period, the average value of
female horned cattle did not exceed one-half the average value of oxen;
Governor Yeardley himself is represented as having bought in his native
country a cow for seven pounds sterling, eight pounds less than the
valuation at which the same animal would have been held in Virginia.
Papers, Colonial, vol. V, No. 15, I; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1629, p. 197, Va. State Library. This document in full will be found in McDonald Papers, vol. II, p. 10, Va. State Library. The details given in it throw light on cattle-raising in the Colony at this time. In 1629, a claim was entered against the estate of Sir George Yeardley by one Rossingham. It was referred by the Privy Council to Messrs. Gibbes and Wrote, who reported, “Whereas the petitioner relyed upon accompt for his stock then remaining in Sir George Yeardley’s possession, as is testified by a postscript in a letter under his own hand, March 5th 1621, in these words: ‘My ladie gends you word your stock of cattle increaseth well, your old having calved this tyme this year &c.,’ and also by the testimonie of Mr. John Martyn, servant to said George Yeardley, and then resident in Virginia, testifying the petitioner then to have had lower neate beasts, three of them cowes and heyfers, and the fourth a calf, of what kind he knows not, the offspring whereof in seven years (for then they were all sold) in an ordinary increase allowing some loss for casualties, notwithstanding it is testified by John Pory and John Martyn that cattle then doth both increase and prosper exceeding well, would with themselves have well amounted unto twenty-four, every head being worth in Virginia 15£, and so bought and sold the whole number amounting to 360£, and we are of opinion that the said Sir George Yeardley might well allow him a herdsman to keep his cattle, considering the petitioner was employed by him most part of said time.”
