[Continuing with the "State of Virginia in 1721"]
"James Town and Williamsburg are the only Towns in the whole Country, & there is no Fort of any consequence for the security of their great navigation & trade, but at James Town."However, for their protection against the Indians, who inhabit amongst them, & that live to the Westward they have erected Christianna, & some other Forts; & the Council & Assembly have lately proposed to your Majesty a scheme for securing the passes over the great ridge of Mountains which lie on the back of this Province, dividing them from the french, & Indian Nations in the french interest, whereupon we have sometimes since reported our humble opinion to your Majesty, & beg leave upon this occasion to repeat, that we conceive their proposal to be deserving of all reasonable encouragement.
"The militia in the year 1690, consisted of 6,570 horse & foot.
"In the year 1703, there were mustered 1403 Officers, 2161 Horse, 1794 Dragoons, 5198 foot for a total of 10,556. [ Apparently the "horse" came with a rider .] In the year 1715, they were increased to about 14,000 in all [ about 25% growth in twelve years ] from whence we compute, supposing the Militia to be a sixth part of the whole, that the total number of inhabitants, (exclusive of negroes) amounts to about 84,000 souls.
"The province is divided into 25 Counties, & the proprietors of all the lands that have been taken up in 20 of the said Counties, pay an annual quit-rent to your Majesty, of two shillings in money, or 24 pounds weight of tobacco for every hundred acres.
"But the proriety of the northern neck (containing the other five Counties) was granted by King Charles the Second, & King James the Second, to the late Thomas Lord Culpeper, upon a quit rent of £ 6.13s.4d per Annum.
"The Lands in the aforesaid twenty Counties, on which the said Quit rent to your Majesty is paid, contained, in 1704, 2,238,143 acres and, in 1714, 2,619,773 acres.
"However, the produce of this revenue is very much governed by the price of tobacco in the country: for example,
"On a medium [ average ] of ten years, ending in 1713, (during which time the tobacco was low) the proceed amounted to £ 1411.7s.7d per Annum and in a medium of the four following years (when the price of Tobacco was high) £ 2270.11s.8d per Annum."
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.