as to sustain the dignity of his position.[1] The plan was in large measure carried into practical effect. When Sir George Yeardley sailed from England in 1619 to assume control of the government of the Colony, he was accompanied by fifty tenants for the tillage of the lands assigned to his office, these persons being transported at the expense of the Company, but furnished with supplies at his own charge.[2] As the outlay in sending passengers directly to Virginia was very heavy, there being at this time no freight to be brought back by the same vessel to England, the ships engaged in the Newfoundland fisheries were employed to convey the tenants to the Colony, stopping there on their way to the waters of the North.[3] In the interval between April, 1619, and May, 1620, eighty additional tenants were dispatched to be placed on the lands of the Governor, one hundred and thirty on the lands of the Company, one hundred on the College lands, and fifty on the Glebe. To ensure the contentment of those among them who were without wives, young women were imported to be married to them, this shipment being as much a speculative venture on the part of the stockholders in England who subscribed to it, as if the maidens had been so much unconscious merchandise. Hardly less important were the large number of boys who were forwarded to Virginia, during the same period, to serve as apprentices in husbandry to the tenants.[4]
The terms of the agreement which the Company entered
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 543; Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 115; Abstracts of Proceedings of Virginia Company of London, vol. I, pp. 63, 151.
- ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of Virginia Company of London, vol. I, p. 22.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 23.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 66, 67, 138. See also Company’s Letter, dated Aug. 21, 1621, Neill’s Virginia Company of London, p. 233; also Company’s Letter, dated Sept. 11, 1621, Ibid., p. 245.
