodyard and soe from that
+    runn along the side of the Pocoson (or great Otter pond soe called)
+    northwest and about the head of the said Otter pond back southeast
+    leaveing the Otter pond in the middle.
+
+    _To have and to Hold_ the said twoe thousand five hundred and
+    fiftie acres of land with his due share of all mines and minneralls
+    therein conteyned and with all rights and priviledges of hunting,
+    hawking, fishing and fowling, wth in the prcincts of the same to
+    the sole and pper use benifitt and behoofe of him the said Capt.
+    Bullocke his heires and assignes for ever.
+
+    In as large and ample manner to all intents and purposes as is
+    expressed in the said orders and constitutions, or by consequence
+    may bee justly collected out of the same or out of his Majties.
+    letters pattents whereon they are grounded.
+
+    _Yielding and paying_ for every fiftie acres of land herein by
+    these presents given and graunted yearely at the feast of St.
+    Michaell the Archangell [September 29], the fee rent of one
+    shilling to his Majties. use.
+
+    _Provided always_ that [if] the said Capt. Hugh Bullock, his heires
+    or assignes shall not plant or seate or cause to bee planted on the
+    said twoe thousand five hundred & fiftie acres of land wth in the
+    time and terms of three yeares now next ensuing the date hereof,
+    that then it shall and may bee lawfull for any adventurer or
+    planter to make choice and seate upon the same.
+
+    _Given_ at James Citty under my hand and sealed with the seale of
+    the colony the twelfth day of March one thousand six hundred
+    thirtie fower [o.s.] & in the tenth year of our Soveraigne Lord
+    King Charles &c.
+
+Use of the headright had been adopted by the company as an expedient to
+increase population of the colony and to encourage immigration without
+further expenditure from the company treasury. The practice continued
+with the fifty acres of land granted to the persons who financed the
+transportation of the immigrant, but the grant itself was not valuable
+enough to compensate for the expense involved. Therefore, with
+increasing frequency the system of indentured servitude was used whereby
+the immigrant agreed to an indenture or contract to work a certain
+number of years as additional payment for his transportation. This
+system, in general, proved advantageous to both the master and the
+servant, to the colony by providing additional immigrants, and to
+England by serving as a vent for surplus population.
+
+Indentured servants were not slaves but were servants during the
+specified period of the contract. While the laws of the time did make a
+distinction in the severity of the penal code as applied to servants and
+to freemen, still indentured servitude did not have the stigma of
+bondage or slavery; and many servants upon completion of their term of
+service rose to positions of social and political prominence in the
+history of the colony. In 1676 the Lords of Trade and Plantations
+expressed concern over the use of the word "servitude" because of the
+implications of slavery, and they preferred "to use the word service,
+since those servants are only apprentices for years."
+
+At the expiration of the term of service, the servants usually received
+equipment and supplies necessary to start them as freemen. They
+received grain enough for one year, clothes, and in some cases a gun
+and a supply of tools. As to receipt of land, the policy varied from
+one colony to another, and at times there was uncertainty within one
+colony about obligations to freedmen. In Virginia the indentured
+servant did not usually receive land at the end of service unless he
+had insisted, as John Hammond in _Leah and Rachel_ had advised, that a
+specific provision be included in the contract to include the award of
+fifty acres as "freedom's dues." There are some cases in which the
+provision for land was included as illustrated in one of the earliest
+indentures known to exist for Virginia. This indenture of September 7,
+1619, was made between Robert Coopy of North Nibley in Gloucestershire
+with the associates of Berkeley Hundred. Coopy agreed to work three
+years in Virginia and submit to the government of the hundred in return
+for which the owners were to transport him to Virginia and "There to
+maintayne him with convenient diet and apparell meet for such a
+servant, and in the end of the said terme to make him a free man of the
+said cuntry theirby to enjoy all the liberties, freedomes, and
+priviledges of a freeman there, and to grant to the said Robert thirty
+acres of land within their territory or hundred of Barkley...."
+
+The confusion over the question whether the indentured servant was
+entitled to fifty acres of land upon expiration of his service extended
+to the mother country. There was a widespread belief in England that
+such was the case, and there were indefinite statements in commissions
+and instructions to the Governors that left the matter in doubt. In
+practice in Virginia, however, it is certain that the fifty acres under
+the headright claim went to the person transporting indentured servants,
+not to the servants themselves. Only where the contract specifically
+stated that the servant was to receive fifty acres was he assured of
+this grant.
+
+Under the company there had been definite provisions that the fifty
+acres went to the persons transporting servants, not to the servants
+themselves. After its dissolution, Governors were instructed to follow
+the rules of the "late company," and this continued until there was a
+variation in Sir Francis Wyatt's commission of 1639 authorizing the
+Governor and the Council to issue grants to adventurers and planters
+"According to the orders of the late company ... and likewise 50 acres
+of land to every person transported thither ... until otherwise
+determined by His Majesty." Did "to every person" mean that the servant
+was entitled to land? Such was the case across the Potomac in Maryland
+where the servant could claim fifty acres from his employer or master
+until 1646; after 1646 and until 1683 the proprietor provided land for
+the servant. If such were intended, it was not followed and the
+intentions were far from clear in the later commission to Sir William
+Berkeley in 1642. In addition to assigning land for "adventurers of
+money" and "transportation of people," the commission authorized the
+Governor and Council to grant "fifty acres for every person transported
+thither since Midsummer 1625, and ... continue the same course to all
+persons transported thither until it shall otherwise be determined by
+His Majesty." The loose use of the terminology "to" and "for" recurred
+in subsequent years and again reflected the lack of precision in this
+matter as well as the seeming misapprehension in England that the
+servant was entitled to a fifty-acre grant. Under the articles of the
+treaty of 1651 between Virginia and the commissioners of the
+Commonwealth, the reversion to the term "for every person" was made and
+the policy of no land to servants was implicit in the sixth article of
+the agreement: "That the priviledge of haveing fiftie acres of land for
+every person transported in the collony shall continue as formerly
+granted."
+
+Even though servants were not granted land by the colony at the
+expiration of their service, a substantial number soon became
+landowners. The exact proportion of servants that became landholders
+after 1624 cannot be determined in the absence of a complete census.
+However, an examination of the land patents and the list of headrights
+makes possible some estimate of the percentage of landholders that had
+once been indentured servants. The conclusions cannot be final and are
+subject to limitations. Identification presents a problem because of the
+frequency of the same name as Smith or Davis and because of the omission
+of middle names. The problem is further complicated by the fact that
+headrights were often transferred by sale. A person entitled to a
+headright claim on the frontier may not have wished to settle there;
+rather he may have preferred to sell his headright claim and purchase
+land in an established county. As a result of the sale of his headright
+claim, his name may have appeared in the headright list as the basis for
+the claim for someone else even though he had not been an indentured
+servant. Therefore, all persons so listed under the headright claim
+cannot be considered indentured servants.
+
+Fully aware of the limitations just suggested and equally conscious
+that estimates in the absence of more complete records cannot be final,
+Professor Thomas J. Wertenbaker in his _Planters of Colonial Virginia_
+summarized his analysis of patents and concluded that both before 1635
+and in the following two or three decades, thirty to forty per cent of
+the landholders of Virginia came to the colony as indentured servants.
+
+Professor Wertenbaker also indicated general agreement with conclusions
+drawn by William G. Stanard about the proportion of immigrants that
+were indentured servants. From an analysis of the patent rolls from
+1623 to July 14, 1637, printed in the April, 1901, issue of the
+_Virginia Magazine of History and Biography_, Stanard estimated that
+seventy-five per cent of immigrants from 1623 to 1637 were imported
+under term of the indenture. Out of 2,675 names on the rolls, 336
+entered as freemen at their own cost and an additional 245 persons were
+believed for the most part to be of the same status although there was
+some uncertainty about this group. Transportation expenses were paid by
+others for 2,094. From these numbers, the conclusion was reached that
+675 persons on the patent rolls were freemen, including women and
+children; the remaining 2,000 were servants and slaves, the latter in
+very small number at this time. Thus the analysis roughly confirms the
+conclusion that three-fourths of the immigrants during this period were
+indentured servants.
+
+Use of the headright system for distribution of land had a close
+correlation with expanding population, for it was hoped that the
+increase of population would keep pace with the acquisition of private
+title in the soil. As the seventeenth century progressed, there were
+many abuses and evasions of the system; and by the end of the period its
+significance declined in favor of acquisition of title by purchase, or
+the "treasury right." To understand the various deviations from the
+system, it will be helpful to review the steps by which title to land by
+headright was obtained.
+
+The first step involved the proving of the headright by the claimant
+appearing before either a county court or the Governor and Council and
+stating under oath that he had imported a certain number of persons
+whose names were listed. The clerk of the court issued a certificate
+which was validated in the secretary's office. Authorization for the
+headright was then passed on to a commissioned surveyor who ran off
+fifty acres for each person imported and located the grant in the area
+selected by the claimant as long as the land had not already been
+patented and had not been barred for white settlement in order to
+maintain peace with the Indians. Upon completion of the survey and of
+marking the boundaries, a copy of the record along with the headright
+certificate was presented to the secretary's office where a patent was
+prepared and a notation made of those imported. The final step was the
+signing of the patent by the Governor in the presence of, and with the
+approval of, the Council.
+
+One deviation from the spirit of the law of the headright involved
+claims based upon the person being imported into the colony more than
+once. For example, John Chew in 1637 received 700 acres, using his own
+transportation in 1622 and 1623 as the basis for the claim to 100 acres
+in the grant. Carrying this practice to a greater extreme, Sarah Law
+received a grant for 300 acres of land based upon the fact that she had
+imported John Good, probably a sailor, six times.
