Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/421

 12 S. X. MAY 6, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 343 the Virginia Company had no legal right to lop. cit., ii., p. 662). To-day these names the islands, as they were outside the 100-mile and the limits of the tribes are retained in limit from the sea-coast allowed to them, the present division of the islands into The new 1612 charter, extending their con- parishes. " The names of the Aduenturers, trol to a 300-mile limit, enabled them to sell and their Shares in euery Tribe, according to their interest in the Bermudas to the new j the suruey, and the best information yet Company for 2,000 in November, 1612. I ascertained of any of their alterations " were The financing of the new Company was greatly assisted by the discovery of a large quantity of ambergris on the island, worth in London 7 5s. -60s. an ounce, and netting the shareholders about 6,000. Pearls were also found, which assisted in capitalizing the Company (ibid., ii.,p. 261). The largest island was fortified and colonization begun. So prosperous was the Colony in 1613 that it had not been difficult to raise the 20,000 set down after the " diuision of the Summer Isles into Tribes, by Master Richard Nor- wood, Surueyor, 1618." Under " Pagits Tribe " appears " Master George Etheridge 4 shares " (Smith, op. cit., ii., p. 664 ; Lefroy, op. cit., i., p. 142). A map of 1622, reprinted as a frontispiece to Scott's ' Joint - Stock Companies to 1720,' vol. ii., shows the tribes divided into allotments. Etherege's four shares are numbered 13 in " Pagets which was spent on the islands before the I Tribe," between allotments 12 and 14. The key at the base of the map under Pagets m *i~ 5 5 ! end of 1614, by which time the Colony numbered 600 persons (ibid., ii., p. 262). Regular meetings were held in London and a Court Book opened by Dec. 3, 1613. All was then ready for a survey and division of the land, but to assure a legal status for the Colony the islands were surrendered to the Crown and granted to the Governor and Company of the City of London, for the Plantation of the Somers Islands by a charter dated June 29, 1615. Among the names of the " Originall Aduenturers," 118 in number, the 58th is that of " Etheridge, George " (J. H. Lefroy, ' Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, 1515-1685,' London, 1877, vol. i., p. 99). The inefficient government of the islands in 1615 was ended by the arrival of Daniel Tucker as Governor of the Bermudas. Under him the islands were surveyed and the land divided. In all 400 shares had been issued ; each share was to consist of 25 acres and the distribution was to be by lot. The rest of the land was held as public to meet the public expenses. The available 10,000 acres for division were divided into 1,250 acre units called " tribes," named after the most distinguished early adventurers who had adventured 10 shares each. The tribes were : Bedford (becoming Hamilton by transfer- ence of shares), Smythe, Cavendish (becoming Devonshire), Pagett, Pembroke, Mansefield (becoming Warwick), Southampton and Sandys, " in the honours of the Right honorable the Marquis Hamilton, Sir Thomas Smith, the Earle of Deuonshire, the Earle of Pembroke, the Lord Pagit, the Earle of Southampton and Sir Edwin Sand[y]s " (Scott, op. cit., ii., p. 264 ; Capt. J. Smith, Tribe " gives shares. .. 2 .. 4 .. 2 . 1 12 M. Lewes 13 M. Geo. Etheridg .. 14 Incognita 15 Si. William W[a]de In November, 1620, the Virginia Company, in consideration of the small acreage of the Bermuda Islands, granted to the share- holders in the Bermuda Company 45,000 acres in Virginia, 5,000 of these acres to be public land. When, in 1639, the population of the Bermudas had increased to such an extent that the land showed signs of over- cultivation, a request was made for an increased grant in Virginia (Scott, op. cit., ii., pp. 275, 292). At the close of Tucker's governorship the island was in a flourishing condition, with tobacco proving very profit- able. Much of the land was worked on. a system of equal division of profits between owner and tenant. A " Magazine," a sub- sidiary joint -stock like the Virginia Magazine, had been formed to undertake the providing of necessary supplies to the colonists and transportation (ibid., ii., p. 264). The Bermuda Company suffered from the issues and disputes that embroiled the Vir- ginia Company from 1618-25, as so many of its governing board and shareholders were officials and shareholders in the older com- pany. The 1619-24 Court Book of the Virginia Company records the following meetings, when a Court for the Somers Islands preceded or followed the Virginia Court, where the list of those present in- cludes the name of " Mr. Etheridge," Nov. 22, 1622 ; Feb. 5 and 12, April 12, 1623 (Kirgsbury, op. cit., ii., pp. 141, 246, 263, 346). These were the times of stormy