Peninsula In Passage

Early Land Grants Wealthy adventurers and investors hoping to make their fortune in the wild new world of Virginia, sent settlers to our peninsula as part of their economic ventures. The investors used a system of indenture to entice the workers needed to “seat” the new lands in Virginia. Economic inducements to risk one’s life in an “untamed” land came in many forms. In 1607 the Virginia Company of London offered shareholders 100 acres of land for each share of £12.10s as a dividend on investment in founding the colony. They speculated the dividend would rise to 200 acres as the company profited from the colony’s natural resources-hopefully gold. However, the Virginia Company struggled and, by 1624, the rights to the land in Virginia went to the King who established a Royal Colony. The distribution of land reverted to a variety of grants or land patents that were issued (1) as a dividend in return for investments in founding the colony, (2) to reward special service to the colony, (3) to fortify the frontier by using land to induce settlements, and (4) to encourage immigration by the headright. By the 1630s three quarters of the land granted in Virginia was by “headright” grants that awarded 50 acres of land for each person transported to the New World. If one paid his own way he was granted 50 acres and an additional 50 acres for every other person he transported. Nansemond Pallizado

In 1989 the Virginia Company Foundation excavated a site on what became part of the Harbour View development on West Creek near Knott’s Creek. The artifacts unearthed there indicate a settlement was established on this east side of the Nansemond River in the early 17th century. The first apparent landowner of the Nansemond Pallizado site was John Wilkins, who received a patent in 1636 for 526 hectares (1,300 acres) He may never have occupied the site but likely placed servants or tenants on his property. The land was sold to Michael Wilcox who, by 1638, took up residence. Wilcox was an Ancient Planter (a colonist who was in Virginia by 1611 was entitled to 100 acres if he had paid his own passage and lived in the colony for three years prior to application.) Samuel Stoughton, a burgess, married Wilcox’s widow. Elinor, and, in 1645, repatented 800 acres that formerly belonged to Michael Wilcox.

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