+
+On a larger scale, ship masters submitted lists for headright claims
+which in actuality contained the roster of both the sailors of the ship
+and the passengers. In neither case should the right have been
+acknowledged, for the sailors were under agreement to continue service
+at sea and the passengers had paid their own transportation to the
+colony. But the lax administration of the system usually permitted
+approval of such applications, and the ship master therefore found
+himself with headright certificates which he could sell to others for
+whatever price he could wangle. This practice was sometimes repeated by
+the same unscrupulous ship master who was aided in the irregular
+procedure by the failure of the clerks of the secretary's office to make
+careful checks of lists submitted, and also by the fact that he could
+present his lists to a different county court when importing the same
+sailors for the third or fourth time.
+
+Like the ship master, the sailor engaged in falsifying the record by
+swearing that he had imported himself and sometimes others at his own
+expense. Patents were obtained on the basis of the headright. Philip A.
+Bruce concluded that the land obtained in Virginia by mariners was "very
+extensive." To substantiate this general statement, he referred to
+powers of attorney found in the county court records, authorizing an
+agent in Virginia to handle the estates of the mariner. In the records
+of Rappahannock County for 1668 is an example of the practice, in which
+Thomas Sheppard of Plymouth, England, designated William Moseley to
+handle his interest in 150 headrights which he claimed for importing 150
+people to Virginia. It was likely in this case that duplicate claims
+were issued, either to the individual if he paid his own transportation
+or to some master if the immigrant became an indentured servant. In some
+instances, as many as three or four claims were made for one
+importation: one for the ship master, one for the merchant who acted as
+middle-man in purchasing the service of the immigrant, one for the
+planter who eventually purchased the indentured servant, and less often
+one for a second planter who may have joined with the first in obtaining
+the services of the imported person.
+
+As abuse of the system increased, headright lists sometimes included
+fictitious names or in some cases names copied from old record books.
+The final stage in irregular procedure was reached when the clerks in
+the office of the secretary of the colony sold the headright claim to
+persons who would simply pay from one to five shillings. The exact date
+at which this practice began has not been determined, but it was
+prevalent sometime before 1692. Francis Nicholson reported to the Board
+of Trade that while serving as Governor of Virginia from 1690 to 1692,
+he had "heard" that the sale of rights by the clerks in the secretary's
+office was "common practice." Another report to the Board in 1697
+described the clerks as being "a constant mint of those rights."
+
+The combined variations in the operation of the headright system
+resulted in the distortion, if not destruction, of its original
+concepts. The system continued to bring immigrants into the colony which
+had been a very important purpose when inaugurated. But the abuses threw
+out of balance the relation between patented land and the number of
+people in the colony; and furthermore through perversion of the system,
+speculation in land was not prevented and there resulted large areas of
+wholly uncultivated and uninhabited lands to which title had been
+granted. The headright was also originally intended to apply to
+inhabitants of the British Isles, but by the middle of the seventeenth
+century the names of persons imported from Africa appeared occasionally
+as the basis for headright, and by the last decade of the century they
+were frequently found.
+
+The distortion of the headright system was done with considerable public
+approval and in some ways reflected the evolution of economic
+development that seemed to demand a more convenient and less expensive
+method for obtaining title to large areas of unoccupied land. As the
+population of the colony increased and as the labor supply became more
+plentiful, there was a rather widespread demand to be able to obtain
+additional land, particularly adjacent undeveloped tracts, without
+having to import an additional person for every fifty acres. Partly
+through this demand, impetus was given to the custom, which was not at
+first sanctioned by law, to permit the granting of patents by simply
+paying a fee in the secretary's office.
+
+While the headright system was designed to maintain some proportion
+between the population of the colony and the amount of land patented, it
+was also designed to stimulate the migration of immigrants to the
+colony. Therefore, under the system it was possible for individuals who
+would engage in transporting or financing the transportation of
+immigrants to obtain large areas of land. This trend was started under
+the company; and in the four years prior to 1623, forty-four patents of
+5,000 acres each were awarded to persons who were to transport at least
+100 immigrants to the colony. In 1621, for example, 5,000 acres were
+granted to Arthur Swain and Nathaniel Basse and a similar grant to
+Rowland Truelove and "divers other patentees" each grant to be based on
+the transportation of 100 persons; 15,000 acres were to go to Sir George
+Yeardley for engaging to transport 300 persons.
+
+For the years following the dissolution of the company, valuable
+information of the nature and size of land grants can be found in the
+"Virginia Land Patents" which fortunately have survived the usual
+hazards of fire and carelessness. The two following tables (Tables I
+and II) have been compiled from the analysis of the land patents by
+Philip A. Bruce and summarized in his _Economic History of Virginia_
+(volume I, pages 528-532).
+
+ I. TABLE SHOWING SIZE OF LAND GRANTS FROM 1626 TO 1650
+        BASED ON THE RECORD OF VIRGINIA LAND PATENTS
+
+    Year or years Average grant for  Largest grant for
+                     the period        the period
+
+    1626-1632      100-300 acres      1,000 acres
+    1634               719 acres      5,350 acres
+    1635               380 acres      2,000 acres
+    1636               351 acres      2,000 acres
+    1637               445 acres      5,350 acres
+    1638               423 acres      3,000 acres
+    1640               405 acres      1,300 acres
+    1641               343 acres        872 acres
+    1642               559 acres      3,000 acres
+    1643               595 acres      4,000 acres
+    1644               370 acres        670 acres
+    1645               333 acres      1,090 acres
+    1646               360 acres      1,200 acres
+    1647               361 acres        650 acres
+    1648               412 acres      1,800 acres
+    1649               522 acres      3,500 acres
+    1650               677 acres      5,350 acres
+
+II. TABLE SHOWING SIZE OF LAND GRANTS FROM 1650 TO 1700
+        BASED ON THE RECORD OF VIRGINIA LAND PATENTS
+
+    Period of years   Average grant for  Number of largest grants
+                         the period          for the period
+
+    1650-1655           591 acres      1,000- 2,000 acres ( 92)
+                                       2,000- 5,000 acres ( 41)
+                                       5,000-10,000 acres (  3)
+    1655-1666           671 acres      1,000- 2,000 acres (252)
+                                       2,000- 5,000 acres (147)
+                                       5,000-10,000 acres ( 20)
+    1666-1679           890 acres      1,000- 2,000 acres (220)
+                                       2,000- 5,000 acres (154)
+                                       5,000-10,000 acres ( 25)
+                                      10,000-20,000 acres ( 12)
+    1679-1689           607 acres      1,000- 2,000 acres (143)
+                                       2,000- 5,000 acres ( 66)
+                                       5,000-10,000 acres ( 17)
+                                      10,000-20,000 acres (  2)
+    1689-1695           601 acres      1,000- 2,000 acres ( 63)
+                                       2,000- 5,000 acres ( 23)
+                                       5,000-10,000 acres (  7)
+    1695-1700           688 acres      1,000- 2,000 acres ( 14)
+                                       2,000- 5,000 acres ( 13)
+                                       5,000-10,000 acres (  7)
+                                             13,400 acres (  1)
+
+    [Note: In compiling this table, two changes have been made to
+    correct what seems clearly to be errors in Bruce's description.
+    Forty-one grants were listed for 2,000-5,000 acres from 1650-1655
+    rather than forty-one grants of 1,000-5,000 acres as noted by Bruce.
+    The date 1685 listed in Bruce has been changed to 1689 to give the
+    proper time period of 1689-1695.]
+
+For the period from 1634 to 1650 included in Table I, there were
+occasional grants of 5,000 acres, but the average size of the patents
+for the period was not over 446 acres. It was possible, of course, for
+one individual to build up a large landed estate by putting together
+several smaller grants; and this was done by a limited number of persons
+during the seventeenth century in Virginia as will be discussed later.
+There was also the possibility that grants of considerable size in the
+original patent might be broken up and distributed to others in smaller
+amounts. In any case, the second half of the century as reflected in the
+land patents saw a moderate increase in the size and number of large
+grants as the population increased, and the average size for the land
+patent of this period was 674 acres, an increase of 228 acres over the
+period prior to 1650.
+
+While the second half of the century witnessed this increase, much of it
+came during the third quarter of the period. Near the end of the century
+there was a definite trend to break up some of the larger patents into
+smaller landholdings by sales to servants completing their indenture, by
+distribution of land to children, or by sale because of an inadequate
+labor supply either of slaves, indentured servants, tenant farmers, or
+wage earners.
+
+The existence of the small farm and the small farmer as a major part of
+the socio-economic system of Virginia at the end of the seventeenth
+century has been well established. Professor Wertenbaker suggested that
+"a full 90 per cent of the freeholders" at the time the rent roll was
+compiled in 1704/05 included the "sturdy, independent class of small
+farmers." Through examination of land patents, land transfers, tax
+rolls, and a sampling of other county records, he found substantial
+evidence to corroborate the suggested trend of the breakup of a number
+of large patents and their distribution to small freeholders.
+Illustrative of this development was the land known as Button's Ridge in
+Essex County. Originally including 3,650 acres, the tract was patented
+to Thomas Button in 1666. The estate then passed first to the brother of
+Button and later was sold to John Baker. Baker divided the large tract
+and sold small amounts to the following people: 200 acres to Captain
+William Moseley, 600 to John Garnet, 200 to Robert Foster, 200 to
+William Smither, 200 to William Howlett, 300 to Anthony Samuell, and 200
+to William Williams.
+
+Professor Susie M. Ames in _Studies of the Virginia Eastern Shore in
+the Seventeenth Century_ found evidence of the same trend by which
+original land grants increased in size by the middle of the century and
+reached its peak in the third quarter of the century. Near the end of
+the period many of the larger tracts were being divided by wills
+distributing them among children or by sales in smaller units. Much of
+the land obtained by the first two generations on the Eastern Shore was
+broken up into small holdings by the third. As stated by Professor
+Ames, "It is the subtraction and division of acres, with only
+occasionally any marked addition, that seems to be the chief
+development in land tenure during the last quarter of the seventeenth
+century."
