Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/596

 possessed there in one body nearly twenty thousand acres, while Hayward held thirty thousand. The manner of securing these extensive areas of ground was probably the same as that which Fitzhugh had determined to follow in the instance of a projected acquisition in 1689; in this year he offered to enter into an agreement with the agent of Lord Culpeper, which would have assured for himself one hundred thousand acres by the purchase of the quit-rents in this extent of soil for a period of ten years. On another occasion, he proposed to buy all the rents and profits in a tract covering twenty-eight thousand acres, the price which he suggested being 26,880 pounds of tobacco at a valuation of six shillings an hundred pounds. On account of the great area of uncultivated ground which the adoption of the system of purchase tended to maintain even after the soil had passed into private ownership, there was in the Northern Neck a larger quantity of lands abandoned than in the older parts of the Colony.

The recording of ordinary conveyances began at an early period in the history of the Colony. In October, 1626, the rule was laid down by the General Court that the documents in all sales of lands in Virginia should be brought to Jamestown, and enrolled in that court in the space of twelve months and a day following the date of each.