King. These rents were to be paid to the treasurer, who was given the authority to appoint collectors. His accounts were to be submitted annually to the Governor and at least three of the Council, and after they had been passed upon, were to be transmitted to the High Treasurer of England.[1] But small results appear to have followed from this royal order.
Probably at the instance of Roger Wingate, who at that time was the Treasurer of Virginia, a motion was approved by the General Assembly at the session of 1639,[2] that all the landowners should be required upon warrant to report to the Commissioners of the monthly courts, their evidences of title as well as the situation and the extent of their estates. When the amount which they owed in quit-rents had been computed, they were to be directed to satisfy it either in coin or in tobacco, according to the rates at which this commodity was sold in the Colony. The one shilling for every fifty acres was to be paid annually at Michaelmas at places selected as the most convenient to the planters of each district. It was expressly declared that no rent of this character should be held to be due until seven years had passed since the grant of the patent creating it. In adopting this rule, the Assembly stated that they were following the provisions of the Charter of Orders of 1618. It remained in force throughout the reign of Charles the First, was confirmed in the articles of surrender in 1651, but was recalled in the instructions which were given to Berkeley under the administration of Charles the Second, on the ground that it induced persons to appropriate larger
