John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1656

One can never say enough about Headrights, which are a relatively strange concept.  Originally, they were conceived in the Seventeenth Century as a way of encouraging people to move to Virginia.  It was soon found that the biggest obstacle was the cost of getting to Virginia.  Very soon the practice developed of assigning one's Headrights to another person, plus a period of indenture, in return for transportation expense.  "If you pay my way, I will work as an indentured servant for x years and give you my Headright."

These Headrights appear in Land Patents (from the Crown), where one Headright, i.e., for one person, would pay for fifty acres.  The Land Patents, when written up by the Colony of Virginia, would include the names of the people whose Headrights were being used.  So let us look at a hypothetical Land Patent for 100 acres which John Jones obtained and paid for with the Headrights of Fred Fredericks and Frieda Fredericks.

Quiz time: Which of the following are necessarily true?

  1. John Jones was in Virginia before the Fredericks.
  2. John Jones paid the transportation costs of the Fredericks.
  3. John Jones paid his way to Virginia.
  4. The transportation of the Fredericks was paid by someone else.

Of the four statements above, none of them are necessarily true.  Consider the following.  The Fredericks came in 1720 and paid their own transportation.  They purchased land in the Northern Neck, where the use of Headrights was not recognized.  They could obtain Headrights though.  Perhaps they did not obtain these Headrights until 1730.  John Jones came as an indentured servant in 1722 and assigned his own Headright to the person who paid his way.  After his indenture period was over, John Jones purchased land from the Crown in 1731.  He paid for it with two Headrights that he had purchased from the Fredericks, who could not use their own Headrights in the Northern Neck (they might have found it awkward to patent land from the Crown outside the Northern Neck if they were living in the Northern Neck).

In the situation that I have just described, all of four of the statements above are false.

Early in the Eighteenth Century, an alternate method for purchasing land from the Crown became available.  This was a treasure warrant at the rate of five shillings for fifty acres.  Though Headrights remained valid, their use diminished, and many people did not bother to get their Headrights, which involved going to court.
(28 Apr 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.