of time for such a custom to be adopted as a standing regulation. When the laws of the Colony were codified in 1705, under the requirements of an Act passed a few years before, it was provided that in addition to the method of acquiring an interest in the soil upon the basis of the head right, the power of purchasing the public lands with coin or its equivalent, tobacco, should be allowed. By the irregular conduct of the clerks in the Secretary’s office, already referred to, the charge for a patent had ranged from one shilling to five for every fifty acres. The price was definitely fixed by the statute at five.[1]
I have already enumerated the steps in the course, which, during the existence of the Company, had to be taken to give validity to a patent to land in the Colony, namely, the presentation of a petition to the Quarter Court, its reference to the standing committee for examination, and its final confirmation by the corporation at a general meeting. This confirmation, as has been seen, was also required where the grant had been made by the Governor and Council in Virginia acting in a ministerial capacity under the orders of 1618. After the abolition of the Company, the method of obtaining a patent was much less complicated. The person having a claim to head rights went before the clerk of the court of the county in which he resided, and took an oath that he had imported the number of individuals whose names he presented in his list.[2] The oath and the list were then embodied in a certificate bearing the seal of the court and the official signature of the clerk. This certificate was entered in the records of the county. It was very frequently assigned at once by the owner in return for what he deemed to be a sufficient consideration, and when