+
+Even with the trend of dividing some of the large estates on the Eastern
+Shore, a small per cent of the population held a considerable part of
+the land. In 1703/04 the average size of landholding in Northampton
+County was 389 acres, in Accomack 520 acres. When analyzed by use of the
+list of tithables, Northampton County had twenty-one persons, only three
+per cent of the tithables, holding thirty-nine per cent of the land;
+Accomack County had a total of forty-six persons, only four per cent of
+the tithables, holding forty-three per cent of the land.
+
+Considering all of Virginia of the seventeenth century, one cannot say
+that it was primarily a land of large plantations, of cavaliers, and of
+noble manors which have been romanticized by some writers. Yet there was
+a significant number of prominent planters who took an active part in
+the social and political life of the colony and exerted an influence
+disproportionate to their ratio of the population. Professor Wertenbaker
+listed the following men among the prominent planters of the first half
+of seventeenth-century Virginia--George Menefie, Richard Bennett, and
+Richard Kinsman; for the second half of the century, a more extensive
+list--Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., Thomas Ballard, Robert Beverley, Giles
+Brent, Joseph Bridger, William Byrd I, John Carter, John Custis I,
+Dudley Digges, William Fitzhugh, Lewis Burwell, Philip Ludwell I,
+William Moseley, Daniel Parke, Ralph Wormeley, Benjamin Harrison, Edward
+Hill, Edmund Jennings, and Matthew Page. Members of this group
+accumulated large landholdings, mostly by original patent through the
+headright system or by private purchase from holders of original
+patents. For example, William Byrd I had obtained 26,231 acres of land
+at the time of his death; and William Fitzhugh acquired during his
+lifetime 96,000 acres of land and left at the time of his death in 1701
+a little over 54,000 acres in family "seats" to five sons.
+
+The land system and its administration that permitted the accumulation
+of a few of these substantial plantations came under detailed discussion
+by crown officials near the end of the seventeenth century. Before
+examining this analysis of Virginia land policy, it will be helpful to
+survey in the following chapter the major laws and the officials
+responsible for their administration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+Royal Administration of Land Policy
+
+Attempts at Reform
+
+
+The issuing of land patents and the administration of laws concerning
+land involved a variety of officials during the seventeenth century.
+Under the company the authority to convey title to land rested after
+1609 with the treasurer, the Council in London, and the association of
+adventurers in England. The Governor and Council in the colony were
+authorized as ministerial agents of the company to make grants, but
+final approval was to be made at sessions of the quarter court of the
+company in England. This last step, as previously noted, was seldom
+completed. After dissolution of the company, the process of issuing
+patents was simplified. Most grants were made under the headright claim
+and followed the steps outlined in chapter three, involving the county
+court, the secretary of the colony, the Governor and Council, and the
+commissioned surveyors.
+
+The office of surveyor existed under the company and William Claiborne,
+who came to the colony in 1621, was the first to fill the position
+effectively. As surveyor, Claiborne received the annual wage of thirty
+pounds sterling which was to be paid either in tobacco or some other
+comparable commodity with a good price on the English market. Surveyor
+Claiborne also had the use of a house constructed by the company as well
+as receiving the necessary equipment and books needed for his work.
+
+Following the dissolution of the company in 1624, the office of
+surveyor-general was established with a royal appointee who was charged
+with the responsibility of maintaining the survey records and issuing
+commissions to the surveyors of the colony. Some difficulty was
+encountered in securing qualified and reliable men. This led during the
+interregnum to a law in March, 1654/55, calling for the dismissal of
+unqualified surveyors and placing the power of appointment in the hands
+of the county court. After the restoration of Charles II to the throne,
+the appointment of surveyors returned to the system of commissions from
+the surveyor-general.
+
+The amount for surveyors' fees was designated by the legislature at
+various times. Ten pounds of tobacco for every 100 acres was specified
+in 1624; in 1642 and again in 1646 the fee limit was raised to twenty
+pounds of tobacco for measuring 100 acres of land with an additional
+allowance of twelve pounds of tobacco for each day that the task
+required the surveyor to be away from his home. If his transportation
+could be only by water, the person employing him was required to assume
+the expense of travel both to and from the location of the survey. In
+1661/62 the allowance for each day away from home was increased to
+thirty pounds of tobacco; and by the same law the surveyor was
+authorized the same limit of twenty pounds of tobacco for running off
+100 acres if the total was greater than 500, otherwise he was to receive
+a minimum of 100 pounds of tobacco. Efforts to obtain capable, honest,
+and conscientious appointees continued to be a problem. The need for
+better surveyors and the decline of the tobacco prices led the Assembly
+to double the previous fees. In 1666 forty pounds of tobacco was
+stipulated for surveying 100 acres if the total was for 1,000 acres. If
+less than 1,000, the allowance was 400 pounds of tobacco.
+
+Commissioned surveyors were not at liberty to refuse reasonable requests
+for surveys to be made, except in cases involving sickness or some other
+impediment recognized as legal. The law of 1666 provided that anyone
+violating this requirement was subject to a fine of 4,000 pounds of
+tobacco; for charging excessive fees, the fine was 200 pounds of tobacco
+that could be recovered in the Virginia courts.
+
+Gabriel Hawley, Robert Evelyn, Thomas Loving, Edmund Scarborough, and
+Alexander Culpeper served as surveyor-general with the last named having
+Philip Ludwell as his deputy. Upon the chartering of the College of
+William and Mary surveyors were appointed by the institution, and the
+appointees were required to contribute to the trustees of the college
+one-sixth of the fees of the office. The trustees were permitted to
+delegate the appointments. Consequently in 1692 they designated Miles
+Cary as surveyor-general, who was instructed to make the selection of
+surveyors with the aid of a committee named by the trustees.
+
+In addition to the fees of the surveyor, there were other charges that
+were made from time to time in obtaining a patent in Virginia. Under the
+company without a legal guide for the fees to be charged, the secretary
+of the colony apparently demanded at times as much as twenty pounds of
+tobacco or three pounds sterling when issuing a title for the individual
+dividends of fifty or 100 acres. Leaders of the company considered this
+fee unreasonable and took steps to prevent its collection.
+
+Following the dissolution of the company, the Assembly set the fees of
+the secretary regarding land patents along with other authorized
+charges. In 1632 the secretary collected thirty pounds of tobacco for
+issuing a patent plus two pounds for each sheet required to record the
+document. In 1633 the fee for patents by the secretary was designated as
+fifteen shillings which could be collected either in tobacco or corn
+according to current price. Ten years later in 1643 the fee for a patent
+was again listed in terms of tobacco at fifty pounds with six pounds
+allowed for each recorded sheet. In lieu of four pounds of tobacco, the
+secretary was authorized to receive money at the rate of twelve pence
+for every four pounds of tobacco. At the March session of the
+legislature in 1657/58, the secretary's fees were further raised to
+eighty pounds of tobacco for issuing and recording a patent; thirty
+pounds was set as the fee for supplying a copy of the patent later; and
+fifteen pounds of tobacco was authorized for providing a certificate for
+land. These same fees of 1657/58 were repeated by law in 1661/62.
+
+The stamp of the seal of the colony was required during much of the
+seventeenth century as the final step of approval for a patent, and
+during most of the time no fee was charged for this. However, under the
+governorship of Lord Howard which began in April, 1684, a charge of 200
+pounds of tobacco was ordered for use of the seal for patents as well as
+all public documents such as commissions and proclamations. The proceeds
+from this fee were used by the Governor and were estimated by William
+Fitzhugh to equal 100,000 pounds of tobacco each year. However, such
+strong opposition was raised to the charge that it was dropped after
+1689.
+
+In addition to controversies over fees, there were many problems that
+arose in seventeenth-century Virginia over surveys and the
+identification of boundaries. Surveyors usually took the edge of a
+stream, either a river or creek, as the base line of the survey and then
+ran the boundaries for a specified distance along a line at right angle
+to the base. Terminal points were laid out and witnessed by neighboring
+owners with some distinguishing mark as a large stone or a tree with
+three or four chops. In 1679 a question was called to the attention of
+the Assembly as to the extent of the owner's rights along the water's
+edge. The case arose over the complaint of Robert Liny that part of his
+patent along the river had been cleared for fishing but the exercise of
+his fishing rights had been hampered by trespassing individuals who
+dragged their seines upon the river's edge, claiming that "The water was
+the kings majesties ... and therefore equally free to all his majesties
+subjects to fish in and hale their sceanes on shore...." In answer to
+this complaint, the Assembly declared that the rights of the patent
+holder extended into the stream as far as the low water mark, and any
+person fishing or seining without permission within these bounds was
+guilty of trespass.
+
+More frequently problems arose as a result of defective surveys either
+in the first line along the edge of the stream or in a second and third
+line of patents that were laid out when all land along the streams had
+been occupied. Some of the surveys were inaccurate because of the lack
+of graduation on the compass; others were distorted by careless
+surveyors selecting convenient terminal points such as a tree, a road,
+or another stream and ignoring the accurate measurement of the line. As
+early as 1623/24, the Assembly ordered that individual land dividends be
+surveyed and the bounds recorded; and in case serious disputes arose
+over conflicting boundaries, appeal could be made to the Governor and
+Council. In an effort to prevent the holder of patents from having to
+pay for more than one survey of the same grant, the Assembly in 1642/43
+stated that surveys made by commissioned surveyors were considered valid
+and bestowed full right of ownership without the necessity and expense
+of new surveys. Such a provision did not, however, resolve the problem
+that arose over errors made by commissioned surveyors, errors that may
+have led a person in good faith to construct buildings on a plot that
+was later determined to be a part of the patent of his neighbor. Several
+cases having arisen over this situation, the Assembly in 1642/43 and
+again in 1657/58 and 1661/62 provided that when one person had
+unknowingly erected constructions on another person's land, the original
+owner as shown by survey was to have the right to purchase the
+improvements at a price fixed by a twelve-man jury. If the amount proved
+too great for the original owner, then the person seating the land by
+mistake was to have the option of purchasing the land at a price set by
+the jury for its value before seating occurred. Beginning with the
+1657/58 statement of the law, no consideration was to be given if
+construction had been made after legal warning had been given to desist.
