were attached to it. Thus when Thomas Nuce was appointed in 1619 the superintendent of the Company's lands, twelve hundred acres were assigned to him as a means of paying his salary. Six hundred acres of this allotment were situated at Kecoughtan, four hundred at Charles City, one hundred at Jamestown, and one hundred at Henrico; these were the four boroughs in which the lands of the Company had been laid off, and it was expected that Nuce in superintending its property would also overlook that belonging to his own office. To the Treasurer, the Marshal, and the Cape Merchant respectively, who bore heavy responsibilities, fifteen hundred acres were granted; to the Physician and Secretary, five hundred acres each, and to the Vice-admiral, three hundred. An assignment of one thousand acres was made for the support of the master and usher of the East India School.[1]
The apportionments of land would have been worthless if no provision had been made for their cultivation. A system of leases in consequence was adopted. To the Governor one hundred tenants were allowed; to the Treasurer and Marshal, fifty each; to the superintendent of the Company’s lands, forty; to the Secretary and Physician, twenty apiece; and to the Vice-admiral, twelve. Each one of these public officials, when his tenure ceased, was required to transmit to his successor the whole number of tenants who were by law attached to his office. It was the intention of the Company that each one should receive such an area of land and such a number of servants as would be sufficient to afford him an ample support as well
- ↑ Instructions to Yeardley, 1618. See Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. II, pp. 154-161; Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. I, pp. 12, 63, 151, 152; Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 115.
