So many folks researching VA and other colonies have asked about headrights, servants, indentured servants and others who wanted to make their way to these colonies, that I have abstracted an article I wrote for Heritage Quest sometime back. Tom Fiske asked : Dear_____, I seem to recall that the London Company needed to establish a colony or two and paid a bounty for each person sent from England to America. So indentured and free both came to this country for financial reasons. Add in those who wanted to escape form something in England. There were other companies in the same business, too. ************** There was virtually NO charity in the land policy through the 17th and 18th Centuries. The Crown, through Parliament, set about inducing businessmen to encourage emigration in order to populate the colonies, be rid of some criminals (really, a small percentage of those who made the trip), hundreds of those who wanted to better themselves or even one day own land (they had not been able to do so for 1000 years in the British Isles), be rid of some urchins and some extra daughters and 2nd, 3rd, etc., sons of those with means, and a few who had scrimped and managed to save enough to send one member of the family over. By so doing, the colonies thereby gained people, industry, business and crops, all of which increased the tax base here, very much to the joy of the Crown by reason of its ever increasing annual income. In order to bring that about and as incentives, land was offered in VA on a "headrights" basis, each headright bringing to the owner of that right a warrant for 50 acres (usually 50 in NC, as much as 180 in GA, and as little as 1/4 or 1/2 acre in New England). In order to gain that 50 acres, the person was required to pay for the transportation across the ocean for one headright, that is, one person. The coast to ship one person varied, of course, but it is written that the usual cost to the buyer was about 9-10 British Pounds, no matter the realtionship of the servant to anyone else involved in the deal. Moreover, it was a good business for ships' owners or masters, as well as for brokers here who, in their turn, sold those headrights to whatever buyer he had contacted. It cost those owners/masters about 6 Pounds to keep a person in the lowest form of lodging and food in Britain till he had a full load and was ready to make the trip. Upon arrival here, he could sell the people to anyone - usually a broker - but often planters and businessmen who came down to the docks to buy such folks in order that the needs for labor on their farms or in their businesses be met. All in all, it was a very profitable business resulting in passengers who were less desirable, thus bringing a lower sale price, but some who had trades or talents allowing the owners to sell those for a premium price. It was, equally, an opportunity by Britains poor, destitute or who needed to "get away", to "hire out" in the colonies for no cost except for enduring the terrible transoceanic trip. As said, the jails in England were crowded with neer-do-wells who could be sent here by the courts, all with the approval of the Crown and the Parliament. Not a few were stolen from the streets and placed aboard ship with no chance to do other than come here, and with NO means by which to return home. It was but a short period of time before the system was shot through with stretches of the law and a very broad interpretation of that law. There were myriad of those who were sent under such wide open rules, even to the extent that one seamen who, while working aboard ship, made many round trips to the colonies for his employers. For that work, he claimed 16 headrights for his own travel on the basis that, though paid for his work aboard ship, he still had taken himself over that number of times by his labor. My own ancestor appears as having been transported three times, one time was 3 years after his death !!! Nevertheless, that practice and the unintended results were overlooked or viewed as acceptable because there was here so very much land that was producing no money for Britain and so few people to settle it. Paul