| What are Headrights? ELDRIDGE Samuel In Virginia Patents, Book No. 2, p. 240, there is a grant dated Augst 20, 1650, of 560 acres in Isle of Wight Co. to Robert Blake and Samuell Eldridge for headrights on eleven persons. From the latter part of this patent the name is spelt Eldridge. --------------- http://www.mcgeheezone.com/family/headright.htm [The term headrights in connection with a patent for land has been subject to no little misunderstanding. Elucidation is therefore in order. For the purpose of stimulating immigration and the settlement of the Colony, the London Company ordained that any person who paid his own way to Virginia should be assigned 50 acres of land �for his owne personal adventure,� and if he transported �at his owne cost� one or more persons he should, for each person whose passage he paid, be awarded fifty acres of land.].� http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/curry/dept/cise/soc/resources/jvc /unit/corporate/land_handout.html 12th January, 1619 It has been a long day, and I am weary from the plantation. We received word from England a few months ago, through Gov. George Yeardley about new policies for us here in Virginia. He called this set of order the "Great Charter," but we know it as "the Charter of Orders, Lawes and Priviledges. " He explained that Treasurer Thomas Smith and Assistant Treasurer Edwin Sandy drew up these new instructions. They are divided into two main sections and the first described a new land system for the colony. The second increased the London Company�s governance over the colony. We mind the second section little because the first is so much more important to us as stockholders in the company. I guess the company has not made the profits they were expecting. This is not surprising because conditions have been so hard here. They have to pay us our dividends somehow so they�ve decided to give us land. This will not only please us but it will encourage more Englishmen to come to Virginia. They gave us 100 acres and have promised 100 more is on the way. Can you believe they call us "ancient planters," those of us who came before 1616 and paid our own way? They�ve also promised everyone who pays their own way, from now on, their very own 50 acres of land. We even get 50 acres if we pay for someone else to come to Jamestown. They call this the headright system. It sounds great for me because I can pay for servants to come, received 50 acres from the government and have the servants indentured for about 7 years. This will surely be enough labor for harvest next year. Besides giving us land they also allowed stockholders to join with non-stockholders and purchase the title for a particular plantation. Therefore myself, Thomas Smith and Thomas Berkeley all combined our resources and bought 80,000 acres along the river. This is much more land than each of us could have bought by ourselves. Now we run the property with no interference from the company, and Thomas Smith who doesn�t have any stocks bought into the company. The charter also restructured the operation of Virginia. Now we are divided into four boroughs straddling the river. Each borough has 3,000 acres for the half-share tenants to run and 1,500 acres for officials. The governor also got 3,000 acres but unfortunately he receives no salary. All of these new orders have changed things here. We are running a plantation and receiving new indentured servants with every ship. It also seems like more people are coming from England. I guess they are coming for the land. |
| A little about "Justinian Cooper" If you study Samuel Eldridge you will notice that he and others are constantly getting grants of land for transporting people. (To Virginia) In the next website address George Archer was brought to Virginia by Justinian Cooper. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/1784/immigrat.html --------------- Archer, George; Brought to Virginia in 1636 by Justinian Cooper, Warrasquinock Co. --------------- Archer, George; Brought to Virginia in 1642 by Justinian Cooper, Isle of Wight Co. Justinian Cooper may have worked for the Warrasquinock Co. which later changed its name to the Isle of Wight Co., but he and others probably just took advantage of the new law making it possible for them to gain more grants of land. There was a promise of 50 acres of land waiting for them when they got them there. ELDRIDGE Samuel In Virginia Patents, Book No. 2, p. 240, there is a grant dated Augst 20, 1650, of 560 acres in Isle of Wight Co. to Robert Blake and Samuell Eldridge for headrights on eleven persons. From the latter part of this patent the name is spelt Eldridge. |
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