Mother Earth

Prior to its dissolution in 1624, the London Company devised most of the instruments for land transfer utilized in 17th-century Virginia, including grants based on stock ownership, dividends to "societies of adventurers," treasury rights, and, most significantly, acquisitions by headright. The headright would continue as the principal method for granting and obtaining land in Virginia--despite its vulnerability to fraud and abuse--except in Virginia's Northern Neck. Complete with a bibliography of major primary and secondary sources, this authoritative work conveys in a nutshell all that is known about Virginia land grants prior to 1700.