Paul is correct - one of the reasons that the headright system went out was the number of violations which occured. Many times, the same headright was claimed for several parcels of land. Some people actually traveled numerous times (usually on business) and a different headright was claimed on them each time, but just as many only traveled once in spite of several claims. It was intended as a way to populate the colonies. A person paid for the transportation of an individual and claimed the 50 acres allowed for that person shortly afterwards. Often the headrights actually traveled with the person who paid for them and worked for them when they arrived. And it worked that way at first. But then, as now, people found loopholes and the system no longer worked that way. It was a legal land grab. Rex, the term "transportation" meant to pay to bring someone to the colonies. The patents say "for transportation" - but that transportation expense could have passed through several hands first. You cannot assume that Popely owned a ship at all - let alone owned the one that brought Kirbye here. The names of the individuals should be on the land patent - which you can find on the website we have already sent to the list. I have seen some that mentioned the name of the ship but not usually. There are some ships lists that have been published and they are available at the VSL too - don't know if they are online too or not. As for a date - while assuming a date is not good research, I don't know how a headright could be claimed before the headright arrived, so I would look for records prior to the date of the patent. An indentured servent could own land. Kirbye could have purchased his land before his indenture was over. This did not happen often since legitimate indentured servants usually did not have any money or they would have paid their own way here. They also had certificates of indenture that stated the terms of the indenture. A person could agree to be indentured in exchange for training in a skill or trade in addition to exchanges for transportation. I hope this helps. Bev ========Original Message======== Subj: Re: [VAROOTS] Cavaliers and Pioneers Date: 9/4/2003 10:41:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: <A HREF="mailto:pauldrake@charter.net">pauldrake@charter.net</A> Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:VAROOTS-L@rootsweb.com">VAROOTS-L@rootsweb.com</A> To: <A HREF="mailto:VAROOTS-L@rootsweb.com">VAROOTS-L@rootsweb.com</A> Sent from the Internet (Details) Rex; some of your inferences from what Mrs. Nugent (C&P) SEEMS to say are slightly in error. As often as not, the person who claimed the headright did not transport anybody at anytime ever; he purchased or traded for that headright sometimes soon after the voyage of a servant, but also sometimes years after the actual voyage of passage. The best illustration of this fact perhaps is that of the passage of Owen Griffith (c1635-1698). Though he shipped from Bristol to I of W Co, VA in 1658, his headright was later used by no less than three (3) separate men to claim 50 acres of land. Indeed, were that not enough, the last time his headright was used appears in 1703 - 5 years after his death, and 45 years after his emigration from Britain. The reason for such activity was simple. The law did NOT require that you transport anyone in order to own a headright and trade it for land. It was only required that you gain title to such a "right" by paying or otherwise dealing or bargaining with someone who had already transported or had paid still someone else for the transport of the servant(s), be that an owner of a headright who had previously purchased it, an entrepreneur/speculator who dealt in indentures (there were many in the 17th- and early 18th-centuries), ships' captains and owners who regularly brought such folks over at their own risk and sold those headrights at the wharves or through brokers, or a headright might be purchased from the person/servant himself who had paid his own way over and then wanted to sell himself into servitude to a tradesman or artisan, since jobs were quite scarce from time to time and he might learn a trade in that way. Many indentures passed through 4, 5, or 6 or more hands before land was claimed for that "right". Recording of such documents was almost unknown. Thus, good research does not permit us EVER to infer WHEN a person arrived based upon the date his or her headright was exchanged for land - "cashed in". The subject is not complicated, but we must remember that the person who owned the headright may have never even seen, known of, much less been acquainted with the person who actually transported the servant. Paul Bev, you mentioned land patent to Lt. Richard Popeley "for the transportation of 25 persons including Thomas Kirbye" and then Kirbye was assigned the land of Thomas Symons ...who received the land for the transportation of 9 persons on Nov 25, 1637." Correct me if I am wrong but would "transportation" mean bringing folks over from ? by ship to America? Am I to infer that Thomas Kirbye was a passenger on broad Popeley's ship and he could have been a "freeman, slave or indentured servant"? I assume further that Lt. Popeley did this sometime before June 10, 1635 perhaps as far back as two years or more. Is there anyway of knowing when Lt Popeley transported these 25 individuals. How would I find the name of the ship and the list of those 25 individuals and the classification of Kirbye as a passenger? As to the assignment of land to Kirbye in 1642 which had earlier been patented to Symons for transporting 9 people on Nov 25, 1637...Would that mean that Kirbye, if an indentured servant on Lt. Popeley's ship, was no longer indentured by 1642 which then enabled him to own land? I couldn't help but notice that 1642 minus 7 equals 1635. Would that suggest that Kirbye got here in 1635 as an indentured servant, served his seven years and then was able to own land in his own name by 1642? Can you refer me to any website or article discussing how a person became "un-indentured" so to speak? Who kept up with who was and who wasn't indentured? Were there any papers, certificates or whatever issued by any governmental agency? In other words, how would anyone know when an indentured servant was no longer indentured? I am somewhat lost on this little "ship" and will appreciate any help either or you or anyone else can provide that will light my way to shore... Thanks, Rex Kirby ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

All should be careful; the land to which one was entitled for each headright varied from time to time from as little as 1/2 acre in New England to as large as 160 acres in early GA.