it was subsequently provided that all such animals should be cried in the churches and chapels of the county.[1] The passage of these laws would seem to show that differences in the proprietorship of live stock running at large were clearly recognized and carefully enforced.
In the winter of 1673, which was the hardest season experienced in the history of the Colony, fifty thousand cattle in Virginia are said to have perished,[2] doubtless from exposure to the excessive coldness, and from the complete ruin of every form of vegetation upon which they relied for subsistence. Three years later, owing to the insurrection which took place then, there was a further destruction of live stock.[3] In spite of frequent losses, the individual holdings of neat cattle were often large. In 1677, John Russell of York was in possession of twenty-eight head, and Edward Lockey of the same county of eighty-four. In 1655, the number of neat cattle owned by the Calthorpe estate, which was situated in York, was sixty-seven, and by the Croshaw estate, seventy-seven; in 1670, Mathew Hubbard of the same county possessed sixty-five head, and in 1675, Francis Mathews forty-five.[4]
In 1654, Simon Hancock of Lower Norfolk owned seventy-six head of neat cattle, and John Sibsey forty-nine. Cornelius Lloyd, in 1655, owned fifty-three head, and Thomas Willoughby, in 1672, one hundred and seventeen. In 1685, Adam Thoroughgood was in possession of the same number. In the following year, the number of neat cattle belonging to Henry Woodhouse was placed at
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. II, p. 124.
- ↑ Governor and Council to the King, July 16, 1672, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. XXX; Winder Papers, vol. I., p. 284, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Beverley’s History of Virginia, p. 69.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1664-1672, pp. 215, 256, 258, 330, 464; vol. 1671-1694, p. 131, Va. State Library.
