Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/414

 was to be erected, was to be conveyed in fee simple, subject to a quit-rent of four pence. In a petition drawn by the First Assembly which met in Virginia, for presentation to the Company in England, it was urged that steps should be taken to dispatch workingmen to the Colony who should be competent to erect the projected college building, an indication that there were few mechanics among its population at this time. In compliance with this request apparently, a committee appointed by a Quarter Court, sitting in London in this year, recommended that smiths, carpenters, bricklayers, brickmakers, and potters should be transported to Virginia to be set down on the lands assigned to the college. That the number of the mechanics still remained unequal to the demand for their services is shown by the letter, addressed to the Company in the winter of 1622 by the Governor and Council, stating that it had been decided to erect an inn at Jamestown for the accommodation of persons who had just arrived, but that it was first necessary to secure from England, carpenters, brickmakers, and bricklayers. There was, the colonial authorities declared, a great lack of such useful tradesmen, although all persons engaged in these pursuits were remunerated at a generous rate. A few months subsequent to the transmission of this letter, Leonard Hudson, a carpenter, accompanied by five