The accumulation of individual wealth in the Colony previous to 1650 was comparatively small. Sir John Harvey stated in 1639, that Virginia at this time consisted of very poor men. The largest estate as yet acquired was that of Abraham Piersey,[1] who had enjoyed as Cape Merchant a position of exceptional advantage for building up a fortune, but it is quite probable that, unlike Sir George Yeardley, who left property to the amount of six thousand pounds sterling,[2] a considerable proportion had been earned in England before his connection with Virginia began. About the middle of the century, there had been sufficient accumulations by individual planters to justify the author of Leah and Rachel in saying that many good estates were now obtained by immigrants simply by marriage with women born in the country, who hail inherited their property from their parents, or from relations who were citizens of the Colony.[3] Lord Baltimore, speaking in 1667 of both Virginia and Maryland,
- ↑ British State Papers, Colonial, vol. X, No. 6; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1638-9, p. 58.
- ↑ British State Papers, Colonial, vol. V, No. 15; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1629, p. 196, Va. State Library. The executors of Yeardley declared that his estate was not worth one-half of this amount. According to John Pory, “the Governor here (that is Yeardley) who at his first coming, besides a great deal of worth in his person, brought only his sword with him, was at his late being in London, together with his lady, out of his mere fittings here, able to disburse very near three thousand pounds to furnish him with the voyage.” This letter of Pory will be found in part in Neill’s Virginia Carolorum, p. 17. Mathews valued the estate of Piersey at £491. See British State Papers, Colonial, vol. VIII, No. 5, II; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1633, p. 57, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Leah and Rachel, p. 17, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. III.
hazard or risk, which will be both clear without charge of housekeeping or disbursements for servants’ clothing. The orchard in a few years will yield a large supply to plentiful housekeeping, or if better husbanded, yield at least 15,000 lbs. of tobacco annual income.” Letters of William Fitzhugh, April 22, 1686.