+
+Other legislation was designed to minimize the number of cases of this
+type that would arise. One provision made in 1646 required the person
+claiming to be the original owner of the land to file suit against his
+encroaching neighbor within five years for removal; otherwise possession
+of the land for five years without contest would prevent recovery by the
+original claimant. The law exempted orphans from the above provision and
+permitted them a five-year period after coming of age. A later enactment
+in 1657/58 repeated the provision on orphans and added to the exemption
+married women and persons of unsound mind. A second provision designed
+to prevent quarrels among neighbors required a person holding patent to
+land adjacent to a proposed grant to show the boundaries of his property
+within twelve months; otherwise the latest grant as surveyed would be
+valid and would take precedence over the old patent.
+
+But these various laws did not prevent "contentious suites" from arising
+because of defective surveys when the lines were first run or because
+the restriction against resurveys did not resolve the boundary disputes.
+Conflicts continued if the surveyor had been negligent in marking
+clearly the boundaries, or if lines had become indistinct by the chops
+in trees filling out, by piles of stones being scattered, or by trees
+being removed. To prevent "the inconvenience of clandestine surveigh,"
+the Assembly in 1661/62 enacted the law of processioning. By this
+provision the members of each community were to "goe in procession" once
+every four years to examine and renew, if necessary, the boundary lines.
+Boundaries acknowledged by the procession as correct were conclusive and
+prohibited later claims to change them. If controversy arose over the
+line, the two surveyors accompanying the party were to run the line
+anew, disputes were to be equitably settled, and the line so laid out to
+be final. For administration of processioning, the county court was to
+order the vestry to divide each parish into as many precincts as
+necessary, and the time set in 1661/62 for processioning was between
+Easter and Whitsunday (seventh Sunday or fiftieth day after Easter). The
+time was changed in 1691 to the months from September to March as a more
+convenient period. To assure enforcement of the law, provisions for
+penalties were included--1,200 pounds of tobacco for any vestry not
+ordering the processioning and 350 pounds of tobacco for individuals who
+failed to participate without good reason.
+
+Still other problems concerning land patents related to two important
+conditions stipulated for perfection of the title to land--the first,
+"seating and planting," and the second, the collection of a quitrent.
+With the exception of some of the early grants, the patents of
+seventeenth-century Virginia required "seating and planting" of the
+tract within three years. As shown in the form used by Governor William
+Berkeley during the 1660's, if the patentee "His heirs or assignes doe
+not seate or plant or cause to be planted or seated on the sayd land
+within three years next ensueing, then it shall be lawful for any
+adventurer or planter to make choyse or seate thereupon." The time limit
+was extended as the exigency demanded. Because of losses from the Indian
+massacre of 1644, of the shortage of corn, and of the need for
+additional servants, the Assembly ruled that persons affected by the
+massacre were permitted three additional years to comply with the
+requirement for "seating and planting." Following the Indian
+disturbances of Bacon's Rebellion, the time period for plantations that
+were attacked was extended to seven years from the date the Assembly
+passed the act in 1676/77.
+
+Generally speaking, however, the requirement for "seating and planting"
+was not carried out effectively, and there was little forfeiture because
+of noncompliance. In 1657/58 the Assembly recognized the right for
+patents to be issued on order of the Governor and Council for land
+"deserted for want of planting within the time of three yeeres." But
+even if such forfeiture did occur, the original patent holder was
+authorized to take up additional land elsewhere in the colony without
+complying with the headright requirement. And it was not until 1666 that
+the Assembly gave a definition for "seating and planting" in the
+declaration that "Building an house and keeping a stock one whole yeare
+upon the land shall be accounted seating; and that cleering, tending and
+planting an acre of ground shall be accounted planting." Either one or
+the other fulfilled the condition for the patent, and throughout the
+seventeenth century there was no relation between the size of the tract
+and the amount of improvement required. The minimum performance
+satisfied the law. Therefore, either the building of a small cabin,
+putting a few cattle or a few hogs on the tract for a year, or planting
+as little as an acre of ground--any one of the three protected the
+grant.
+
+For most of the patents issued, this requirement presented little
+problem because the owner was interested in settling and improving his
+holdings. Violation of the provision was most likely to come in the case
+of land speculators who had taken up large tracts or in the case of
+landholders who were interested in acquiring adjacent tracts for the
+purpose of grazing or for forest supply. In the case of the latter,
+there was some question whether the requirement applied to adjacent
+tracts; but the Assembly in 1692 declared that tracts added to an
+original patent must be seated and planted as the law provided for other
+grants.
+
+To a considerable extent there was the same attitude toward the
+requirement for "seating and planting" as has been noted previously for
+obtaining patent by headright. Light regard for the spirit of the law
+and at times the letter of the law came in part as a result of the
+unlimited expanse of land that tempted the established settler as well
+as the newcomer. Evasion of the law cast no stigma upon the offender,
+and some who were aware of their neighbor's dereliction winked at the
+action, thinking perhaps that they too might sometime engage in the same
+practice. Furthermore, the necessity of the provision for "seating and
+planting" which was well founded for the early years of the colony
+decreased in significance as the population and occupied areas of
+Virginia increased.
+
+The second condition for perfection of title to land--payment of a
+quitrent--likewise had a checkered career in the seventeenth century.
+Under the company there is some question whether quitrents were due. It
+is clear that "the greate charter" of 1618 in order to encourage
+immigration exempted for seven years settlers who were taking up land by
+headright. For planters settled before 1616 at the expense of the
+company, it seems that they would have been free of paying the quitrent
+only for a seven-year period which would have required compliance before
+dissolution of the company. Settlers who arrived in Virginia after
+Dale's departure in 1616 and before 1618 would most probably have been
+subject to the quitrent under the company since they were exempt for
+only seven years. Whatever the case, there were rents to be collected
+before 1624 as shown by the duties of George Sandys, younger brother of
+Sir Edwin Sandys and first appointee to the office of treasurer in
+Virginia. Sandys was instructed to collect some L1,000 owed the company
+either as rent or as dues.
+
+When Virginia became a royal colony in 1624, the quitrents were then
+payable at the rate of one shilling for every fifty acres patented. For
+1631 the estimate was made by the Assembly that the quitrents would
+bring in as much as 2,000 pounds sterling, if paid. But little effort
+was being made to collect the rent and it was not until 1636 that Jerome
+Hawley was appointed treasurer. His arrival in the colony the following
+year initiated plans for collection. Proceeds from this source of
+revenue were to be used for the treasurer's salary; any surplus amount
+was to be used at the discretion of the Assembly. In order to determine
+who owed the rent, instructions were issued to landholders in Virginia
+to show their land titles to the treasurer in order that he could
+compute the rents that were due. But little action was taken and it
+seems certain that not enough was collected to pay the salary of the
+treasurer. In 1639 additional provisions were stipulated by the Assembly
+to tighten the quitrent collection by requiring landholders upon summon
+by warrant to reveal their title and the size of their estates to
+commissioners of the county courts. Following the precedent of "the
+greate charter" of 1618, no rents were to be paid until the expiration
+of seven years. This provision continued in effect under Charles I and
+during the interregnum, but the time limit was retracted in the
+instructions to Governor William Berkeley under Charles II. The
+retraction was confirmed under James II, the major reason being that it
+encouraged individuals to take up larger areas of land than they were
+able to cultivate.
+
+Collection of quitrents, however, continued to lag and around 1646 no
+more than 500 pounds sterling was being collected. The treasurer
+appealed to the Assembly which acknowledged that "There is and hath been
+great neglect in the payment of the quitt rent." Consequently the
+Assembly in 1647 authorized the treasurer to levy a distress upon the
+property of delinquent taxpayers. The delinquent was permitted, if
+providing security, to retain his goods under replevin and to have a
+hearing before either a county court or the Governor and Council for
+final disposition of the case. Such a measure, however, was not
+effective against land not seated and planted, for the land itself was
+not to be seized; and a similar handicap prevailed against absentee
+owners as far as action by the treasurer was concerned.
+
+Assistance in collection of quitrents was provided by the sheriff who
+was designated as the recipient of payments for each county with the fee
+of ten per cent of the collections being allowed him. Using the patent
+rolls of his office, both past and current, as a guide, the sheriff
+collected the rent and turned it over to the auditor of the colony. The
+rent was received either in coin or in tobacco as the law provided from
+time to time. In 1661, for example, persons unable to pay in coin were
+permitted by law to pay in tobacco at the rate of two pence per pound.
+But there was considerable controversy over the nature of the payment,
+and King James II ordered the repeal of the earlier act because of the
+poor quality of tobacco being submitted. After the overthrow of the King
+in 1688/89, the collection of quitrents continued for the most part in
+tobacco at the rate of one penny per pound.
+
+In 1671 the privilege of collecting and using the quitrents was granted
+to Colonel Henry Norwood, who had supported faithfully the King and the
+royal cause during the civil war. Two years later the quitrents were
+given to Lords Arlington and Culpeper, including collections that might
+be made of rents in arrears. Protests from Virginia of these grants
+forced the revocation of the special gifts in 1684, although Culpeper
+retained the right to the quitrents in the Northern Neck.
