Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/166

152 and ever after maintained. Of this grant however no particular notice need be taken, as it was ſuperſeded by letters-patent of the ſame king, of May, 23, 1609 to the Earl of Saliſbury and others, incorporating them, by the name of ‘the treaſurer and company of adventurers and planters of the city of London for the firſt colony in Virginia,’ granting to them and their ſucceſſors all the lands in Virginia from Point Comfort along the ſea-coaſt to the northward 200 miles, and from the ſame point along the ſeacoaſt to the ſouthward 200 miles, and all the ſpace from this precinct on the ſea-coaſt up into the land, weſt and north-weſt from ſea to ſea, and the iſlands within one hundred miles of it, with all the commodities, juriſdictions, royalties, privileges, franchiſes and pre-eminenceſes within the ſame, and thereunto and thereabouts, by ſea and land, appertaining in as ample manner as had before been granted to any adventurer: to be held of the king and his ſucceſſors, in common ſocage, yielding one-fifth part of the gold and ſilver ore to be therein found, for all manner of ſervices; eſtabliſhing a council in England for the direction of the enterpriſe, the members of which were to be choſen and diſplaced by the voice of the majority of the company and adventurers, and were to have the nomination and revocation of governors, officers, and miniſters, which by them ſhould be thought needful for the colony, the power of eſtabliſhing laws and forms of government and magiſtracy, obligatory not only within the colony, but alſo on the ſeas in going and coming to and from it: authoriſing them to carry thither any perſons who ſhould conſent to go, freeing them