Winsor, Narr, and V. Ch. V. Old Virginia Winsor, supporters, and he gave out patents with a lavish hand. The coast country south of Virginia to the twenty-ninth parallel was granted to a group of loyal noblemen, the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord John Berkeley, Sir William Berkeley, Sir John Carteret, and others. These gentlemen with the assistance of John Locke, the philosopher, proceeded to draw up a feudal form of government for the Carolinas while promising liberal terms in the way of lands, trade privileges, and religious freedom to voluntary immigrants. Some persecuted Quakers did indeed move over the Virginia boundary, and enterprising Yankees from Massachusetts came down to prosecute trade, but the government of the proprietors was so tyrannical and inefficient that there was no security for life or property. The Carolinas did not prosper until a stable crown government was established (1729). In 1664 the shadowy English title to the Hudson River territory was vested in the Duke of York by charter from the king. The fleet sent to besiege New Amsterdam had little III, 421-424. difficulty in enforcing the claim, and New Netherlands became Winsor, New York. Nicolls, the governor sent out to represent the royal proprietor, made inquiry into the laws that had been adopted by the New England colonists and modeled his government thereon. The Dutch settlers were glad to remain under the liberal English rule, and Connecticut farmers came in to take up more fruitful lands on Long Island. The fertile stretch of territory between the Delaware River and the sea, the Duke of York sold to his friends, Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Here, as in III, 422-449. the Carolinas, the proprietors, lacking funds with which to stock a colony, offered liberal terms to settlers who should meet their own expenses. The vacant land was quickly taken up by English, Dutch, and Swedish farmers. Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker XVI. Very different in origin were the last two proprietorships. In 1683 the unoccupied land west of the Delaware River and between the fortieth and forty-second parallels was granted by the spendthrift Charles II, in satisfaction of an old debt, to William Penn, the Quaker philanthropist. In He Buell, this case the proprietor came in person to America. refused to establish a trade monopoly, considering the prosperity of the colony more important than money gain. "I am day and night spending my life, my time, my money, and am not a sixpence enriched by this greatness. ... Had William Penn. Winsor, Crit. Hist. I sought greatness, I had stayed at home." Representative America, government, liberal laws, and full ownership in the soil III, 476-495. proved adequate inducements to immigrants. The City of Brotherly Love sprang up at the junction of the Delaware and Schuylkill, a location selected by the wise proprietor as suitable" for health and navigation." Narr. and America, Fifty years later the part of Carolina that lies between the Winsor, Savannah and Altamaha rivers, having been surrendered to the crown by the proprietors, was granted by George I to a group of philanthropists who proposed to give opportunity to prisoners for debt to make a fresh start in life. Oglethorpe and his associates were constituted "trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia" and were made responsible for the conduct of its affairs for a term of twenty-one years. A corporation was organized for the financing of this latest colony, but with no thought of gain. Its stock was subscribed by benevolent individuals, churches, and trade guilds. Parliament appropriated £10,000 toward the humane enterprise. The colonists were brought over at the expense of the corporation and provided for during the initial years until they had secured a firm footing. 1751 Georgia became a crown province. In The success of proprietary colonies varied with the wisdom and zeal of the persons responsible for their management. These experiments, no less than those of the chartered companies, proved that no money return could be expected from American investments and that the economic advantages to be derived from colonies were remote and indirect. All the proprietary rights except those of the Penns and the Calverts had lapsed to the crown before the Revolution, and the government was administered by a royal appointee and an assembly representing the interests of the colonists. Osgood, Bruce, Hist. of Virg., 506. Land Tenure The prime concern with the founders of a colony, whether chartered company, proprietor, or association of adventurers, was to induce people to migrate to America; for without laborers nothing of commercial value could be produced. The managers of the several colonial enterprises, however aristocratic their original plans, became convinced by actual experiment that it was good policy to put bona fide settlers in immediate possession of the land. Nothing short of actual ownership in the soil sufficed to attract and hold immigrants. The In Virginia, for example, the purpose of the Company to retain possession of the land and get it cultivated by laborers or tenants, gave way before the necessity of offering the highest inducement to its effective tillage. Sir Thomas Dale assigned a three-acre garden lot to each of the Company's servants and offered twelve acres of forest land to all newcomers; but the cultivators were mere tenants at will. House of Burgesses in its first session (1619) demanded that the colonists be put in full possession of these lands, and that every resident shareholder be allotted one hundred acres in fee simple for each share (£12 10s.) he had contributed to the common stock. Associations of adventurers proposing to go in person to Virginia secured grants of land from the London Company until 1624, and, after that "hotbed of sedition" forfeited its charter and Virginia became a royal province, from the crown direct. Since each stockholder was entitled to one hundred acres in the first "division" and one hundred more when the grant had been seated," these associations came into possession of great tracts of land. John Martin, one of the first councillors, who organized the company that settled Martin's Hundred on the James River, secured for himself and associates eighty thousand acres. Other grants hardly less extensive were assigned to the planters of Smith's Hundred, Southampton Hundred, Bermuda Hundred, etc. 66 Individual planters might increase their estates by the Bruce, title known as "head right." Every shareholder who met the 1,512-518. cost of importing an able-bodied laborer, man or woman, was entitled to fifty acres in the first division and fifty additional in the second. The right was soon extended to all residents of Virginia and became the usual method of acquiring land. Since the transportation charges amounted to £6, the land came to little more than a shilling an acre. The imported laborer was usually under contract to repay the passage money in service. Thus, by a moderate outlay, the planter secured an estate and the hands with which to till it. The custom was admirably suited to a country where land was abundant and labor scarce, but it was susceptible of abuse. Unscrupulous planters obtained grants in consideration of passage money paid for members of their families or for their own journeys to and from England. The land offices grew corrupt, and soon it was not deemed necessary to bring evidence of passage paid. A small fee Bruce, I, 519. handed to the secretary insured the solicited grant with no questions asked. This practice became so general that it was finally (1705) sanctioned by law. A tract of fifty acres might be had by payment of five shillings, on condition that three acres be planted within three years. The result was a significant increase in the size of the holdings. In 1625 a shareholder was entitled to one hundred acres and had expectations of a second hundred. At the close of the century the average size of a Virginia estate was seven hundred acres, and many a planter owned thousands. The king was recognized as the ultimate proprietor of all lands in the Virginia colony. The immediate owners paid a quitrent of a farthing an acre. This was an important source of revenue urgently maintained by the crown officers and as urgently protested by the planters. In striking contrast to the land system of Virginia was Bradford, that of the New England colonies. The people who put 56-58, 163-166. their lives into the planting of Plymouth colony were credited with a share in the venture. Each colonist, whether man, woman, or child, free citizen or servant, was entitled D |