Related to Headrights is the question of the difference between the Crown lands and the Northern Neck. Virginia was a Royal Colony. The King (or Queen) owned the land. The profits from it went to the Crown. It was recognized that land, by itself, earns no money. It takes people on the land to make money. The Crown earned money from the taxes on the land, or on the products of the land. These were the quit rents, a form of property tax, and the import-export duties, especially on tobacco. The administration costs for the Colony were paid by the taxes. The price of land, when purchased from the Crown, was low. In fact, just for coming or immigrating to the Colony the Crown would give each person fifty acres. This was a right of each person or head that came into Virginia.
Around 1700, another way of obtaining the land was legislated. One could pay for the land at five shillings per fifty acres. This set an upper limit on the value of a Headright.
Since the land initially belonged to the Crown, the King or Queen could do what he/she wished to do with it. Charles II, in recognition of the support he received when he was “out of the office” gave all of the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock Rivers to a group. This land, called the Northern Neck, eventually ended in the hands of Lord Fairfax. The proprietors of the Northern Neck sold tracts of this land to individuals as their way of earning money from the land. When an individual purchased land in the Northern Neck from the proprietor(s), he was given a “grant”, a form of the initial deed to the property. When one purchased land directly from the Crown, one was given a “patent”, which again was a form of an initial deed to the property. The major difference between these two was that the grantor was the proprietor for the grants and was the Crown for the patents. The price of land in the Northern Neck reflected the cost of land on the Crown lands.
For a period, about 1720 to 1730, another factor influenced the sale of land. Land in the newly created counties of Spotsylvania and Brunswick was free. This was a mild damper on the sale of land outside of these new counties, including in the Northern Neck. Probably, the First Germanna Colony would not have purchased land in the Northern Neck had this provision been in place when they purchased their land in 1718. This is a major reason that the Second Colony did not go to the Northern Neck. They obtained free land in Spotsylvania County. Willis Kemper thought that religious antagonism between the two colonies was the reason for their separation when it more likely a question of economics.
(12 Dec 06)
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.