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A little about
"Justinian Cooper"
If you study Samuel Eldridge you will notice that he and others are
constantly
getting grants of land for transporting people. (To Virginia) In the next
website
address George Archer was brought to Virginia by Justinian Cooper.
http://www.archercousins.com/immigrat.htm
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Archer, George; Brought to Virginia in 1636 by Justinian
Cooper,
Warrasquinock Co.
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Archer, George; Brought to Virginia in 1642 by Justinian
Cooper,
Isle of Wight Co.
Justinian Cooper may have worked for the Warrasquinock Co. which later
changed its name to the Isle of Wight Co., but he and others probably just
took advantage of the new law making it possible for them to gain more
grants of land. There was a promise of 50 acres of land waiting for them
when they got them there.
ELDRIDGE Samuel In Virginia Patents, Book No. 2, p. 240, there
is a grant
dated Augst 20, 1650, of 560 acres in Isle of Wight Co. to Robert Blake
and
Samuell Eldridge for headrights on eleven persons. From the latter
part of
this patent the name is spelt Eldridge.
What are
Headrights?
ELDRIDGE Samuel In Virginia Patents, Book No. 2, p. 240, there
is a grant
dated Augst 20, 1650, of 560 acres in Isle of Wight Co. to Robert Blake
and
Samuell Eldridge for headrights on eleven persons. From the latter
part of this
patent the name is spelt Eldridge.
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From the Library
of Virginia
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/whatwehave/local/va4_headrights.htm
In
order to encourage immigration into the colony, the Virginia Company,
meeting in a Quarter Court held on 18 November 1618, passed a body of laws
called Orders and
Constitutions which came
to be considered "the Great Charter of privileges, orders and
laws" of the colony. Among these laws was a provision that any person
who settled in Virginia or paid for the transportation expenses of another
person who settled in Virginia should be entitled to receive fifty acres
of land for each immigrant. The right to receive fifty acres per person,
or per head, was called a headright. The practice was continued under the
royal government of Virginia after the dissolution of the Virginia
Company, and the Privy Council ordered on 22 July 1634 that patents for
headrights be issued.
From
The McGeehee Clan [The term headrights in connection with a
patent for land has been subject
to no little misunderstanding. Elucidation is therefore in order. For the
purpose
of stimulating immigration and the settlement of the Colony, the London
Company ordained that any person who paid his own way to Virginia should
be assigned 50 acres of land ‘for his owne personal adventure,’ and if
he
transported ‘at his owne cost’ one or more persons he should, for each
person
whose passage he paid, be awarded fifty acres of land.].”
The
Headright System
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1153.html
Business and Industry, Colonial Virginia
The
early inhabitants of Jamestown were
employees of the Virginia Company and were supposed to direct their labors
toward the production of profits for the investors. It quickly became
apparent that gold and silver did not exist in appreciable amounts in
eastern North America, a fact that left the colony without a cash crop and
the resultant threat of bankruptcy.
The
advent of the tobacco
economy in the 1610s
changed the course of Virginia’s development. Tobacco production
required large tracts of land and many workers. The company held title to
tremendous amounts of land, but had few workers at their disposal.
In
1618, the headright system was introduced as a means to solve the labor
shortage. It provided the following:
-
Colonists already residing in Virginia
were granted two headrights, meaning two tracts of 50 acres each, or a
total of 100 acres of land.
-
New settlers who paid their own passage to
Virginia were granted one headright. Since every person who entered
the colony received a headright, families were encouraged to migrate
together.
-
Wealthy individuals could accumulate
headrights by paying for the passage of poor individuals. Most of the
workers who entered Virginia under this arrangement came as indentured
servants —
people who paid for their transportation by pledging to perform five
to seven years of labor for the landowner.
The ability to amass large plots of land by
importing workers provided the basis for an emerging aristocracy in
Virginia. Plantation owners were further enriched by receiving headrights
for newly imported slaves.
The
implementation of the headright system was an important ingredient in
Virginia’s success. Land ownership gave many people a reason to work
hard, with the assurance that they were providing for their own futures,
not that of the company.
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