About twenty-nine leases of tracts, ranging from fifty to one hundred and fifty acres, were granted, which were to continue for seven years in some cases and ten in others,[1] at a nominal rental of one pound of tobacco an acre. In 1632, the General Court passed an order allowing the tenant’s interests in the lands of the Old Company which were then unexpired to be renewed for twenty-one years.[2] All new leases were to be acquired for the same length of time, and in both cases the rental for every fifty acres was to be two barrels or six bushels of grain.[3] In 1634, their number exceeded twenty.[4] After this they do not appear to have been so many. Terms of years in soil which had been assigned by the Company for the use of the Governor were granted as late as 1647.
In examining the provisions of leases which owners of land in the Colony had made, whether they resided in England, or on the estates which they had rented out, or on plantations which were situated at some distance from these estates, we find that these provisions were not drawn according to any general rule, but were controlled by the wishes of the persons immediately concerned. The period covered by the ordinary term showed a very material variance. In some instances it extended to twenty-two years,[5] but continuation for so great a length of time was probably uncommon. In Elizabeth City County in 1695, an estate known as Fort Field was rented for sixteen years,[6] and in 1661, a plantation in Lancaster