+
+Collection of quitrents at various times was farmed out to members of
+the Council and to the Governor, with the Councilor concerned usually
+taking the counties near his own residence. In 1665, for example,
+Governor William Berkeley assumed the collection in James City and Surry
+counties; Colonel Miles Cary, in Warwick and Elizabeth City counties;
+Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., for York County, the Isle of Wight, and the
+southern part of New Kent; and similar designations for other members of
+the Council. In 1699, however, the Council ordered William Byrd, auditor
+of the colony, to sell the quitrents of each county to any individual at
+the price of one penny per pound of tobacco and on the condition that
+the usual payment would be made to the sheriff for receiving the rent.
+
+While some improvement was made in the last half of the seventeenth
+century in the collection of quitrents, the sum was never very great;
+and according to one report in 1696 no land had been taken over by the
+colony because of failure to pay the rent. As to the amount being
+collected near the end of the century, the figure was not impressive.
+For the period of six years between 1684 and 1690, the estimate has been
+made that receipts totalled L4,375 13s. 9d. or a little over L700 as an
+average for each year during this period. The figure was little changed
+near the end of the century, for it was reported in 1697 that the amount
+collected from quitrents did not total more than L800.
+
+These weaknesses and abuses of the Virginia land system underwent a
+detailed analysis near the end of the seventeenth century by the newly
+created agency--the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations which
+was commonly known as the Board of Trade. During the first year of its
+organization in 1696 the Board received a report from Edward Randolph,
+sent from England to be surveyor-general of customs in America. Randolph
+pondered the question as to why the colony of Virginia was not more
+densely populated with all of the migration that had occurred. He
+attributed little importance to the imputation of "the unhealthiness of
+the place" and to the assertion that tobacco sales yielded little return
+in England after all fees were paid. In an incisive statement he
+concluded that
+
+    ... the chief and only reason is that the inhabitants have been and
+    still are discouraged and hindered from planting tobacco in that
+    colony; and servants are not so willing to go there as formerly
+    because the members of Council and others who make an interest in
+    the government have from time to time procured grants of very large
+    tracts of land, so that for many years there has been no waste land
+    to be taken up by those who bring with them servants, or by servants
+    who have served their time. But the land has been taken up and
+    engrossed beforehand, whereby such people are forced to hire and pay
+    rent for lands or to go to the utmost bounds of the colony for land
+    exposed to danger....
+
+Randolph then reviewed the steps by which a land patent was obtained and
+analyzed the conditions which a person was supposed to fulfill in order
+to obtain the land title in fee simple. The first of these was the
+requirement for the annual quitrent of one shilling for fifty acres; but
+according to Randolph, the colonists "never pay a penny of quit-rent to
+the King for it, by which in strictness of law their land is forfeited."
+The second requirement was for seating the land within three years to
+prevent it from being relinquished as deserted land. The following
+description was given of this condition:
+
+    By seating land is meant that they build a house upon and keep a
+    good stock of hogs and cattle, and servants to take care of them and
+    to improve and plant the land. But instead thereof, they cut down a
+    few trees and make thereof a hut, covering it with the bark, and
+    turn two or three hogs into the woods by it. Or else they are to
+    clear one acre of that land and plant and tend it for one year. But
+    they fell twenty or thirty trees and put a little Indian corn into
+    the ground among them as they lie and sometimes make a beginning to
+    serve it, but take no care of their crop, nor make any further use
+    of the land.
+
+The third condition pertained to the keeping of "four able men well
+armed" on land that was situated on the frontier of the colony. Again
+Randolph reported that
+
+    ... this law is never observed. These grants are procured upon such
+    easy terms and very often upon false certificates of rights. Many
+    hold twenty or thirty thousand acres of land apiece, very largely
+    surveyed, without paying one penny of quit-rent for it. In many
+    patents there is double the quantity of land expressed in the
+    patent, whereby some hundred thousand acres of land are taken up but
+    not planted, which drives away the inhabitants and servants brought
+    up only to planting to seek their fortunes in Carolina and other
+    places, which depopulates the country and prevents the making of
+    many thousand hogsheads of tobacco, to the great diminution of the
+    revenue.
+
+Three proposals were submitted to the Board of Trade by Randolph to
+correct the evils of the land system: first, order a survey in every
+Virginia county of the lands in question; second, demand full payment of
+all quitrents in arrears and use legal compulsion to collect them; and
+third, limit grants to 500 acres for one man and have them issued on
+"more certain terms." Such requirements would produce threefold
+advantages to the crown and the colony. They would either bring in
+additional revenue by collection of the quitrent; or if payment were not
+made, approximately 100,000 acres of land would revert to the King and
+could be granted to new settlers. Limitation of grants to 500 acres
+would increase the number of planters, make settlements more compact,
+and produce more tobacco. And finally, both trade and the customs
+collection on tobacco would be enhanced.
+
+Before concluding his report, Randolph acknowledged both the awareness
+of the problem and the efforts of correction initiated by Francis
+Nicholson while Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia from 1690 to 1692.
+Nicholson was
+
+    ... very sensible of the damage and injustice done to the crown by
+    their using and conniving at such unwarrantable practices in
+    granting away the King's lands, and was resolved to reform them by
+    suing some of the claimers for arrears of quit-rents; but finding
+    that the Council and many of the Burgesses, among others, were
+    concerned, and being uncertain of his continuing in the government,
+    he ordered to begin with Laurence Smyth, who was seised of many
+    thousand acres of land in different counties, and for one particular
+    tract of land was indebted L80 for arrears of quit-rents, which sum
+    after the cause was ripe for judgment, was compounded for less than
+    one half.
+
+Before the year was out, the Board of Trade sought more information on
+this problem and directed a series of searching questions in October,
+1696, to Randolph who had then returned to England. Both the questions
+and the answers are recorded in the _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial
+Series, America and West Indies_, 1696-1697 (pages 172, 188-89). Out of
+the ten questions asked, the following seem most significant in
+revealing Randolph's evaluation of the Virginia land system.
+
+    What proportion of land in Virginia already taken up is now
+    cultivated as near as you can judge?
+
+    There is in Virginia, at a moderate computation, about 500,000 acres
+    granted by patents, of which not above 40,000 acres are cultivated
+    and improved; besides many thousand acres of waste land high up in
+    the country.
+
+    Why have not the prosecutions, neglected in Colonel Nicholson's
+    time, been continued since?
+
+    Colonel Nicholson was the first Governor of Virginia who directed
+    prosecutions for arrears of quit-rents, beginning with Colonel
+    Laurence Smith. The case was ready for trial but the Governor came
+    to England, and the case was afterwards compounded for a small
+    matter.
+
+    Have any parcels of land been seized for the King's use, for want of
+    planting or failure to pay quit-rents?
+
+    Small parcels of land are granted away every court for not being
+    planted or seated according to law, but no land has at any time been
+    seized to the King's use for not paying of quit-rents.
+
+    Are negro servants included in the persons who, if imported, make
+    "rights" to grant of land. [?]
+
+    Negro servants give a right to land to those who import them, who
+    thereupon take up land, contrary to the true intention of seating
+    the country; but the practice being general, to the advantage of
+    certain persons, no notice is taken of it.
+
+    Have you ever known of false certificates of rights, and how have
+    the parties guilty thereof been punished?
+
+    I have heard of many false certificates of rights; the practice is
+    common but little regarded, being of no prejudice to any private
+    person.
+
+    If your methods be followed, in what county should a beginning be
+    made?
+
+    ... if my proposals were adopted, I answer that the members of
+    Council have large tracts of land in most of the counties, for which
+    they are in great arrears of quit-rent. It is advisable to make a
+    beginning with some of them and to empower a person uninterested in
+    the county to demand the arrears due to the King. These will amount
+    to a considerable sum and will increase the King's revenue in
+    Virginia yearly. If the patentees refuse to pay the arrears, some
+    hundred thousand acres of land will revert to the crown, to be more
+    carefully disposed of in future.
+
+The Board of Trade continued the search for additional opinions about
+the land system in Virginia. Questions were asked individually of Henry
+Hartwell, a Councilor of Virginia, and Edward Chilton, Attorney-General
+in Virginia from 1691 to 1694. Then Hartwell and Chilton collaborated
+with James Blair, Councilor and Commissary of the Anglican Church in
+Virginia, in preparing a report that was received by the Board in
+October, 1697, under the title _An Account of the Present State &
+Government of Virginia_. The three authors of the report were English
+or Scottish born and represented essentially the same point of view of
+royal appointees who became residents of the colony and who favored an
+extensive use of royal authority. All three had married into Virginia
+families and had had numerous occasions for observation. The report
+reflected a greater concern for royal revenue than for the internal
+development of the colony, and it definitely displayed the bias of the
+three men, particularly Blair, against Governor Andros.
+
+Their comments on the land system confirmed some of the conditions as
+set forth by Randolph's report. Stating that the country was "ill
+peopled" despite the headright system, they explained that "The first
+great abuse of this design arose from the ignorance and knavery of
+surveyors, who often gave out drafts of surveys without even coming on
+the land. They gave their descripton [sic] by some natural bounds and
+were sure to allow large measure, that so the persons for whom they
+surveyed should enjoy much larger tracts than they paid quit-rents
+for." The issuing of certificates for rights by the courts and
+secretary's office had been abused, especially the latter "which was
+and still is a constant mint of those rights, where they may be
+purchased at from one shilling to five shillings _per_ right." And in
+another criticism of the land system, the authors concluded that the
+"Fundamental error of letting the King's land run away to lie waste,
+together with another of not seating in townships, is the cause that
+Virginia to-day is so ill peopled."
