The practice of making large grants was not conducive to the development of an area, nor was it attractive to the smaller landholders, who wanted to own family farms. It encouraged settlers to go to other colonies. Certainly the Northern Neck of the proprietors had its share of large grants, but the practice also occurred outside the Northern Neck as the Spotswoods and Byrds obtained their large tracts from the Crown's lands.
Most of the large grants were in the nature of frontier land speculation by Tidewater landholders, who had no intention of becoming residents on their new tracts. In some cases they were not even interested in establishing a commercial farming operation in the form of an overseer and servants (called a "quarter"). What these holdings did become was a barrier against small freehold occupation. After 1737, only the upper or northern lands within Fauquier were left available.
The great tracts were uniformly administered as manors where the settlers leased the land and did not own it. This left most of the manor lands unoccupied as the potential settlers just kept going until they reached the Shenandoah Valley, where they could buy inheritable land for the same cost as leasing land. For many years this left a pocket of undeveloped lands in Fauquier County. These leases were for three "lives", where the lessee could specify three individuals, and the lease was to be valid for the life of the longest living of these three. Of course, annual fees were required and the failure to pay these would invalidate the lease. Besides paying the annual rent to the owner of the manor, the tenant had to pay his taxes to the colony.
As a general rule, the leases were not recorded in the local county deed books or in the Northern Neck land books. In theory, the tenant could, with permission, sublet the premises, but this requirement was often neglected. The new tenant had to take his chances as to how long the original "longest liver" would live for, when he died, the premises would revert to the manor owner who could sell the property to someone else.
In 1785, copies of the original land records of the Northern Neck were ordered transferred to the land office at Richmond for safekeeping. These are available today, though in many cases the detail level is small, as the records do not specify what happened to the land after the first ownership.
[Tomorrow, it is time for another day of guiding visitors at the Hans Herr House so I do not anticipate writing a note.]
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.