portation of the required number of servants would come to fifty-six pounds sterling.[1] This sum did not include the outlay in buying land. In 1690, Fitzhugh, writing to Oliver Luke in England, who had expressed an intention of placing his son in Virginia, advised him to deposit two hundred pounds sterling in the hands of a trustworthy merchant in London engaged in trade with the Colony, with instructions to buy a suitable plantation there. At the same time, an additional two hundred pounds sterling were to be used in purchasing slaves from the Royal African Company. All the live stock needed by young Luke could be obtained in Virginia.[2]
There are many evidences that a large number of the immigrants were sprung from English families of substance.[3] The instance of John Boys could not have been exceptional; just before he set out for the Colony in 1650, he drew up his will, dividing his valuable possessions among sixteen heirs.[4] There were many persons in Virginia who owned an interest in property in England.[5] In 1650, John Catlett and John Clayton of Gloucester County were in the enjoyment of estates in Kent. A few years later, John Clark of York County devised two houses which he owned in Essex, in one of which his father had long resided.[6] John Pen of Rappahannock, in 1676, willed landed property in England.[7] In 1688, John Smythe of
- ↑ Verney Papers, Camden Society Publications.
- ↑ Letters of William Fitzhugh, Aug. 15, 1690.
- ↑ The instances which follow are given only as examples. They form a very insignificant proportion of the whole number that might be mentioned.
- ↑ New England Historical and Genealogical Register, April, 1889, p.153.
- ↑ There were, on the other hand, very many persons in England, besides merchants, who owned property in Virginia.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 78, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Rappahannock County, vol. 1664-1673, p. 95, Va. State Library.