+
+The Board of Trade considered reforms to correct the existing evils of
+the land system. Questions about these evils were posed to Sir Edmund
+Andros, Governor of Virginia from 1692 to 1698; but his answers were
+either evasive or otherwise unsatisfactory. Francis Nicholson was then
+returned to the colony as Governor in 1698 with instructions for a "new
+method of granting land in Virginia." To prevent land from being
+patented without being cultivated, to encourage trade, and to increase
+royal revenue, land title was not to be obtained "by merely importing or
+buying of servants"; rather anyone who would seat and plant vacant lands
+was to receive 100 acres for himself and the same amount for each
+laborer that was brought in or for whom arrangements were made for
+importation within three years. The annual quitrent was to be two
+shillings for 100 acres provided the full number of laborers were
+brought in within the three-year period; if, however, full compliance
+had not been made, ten shillings was to be paid annually for each 100
+acres for which there was no worker or the size of the grant was to be
+reduced proportionally. On the other hand, if the number of laborers,
+including members of the family, was increased beyond the original
+number proposed, the owner was entitled to an additional 100 acres for
+each extra worker.
+
+Governor Nicholson was instructed to "consider and advise with the
+Council and Assembly" about putting these proposals into effect and
+about overcoming any difficulties that might exist because of the
+current laws of the colony. But instructions to the royal Governor was
+one thing; putting these instructions into effect was quite another.
+Neither the Council nor the Burgesses were willing to grapple directly
+with land reform and no action was taken by the two bodies to implement
+the recommendations of the Board of Trade. Governor Nicholson on his own
+ordered that no more headrights be issued for the importation of
+Negroes. As to the sale of headrights by the secretary's office which
+Nicholson found to be still prevalent, the practice was not eliminated
+completely. As a substitute measure which arose over the problem of land
+taken up in Pamunkey Neck and on the south side of Blackwater Swamp, the
+Governor and Council in 1699 authorized the acquisition of land by
+"treasury right," stating that title to fifty acres of land would be
+granted for the payment of five shillings sterling to the auditor. Thus
+during the terminal year of this study, we find the significant
+reappearance of sale of land by "treasury right" which increased in
+importance as the eighteenth century progressed. Grant by headright
+continued immediately to account for the great majority of land patents
+issued, but after the first quarter of the eighteenth century it
+gradually fell into disuse.
+
+Being unable to inaugurate the proposed plan for land reform of the
+Board of Trade, Nicholson turned to the improvement of collection of
+quitrents as the most feasible means of achieving the approximate goal.
+Payment of rent was an acknowledged requirement, even though frequently
+evaded in the seventeenth century; and Nicholson proposed a stringent
+collection of quitrents in arrears in order to force the return of
+unused land to be patented by others who would actually occupy and
+cultivate the vacant areas. Improvements were made in the sale of
+tobacco received as quitrents, and the rent roll of 1704/05 was an
+improvement over previous ones. Yet many loopholes still existed in the
+system, and Nicholson's attempts to make further reforms were hindered
+by the arguments that ensued with leading Councilors. His second term as
+executive for Virginia came to an end in 1705.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+The Northern Neck
+
+
+Before completing this study of seventeenth-century land grants, a brief
+analysis will be made of the nature of the land system in the Northern
+Neck with some attention given to the major ways in which it differed
+from the remainder of Virginia. The included area reached from the
+Potomac River south to the Rappahannock River and from the headwaters of
+these two streams in the western part of the colony to Chesapeake Bay.
+
+The separate provision for the area went back to the days of exile in
+France of Charles II following the execution of Charles I in 1649. As a
+reward to those cavaliers who had been faithful to the Stuart regime,
+Charles II exercised his royal prerogative by making a grant of the
+portions of tidewater Virginia that were not seated. In the year of the
+execution the Northern Neck was granted to the following seven
+supporters of the King: Lord John Culpeper, Lord Ralph Horton, Lord
+Henry Jermyn, Sir John Berkeley, Sir William Morton, Sir Dudley Wyatt,
+and Thomas Culpeper. Efforts of the representatives of this group were
+frustrated in Virginia by the suspension of royal government, and
+therefore the proprietary charter was ineffective for a time. It had,
+however, been recorded in chancery in 1649 and was revived after the
+restoration of Charles II to the throne. In 1662 and again in 1663
+Charles II ordered the Governor and Council of Virginia to assist the
+proprietors in "settling the plantations and receiving the rents and
+profits thereof." But portions of the area had been seated since 1645,
+and legal obstructions were brought forth by Virginia planters and the
+Council to defeat the efforts of the proprietors.
+
+A second appeal to the King led to a solution maneuvered in part by the
+Virginia resident agent in London, Francis Moryson. The original patent
+of 1649 was surrendered and a new charter was issued on May 8, 1669, to
+the Earl of St. Albans, Lord John Berkeley, Sir William Morton, and John
+Trethewy. The new document required the recognition of grants in the
+Northern Neck made by the Governor and Council prior to September 29,
+1661, and it limited the title of the proprietors to that land which
+would be planted and inhabited within twenty-one years. The political
+jurisdiction of the area was still under the Virginia government. The
+laws of the colony were to remain operative, and in effect the grant was
+"to create a subordinate fief or proprietorship within Virginia." But
+considerable confusion prevailed over the retroactive recognition of
+grants, and many landholders sought confirmation of their ownership.
+"Besides there are many other grants," stated Governor William Berkeley,
+"in that patent inconsistent with the settlednesse of this government
+which hath no barr to its prosperitie but proprieties on both hands, and
+therefore is it mightily wounded in this last, nor have I ever observed
+anything so much move the peoples' griefe or passion, or which doth more
+put a stop to theire industry than their uncertainty whether they should
+make a country for the King or other proprietors."
+
+The confusion that existed was further confounded by the grant of
+Charles II on February 25, 1672/73, of all of Virginia for thirty-one
+years to Lord Arlington and to Lord Thomas Culpeper, son of one of the
+original patentees of the Northern Neck by the same name. These two
+proprietors of the whole colony were to control all lands, collect
+rents, including all rents and profits in arrears since 1669, and
+exercise authority that sprang from grants previously made. Up until
+1669 amid all the controversy over control of the Northern Neck, grants
+were regularly made by the local government on the basis of headrights
+as revealed in the land patent books. After that date the number
+decreased; and in March, 1674/75, the first land grant of 5,000 acres,
+later George Washington's Mount Vernon, was issued to Nicholas Spencer
+and John Washington of Westmoreland in the name of the proprietors with
+the common seal being affixed to the grant by Thomas Culpeper and
+Anthony Trethewy. By this date Thomas Culpeper had obtained from the
+proprietors of 1669 recognition of one-sixth interest in the Northern
+Neck for him and his cousin on the basis of their fathers having been
+original patentees.
+
+Opposition to the proprietary grant of the Northern Neck in Virginia led
+to efforts of the Assembly, encouraged by Governor William Berkeley, to
+buy out the rights of the proprietors. Apparently the proprietors were
+willing to sell and set the price of L400 each for the six shares then
+held in the charter. Negotiations to complete the transaction were
+interrupted by the outbreak of Bacon's Rebellion, and the status of the
+proprietary grant hung in suspension. Meanwhile, Thomas, Lord Culpeper
+was appointed Governor of Virginia but did not arrive in the colony
+until 1680. The next year Culpeper bought up the proprietary rights in
+Virginia, both the rights of the other proprietors in the Northern Neck
+and the rights of Lord Arlington for all of Virginia. In 1684, however,
+he gave up the Arlington charter of 1673 to the crown in return for an
+annual pension of L600 for twenty-one years.
+
+Lord Culpeper retained the Northern Neck charter and made efforts to
+encourage settlement of the area. But the terminal date of the
+twenty-one year period stipulated in the charter of 1669 was
+approaching, and he appealed for a renewal of the grant on the basis
+that the amount of land intended by Charles II had not been taken up.
+Considering the restriction an impracticable one, King James II issued a
+new charter in 1688 with Lord Culpeper as the sole proprietor and with
+no time limit specified. Through changes and additions prompted by
+Culpeper's knowledge of Virginia's geography, the area of the grant
+included in the Northern Neck was substantially enlarged over the
+boundaries stated in the previous charters of 1649 and 1669, the
+additions later being interpreted as extending Culpeper's claim beyond
+the Blue Ridge Mountains to the foot of the Alleghenies. The area as
+outlined in 1688 was as follows with the additions to the former
+descriptions shown in italics:
+
+    All that entire tract, territory or parcel of land situate, lying
+    and being _in Virginia_ in America and bounded by and within the
+    _first_ heads or _springs_ of the rivers of Tappanhannocke alias
+    Rappahanocke and Quiriough alias Patawomacke Rivers, the courses of
+    the said rivers, _from their said first heads or springs_, as they
+    are commonly called and known by the inhabitants and descriptions
+    of those parts, and the Bay of Chesapoyocke, together with the said
+    rivers themselves and all the islands within the _outermost_ banks
+    thereof, _and the soil of all and singular the premisses_.
+
+Soon after receiving this third charter, Lord Culpeper died on January
+27, 1688/89. Despite efforts that were again made by the colony to
+eliminate the proprietary grant, it was confirmed to Culpeper's
+survivors and passed by marriage to the Fairfax family.
+
+After the 1669 charter, the proprietors opened an office in the colony
+and an agent was designated to handle land grants and collect fees. The
+scant records that survive indicate that from 1670 to 1673, Thomas
+Kirton was agent in the land office in Northumberland; from 1673 to
+1677, William Aretkin was appointed the proprietor's "agent in
+Virginia"; and from 1677 to 1689, Daniel Parke and Nicholas Spencer were
+agents in the land office in Westmoreland.
