Assembly, after having been in operation during several months. The ostensible reason offered for this course was that the consent of the Government in England had not yet been obtained to its becoming a law. It was well known at the time, however, that the true explanation of the suspension was to be found in the complaints which the English merchants engaged in trade with Virginia had made as to the practical working of the statute, as well as in the inconvenience it entailed upon the people of the Colony at large.[1] In spite of this inconvenience, there was a marked disposition on the part of many citizens, in the interval during which the Act for Ports was in operation, to purchase lots from the feoffees of the different towns. This disposition continued even while the Act was supposed to be in a state of suspension. In Hampton, in 1694, for instance, one of the lots which had been laid off was transferred to a purchaser for seven pounds sterling.[2] The site of the new town at this place consisted of twenty-six half-acres, all of which appear to have been sold. Two years later, one of these lots was conveyed by Henry Royall to John Walker in consideration of six pounds sterling. Royall was bound under the terms of sale to build a house twenty feet in length; Walker claimed that this condition had not been fulfilled properly, and on this account, the amount of purchase money was cut down to five pounds and fifteen shillings.[3] In 1698, Hampton was a place of sufficient importance to require the appointment of a special constable.[4] Upon many of the lots, houses were erected and other improve-
Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/572
This page needs to be proofread.
