Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/256

 The accumulation of individual wealth in the Colony previous to 1650 was comparatively small. Sir John Harvey stated in 1639, that Virginia at this time consisted of very poor men. The largest estate as yet acquired was that of Abraham Piersey, who had enjoyed as Cape Merchant a position of exceptional advantage for building up a fortune, but it is quite probable that, unlike Sir George Yeardley, who left property to the amount of six thousand pounds sterling, a considerable proportion had been earned in England before his connection with Virginia began. About the middle of the century, there had been sufficient accumulations by individual planters to justify the author of Leah and Rachel in saying that many good estates were now obtained by immigrants simply by marriage with women born in the country, who hail inherited their property from their parents, or from relations who were citizens of the Colony. Lord Baltimore, speaking in 1667 of both Virginia and Maryland,