+
+Beginning in 1690 land patents in the Northern Neck were entered
+separately and the grant books that have survived give a good account of
+the land policy under the proprietors. Philip Ludwell served as agent
+from 1690 to 1693 and began an orderly handling of the proprietor's
+interest at the land office in Westmoreland. Throughout his term as
+agent he used a form for land grants in establishing his authority which
+reviewed a part of the checkered history of the Northern Neck. The
+introductory portion of this form was as follows:
+
+    _Whereas_ King Charles the Seacond of ever blessed memory by his
+    letters pattents under the broad seale of England beareing date at
+    Westminister the eighth day of May in the one and twentyeth yeare
+    of his reigne Annoqe Dom. 1669, His Matie was gratiously pleased to
+    give graunt and confirme unto Henry then Earle of St. Albons, John
+    Lord Berkley, Sir William Morton, Knt., & John Trethewy, Esqr.,
+    there heires & assignes all that intire tract territory or parcell
+    of land lyinge & being betweene the two rivers of Rapah. and
+    Patomack and the courses of the said rivers and the Bay of
+    Chesapeake, as by the said graunts, recourse beinge had there unto,
+    will more at large appeare, and
+
+    _Whereas_ all the rite and title of in and to the said lands &
+    premisses is by deed enrold and other suffentient conveyance in law
+    conveyed and made over to Thomas Lord Culpeper, eldest sonn & heire
+    of John late Lord Culpeper, his heires & assignes for ever, who is
+    thereby become sole owner and propriator of the said land in fee
+    symple, and
+
+    _Whereas_ Kinge James the Seacond hath beene gratiously pleased by
+    his letters pattents bearinge date at Westminister the 27th day of
+    September 1688, and in the fourth yeare of his Maties. reigne, to
+    confirme the said graunt for the said tract or parcell of land to
+    the said Thomas Lord Culpeper his heires & assignes for ever, as by
+    the said graunt, relation beinge there unto had, will more at large
+    appeare
+
+    _And_ the said Thomas Lord Culpeper he beinge since deceased all
+    the rite title and interest of in and to the said tract of land
+    lawfully desendinge on the Honorble. Mrs. Katherine Culpeper sole
+    daughter and heire of the said Thomas late Lord Culpeper, and
+    Allexander Culpeper Esqr. who cometh in part propriator by lawfull
+    conveyance from Thomas late Lord Culpeper, and confirmed by the
+    said Mrs. Katherine Culpeper, who are thereby now become the true
+    and lawfull propriators of the said tract or territory, and
+
+    _Whereas_ the said propriators have thought fitt under there hands
+    & seales to depute me Phillip Ludwell Esqr. with full power and
+    authority to act in the prmisses. persuant to the powers granted by
+    there said Maties. as fully & amply to all intents & purposes as
+    they the said propriators them selves might or could doe if they
+    were personally present,
+
+    NOW KNOW YEE therefore....
+
+    The provisions in the fourth paragraph above designating Mrs.
+    Katherine Culpeper and Alexander Culpeper as "the true and lawfull
+    propriators" were obsolete after the former married Lord Fairfax
+    while Ludwell was still agent. By law the husband also became a
+    proprietor and should have been added to the list. This omission was
+    corrected by George Brent and William Fitzhugh, the two agents who
+    succeeded Ludwell in 1693 and continued to serve during the 1690's
+    in the land office at Woodstock in Stafford County. In a much
+    simplified form, Brent and Fitzhugh merely listed the proprietors
+    including the husband as follows:
+
+    Margarett Lady Culpeper, Thomas Lord Fairfax, Katherine his wife
+    and Alexander Culpeper Esquire, proprietors of the Northern Neck
+    of Virginia....
+
+The grants made by the various agents of the proprietors in the Northern
+Neck were not substantially different in nature from those held under a
+Virginia land patent. Both tenures reflected the feudal law of the
+manor. The proprietors held their land in free and common socage, and
+the planters in the Northern Neck paid quitrents and fees to the
+proprietors rather than to the crown.
+
+While the nature of the tenure was similar, there was a marked
+difference in the methods of obtaining a grant. Instead of the headright
+which we have seen was the basis for Virginia land grants during most of
+the seventeenth century, the proprietors turned to what they considered
+the more practical procedure--acquisition of title by purchase, or the
+"treasury right." To obtain title to land the individual paid a
+"composition" which was established at a uniform rate. For each 100
+acres in grants less than 600, the price was five shillings; for 100
+acres in grants more than 600, the price was increased to ten shillings.
+Payment was permitted in tobacco which was valued at the rate of six
+shillings for every 100 pounds in 1690. Such a provision could permit
+the acquisition of large holdings without the manipulations that were
+practiced under the headright system.
+
+In the provision for quitrents, the two areas were similar. The amount
+of the quitrent in the Northern Neck was the same as elsewhere in
+Virginia--two shillings annually for 100 acres. Under agents Brent and
+Fitzhugh one exception occurred with the attempt in 1694 to double the
+quitrent and thereby maintain the same scale as was customary in
+Maryland at the time. But few grants have been found to indicate the
+agents succeeded to any extent in establishing the higher rate.
+
+Relative to requirements for seating to validate the claim, the two
+areas followed a different course as the seventeenth century progressed.
+We have previously noted the three-year "seating and planting"
+requirement for other Virginia patents. Similar provisions were included
+in the first proprietary grants as revealed in the earliest patent in
+1675. But beginning with the grant for Brent Town in 1687, the seating
+requirement was omitted and this precedent was followed for all
+subsequent proprietary grants in the Northern Neck in the seventeenth
+and eighteenth centuries.
+
+For the seventeenth century under consideration in this study, there was
+considerable private and public animosity displayed toward the
+principles of the proprietary system. There was a distrust of the grants
+that were issued, and there was criticism of the proprietary system as
+it differed from the remainder of Virginia. Demand for land in the area
+was not as great; and with the exception of large holdings such as that
+of William Fitzhugh, most of the patents were small. It was not until
+the eighteenth century that public antipathy toward the proprietors was
+for the most part dispelled and that demands on the Northern Neck land
+offices increased to equal other areas in Virginia.
+
+
+
+
+RETROSPECT
+
+
+The availability of land was a leading motive in the European
+colonization of America. Although much of the country was inhabited by
+Indians, European nations claimed sovereignty over the area and denied
+superior claims by the non-Christian aborigines. The London Company held
+essentially to this position, although gradually the colony of Virginia,
+like other English colonies, recognized the Indian's right of occupation
+and provided some compensation for relinquishment of territory. By the
+middle of the seventeenth century Virginia had initiated the policy of
+laying out Indian boundaries or creating reservations for neighboring
+tribes that were not open to white settlement.
+
+Under the London Company land was held in common until the provision for
+distribution to individual stockholders was carried out after 1616. In
+addition to grants according to the number of shares of stock owned, the
+company rewarded individuals with land for special services rendered to
+the colony. And to stimulate immigration, grants were offered as
+dividends to voluntary associations or "societies of adventurers" for
+organizing and financing settlements such as the hundred or particular
+plantations. It was also possible to obtain patents by purchase or by
+"treasury right" under the company, but the most significant development
+was the provision for acquisition by headright as outlined in the
+Instructions to Governor George Yeardley in 1618.
+
+With the dissolution of the company in 1624, the "treasury right" was
+discontinued in Virginia and did not reappear other than in the Northern
+Neck until 1699. The major method of obtaining title to land was the
+headright which attempted to maintain an appropriate balance between the
+size of the population and the area patented. However, its basic concept
+was distorted by irregular practices and fraudulent acts. Other
+conditions for obtaining patents after 1624 were as a dividend for each
+share of stock invested in the company, as remuneration for special
+services, and as a means of encouraging frontier fortification.
+
+The size of land patents gradually increased during the seventeenth
+century with the peak being reached in the third quarter. During the
+last quarter of the period there was a definite trend toward the breakup
+of large estates by distribution to heirs and by sale of small segments
+of the larger patent. Whatever the variation in size, the small
+landholder constituted the major group in seventeenth-century Virginia
+and assumed a more important role in the socio-economic pattern of the
+colony than is evident from the descriptions of plantation life by
+romantic writers.
+
+By the end of the seventeenth century the use of the headright as the
+major means of land distribution began to give way to acquisition of
+title by purchase in all of Virginia other than the Northern Neck. For
+the Northern Neck which was granted to various proprietors who were
+faithful to the King during the civil war, the headright never served as
+the basis of the land system. Rather the distribution of land by the
+"treasury right" was employed in the seventeenth as well as the
+eighteenth century.
+
+The abuses of the land system and lax enforcement of its major
+principles brought forth a detailed discussion of its many facets by the
+Board of Trade near the end of the century. Reforms were proposed that
+would enhance the royal revenue by collection of the quitrent and would
+prevent the accumulation of large estates. But the existence of vast
+areas of unoccupied land on the frontier militated against the
+restriction, and there was considerable opposition to feudal tenures and
+to the payment of rents to the crown. The proposed reforms did not
+prevent the acquisition of large landholdings; the few large estates of
+the seventeenth century increased both in number and size in the
+eighteenth century and from them were developed the large plantations of
+some of the well-known Virginia leaders of the American Revolution.
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+I. MANUSCRIPTS
+
+    Virginia Land Patents. Forty-two volumes. Records of the Virginia
+    State Land Office now in the custody of the Virginia State Library,
+    Richmond. Indispensable source for the study of land grants in
+    Colonial Virginia. Nine volumes cover the period to 1706 with two
+    additional volumes for the Northern Neck beginning in 1690: Northern
+    Neck Grants No. 1, 1690-1692 and Northern Neck Grants No. 2,
+    1694-1700.
+
+    Thomas Jefferson Papers. Alderman Library, University of Virginia,
+    Charlottesville.
+
+II. PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES
+
+    Brown, Alexander, ed., _The Genesis of the United States_, New
+    York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890. 2 vols.
+
+    Force, Peter, ed., _Tracts and Other Papers Relating Principally to
+    the Origin Settlement and Progress of the Colonies in North
+    America, from the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776_,
+    Washington, D.C., 1836-1846. 4 vols.
