There are three patents with head rights of First Colony members. William Moore (Patent Book 14, p. 362) has John Camper, Alice Catherine Camper, John Huffman, Katherine Huffman, Jacob Richart, Elizabeth Richart, John Richart, and Catherine Cunk. These are imaginative spellings of Kemper, Huffman, Rector, and Cuntz.
William Hallaway (P.B. 14, p. 521) has Johannes Martin, Margaret Halscrow, Henry Halscrow, John Halscrow, and Maria Katherina Martin. These are Martins and Holtzclaws.
Laus Crest has Katherine Cuntz, John Cuntz, Likewin Peter Hill, and Elisa. Peter Hill (P.B. 14, p. 528). These are two Cuntzes and two Hitts. (Nugent who transcribed these had a difficult time in distinguishing the letter "l" and the letter "t" in several cases.) Lawrence Crest was a member of the Second Colony.
These are all that I found, even though there surely was a head right for Jacob Holtzclaw.
It was the law of Virginia that anyone who came to the colony could claim 50 acres of the crown's land. Because the rights were transferrable, they could be sold. In fact, it soon became the practice that anyone who paid the transportation of a person would get the use of the head right.
In the case of the First Colony, the members paid part of their transportation and Lt. Gov. Spotswood paid part of the transportation. This was an unusual situation since no one individual had paid the entire cost for anyone. Spotswood could not claim them. By default, the members claimed the head rights.
They could not use the head right in the Northern Neck because the Northern Neck was no longer the land of the Crown. The proprietors of the Northern Neck were not going to give away their land. The head rights
were
useful outside the Northern Neck, so residents of the Northern Neck often obtained their head rights and sold them for use outside the Northern Neck. This is what we have in the three cases above.
(16 Jan 03)
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.