to surrender its charter. In 1638, Wyatt was instructed to grant patents of land to every person who by merit was entitled to it under the operation of the provisions adopted for application to such instances.[1] Ten years later, Charles the Second presented a favorite servant with two thousand acres.[2] The most ordinary ground upon which these patents were now based was the performance of important services on the frontiers. A special order of court was passed in 1630 with reference to a certain area of country adjacent to the territory of the king of Pamunkey, who at that time was looked upon as a dangerous enemy of the colonists, by the terms of which an extensive tract was granted to every commander, and fifty acres to every other person, who would establish themselves there for the purpose of forming a barrier to the further intrusion of the Indians. Twenty-five acres were to be allowed to all who in the course of the second year removed thither. Among those who took advantage of this order of court was John Chew, who in 1636 obtained a patent to five hundred acres there for the adventure of himself and nine companions.[3] In 1653, the Assembly offered a fee simple title in ten thousand acres to any association of persons who would seat themselves
- ↑ Colonial Entry Book, vol. LXXIX, pp. 219-236; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1638-1639, p. 46, Va. State Library.
- ↑ This was only a short time before the battle of Worcester, and it is hardly probable that this servant, who was named Thomas Freeman, derived any benefit from the gift. In 1660, a petition was offered to Governor Berkeley praying that the heirs of Freeman might receive a grant of the two thousand acres without making a formal entry. See Palmer’s Calendar of Virginia State Papers, vol. I, p. 6. Charles II, while in Perth, Scotland, in 1650, presented one of his pages, Edward Prodger, with the same area of ground in Virginia, but there is no information as to whether he or his heirs ever came into actual possession of it. William and Mary College Quarterly for April, 1893, p. 197.
- ↑ Virginia Land Patents, vol. 1623-1643, p. 370.