+
+    Grant, William, Munro (James) and Fitzroy (A. W.), eds., _Acts of
+    the Privy Council of England, Colonial Series, 1613-1783_, London,
+    1908-1912. 6 vols.
+
+    Hartwell, Henry, Blair (James) and Chilton (Edward), _The Present
+    State of Virginia and the College_. Edited by H. D. Farish,
+    Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., 1940.
+
+    Hening, W. W., ed., _Statutes at Large: being a Collection of All
+    the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in
+    the Year 1619_ [to 1792]. Richmond, 1809. 13 vols.
+
+    Kennedy, J. P. and McIlwaine, H. R., eds., _Journals of the House
+    of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619-1776_, Richmond: The Colonial Press,
+    1905-1915. 13 vols.
+
+    Kingsbury, S. M., ed., _The Records of the Virginia Company of
+    London_, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906 and
+    1933. 4 vols.
+
+    Labaree, L. W., ed., _Royal Instructions to British Colonial
+    Governors_, 1670-1776, New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1935.
+    2 vols.
+
+    McIlwaine, H. R. and Hall, W. L., eds., _Executive Journals of the
+    Council of Colonial Virginia_, Richmond: Virginia State Library,
+    1925.
+
+    McIlwaine, H. R., ed., _Legislative Journals of the Council of
+    Colonial_ _Virginia, 1680-1775_, Richmond: The Colonial Press,
+    1918-1919. 3 vols.
+
+    ----, _Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial
+    Virginia, 1622-1632, 1670-1676_, Richmond: The Colonial Press,
+    1924.
+
+    Nugent, Nell M., ed., _Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of
+    Virginia Land Patents and Grants_, Richmond: The Dietz Printing
+    Company, 1934. Only volume I published covering the period from
+    1623 to 1666. Excellent source for study of seventeenth-century
+    land grants.
+
+    Sainsbury, W. N. and others, eds., _Calendar of State Papers,
+    Colonial Series, America and West Indies_, London, 1860-.
+
+III. INDEX AND PERIODICALS
+
+    Swem, E. G., comp., _Virginia Historical Index_, Roanoke: Stone
+    Printing Company, 1934-1936. 2 vols.
+
+    Valuable guide to material found in Hening's _Statutes_, _Virginia
+    Magazine of History and Biography_, _Tyler's Quarterly Historical
+    and Genealogical Magazine_, _William and Mary College Quarterly
+    Historical Magazine_--first and second series, _Calendar of
+    Virginia State Papers ... Preserved in the Capitol at Richmond_,
+    _Virginia Historical Register and Literary Adviser_, and _Lower
+    Norfolk County Virginia Antiquary_.
+
+IV. SECONDARY SOURCES--BOOKS
+
+    Ames, Susie M., _Studies of the Virginia Eastern Shore in the
+    Seventeenth Century_, Richmond: The Dietz Press, 1940.
+
+    Andrews, C, M., _The Colonial Period of American History_, New
+    Haven: Yale University Press, 1934-1938. 4 vols.
+
+    Beverley, Robert, _The History of Virginia in Four Parts_.
+    Reprinted from the author's second revised edition, 1722. Richmond,
+    1855.
+
+    Brown, Alexander, _The First Republic in America_, New York:
+    Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1898.
+
+    Bruce, P. A., _The Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth
+    Century_, New York: Macmillan and Company, 1896. 2 vols.
+
+    ----, _Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth
+    Century_, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1910. 2 vols.
+
+    ----, _Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An
+    Inquiry into the Origin of the Higher Planting Class, together with
+    an Account of the Habits, Customs, and Diversions of the People_,
+    Richmond: Whittet & Shepperson, 1907.
+
+    Craven, W. F., _Dissolution of the Virginia Company: The failure of
+    a Colonial Experiment_, New York: Oxford University Press, 1932.
+
+    ----, _The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century,
+    1607-1689_. Volume I of _A History of the South_, Baton Rouge:
+    Louisiana State University Press, 1949.
+
+    Harrison, _Fairfax, Virginia Land Grants: A Study of Conveyancing
+    in Relation to Colonial Politics_, Richmond: The Old Dominion
+    Press, 1925. Valuable for its emphasis upon the Northern Neck.
+
+    Osgood, H. L., _The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century_,
+    New York: Macmillan Company, 1904-1907. 3 vols.
+
+    Voorhis, M. C., The Land Grant Policy of Colonial Virginia,
+    1607-1774, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia.
+
+    Valuable study with emphasis upon analysis of land policy. Does not
+    include the Northern Neck.
+
+    Wertenbaker, T. J., _Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia; or, The
+    Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion_,
+    Charlottesville, 1910.
+
+    ----, _The Planters of Colonial Virginia_, Princeton: Princeton
+    University Press, 1922.
+
+    ----, _Virginia under the Stuarts, 1607-1688_, Princeton: Princeton
+    University Press, 1914.
+
+    Wright, L. B., _The First Gentlemen of Virginia: Intellectual
+    Qualities of the Early Colonial Ruling Class_, San Marino: The
+    Huntington Library, 1940.
+
+
+
+
+VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY COMMISSION
+
+
+_Honorary Chairman_
+
+THOMAS B. STANLEY, Governor
+
+LEWIS A. MCMURRAN, JR., _Chairman of the Commission_
+
+_Members of Senate appointed by President of the Senate_:
+
+LLOYD C. BIRD, Vice Chairman     HARRY F. BYRD, JR.
+EDWARD L. BREEDEN, JR.           W. MARVIN MINTER
+
+
+_Members of the House of Delegates appointed by the Speaker of the House_:
+
+RUSSELL M. CARNEAL               FELIX E. EDMUNDS
+HALE COLLINS                     LEWIS A. MCMURRAN, JR.
+JOHN W. COOKE                    W. TAYLOE MURPHY
+EDMUND T. DEJARNETTE             FRED G. POLLARD
+
+
+_Members appointed by the Governor_:
+
+MISS ELLEN BAGBY                 CARLISLE H. HUMELSINE
+ALVIN D. CHANDLER                VERBON E. KEMP
+                    ALLEN R. MATTHEWS
+
+           PARKE ROUSE, JR., _Executive Director_
+
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+THE JAMESTOWN-WILLIAMSBURG-YORKTOWN
+CELEBRATION COMMISSION
+
+_Appointed by the President of the United States_
+
+ROBERT V. HATCHER, Chairman      SAMUEL M. BEMISS, Vice Chairman
+FRANK L. BOYDEN                  BENTLEY HITE
+DAVID E. FINLEY                  WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER
+                         CONRAD L. WIRTH
+
+
+_Appointed by the Vice President of the United States_
+
+HARRY F. BYRD                    A. WILLIS ROBERTSON
+
+
+_Appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives_
+
+EDWARD J. ROBESON, JR.           RICHARD H. POFF
+
+          H. K. ROBERTS, _Administrative Director_
+
+
+
+
+_FEVDIGRAPHIA._
+
+THE SYNOPSIS
+OR EPITOME OF
+SVRVEYING METHODIZED.
+
+Anatomizing the whole Corps of the
+Facultie; _Viz._
+
+_The Materiall, Mathematicall, Mechanicall and
+Legall Parts_,
+
+Intimating all the Incidents to Fees and Possessions, and
+whatsoeuer may be comprized vnder their Matter, Forme,
+Proprietie, and Valuation.
+
+_Very pertinent to be perused of all those, whom the Right, Reuenewe,
+Estimation, Farming, Occupation, Manurance, Subduing,
+Preparing and Imploying of Arable, Medow, Pasture, and all
+other plots doe concerne._
+
+And no lesse remarkable for all Vnder-takers in the Plantation
+of Ireland or Virginia, for all Trauailers for Discoueries of
+_forraine Countries, and for Purchasers, Exchangers, or Sellers_
+of Land, and for euery other Interessee in the Profits
+or Practise deriued from the compleate
+SVRVEY
+
+_Of Manours, Lands, Tenements, Edifices, Woods, Waters, Titles,
+Tenures, Euidences, &c._
+
+Composed in a compendious Digest by
+W. FOLKINGHAM. G.
+
+QUA PROSUNT SINGULA, MULTAIUVANT.
+
+LONDON
+
+Printed for _Richard Moore_, and are to be solde at his shop in Saint
+_Dunstanes_ Church-yard in Fleete-streete,
+
+1610.
+
+[Photograph by T. L. Williams]
+
+
+
+
+THE
+SVRVEIORS
+DIALOGVE,
+
+Very profitable for all men to pervse, but
+_especially for Gentlemen, Farmers, and Husbandmen_,
+that shall either haue occasion, or be willing
+to buy, hire, or sell Lands: As in the ready and perfect
+Surueying of them, with the manner and Method of
+keeping a Court of Suruey with many necessary rules,
+and familiar Tables to that purpose.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+_As also_,
+The vse of the Manuring of some Grounds, fit as well
+_for_ LORDS, _as for_ TENNANTS.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+Now the third time Imprinted.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+_And by the same Author inlarged, and a sixt Booke newly_
+added, of a familiar conference, betweene a PVRCHASER,
+and a SVRVEYOR of Lands; of the true vse of both being
+very needfull for all such as are to purchase Land,
+whether it be in Fee simple, or by Lease.
+
+_Diuided into sixe Bookes by_ I. N.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+PROV. 17.2.
+
+_A discreate Seruant shall haue rule ouer an vnthriftie Sonne, and he shall
+deuide the heritage among the brethren._
+
+Voluntas pro facultate.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+LONDON:
+
+Printed by THOMAS SNODHAM. 1618.
+
+[Photograph by T. L. Williams]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mother Earth, by W. Stitt Robinson, Jr.
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOTHER EARTH ***
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