Christianizing the Indians and educating the "infidels children"
in Virginia is easy to find in the literature and records of the period.
Yeardley's instructions in 1618 carried the order to locate a suitable
place for a university in the Henrico area. He was to make immediate
preparation for building a college there. A generous contribution had
already been made in England towards the "planting of a college" and
10,000 acres were to be set aside as an endowment.

When the bishop's collection for the college had reached L1,500, a
decision was made. Rather than start construction with too little, it
was resolved to send fifty "tenants-at-halves" to work on the land. Half
of their income would go to the college project and half to themselves.
Profits, it was expected, would augment the building and maintenance
fund and help to support tutors and students. In the meanwhile, friendly
relations with the Indians were important to make possible the willing
education of their children.

The tenants reached Virginia in November, 1619, under the command of
William Weldon. Being poorly supplied, however, and inexperienced, the
Governor dispersed 30 of them among the old planters and sent Weldon and
the remainder to be with Capt. Samuel Mathews at Arrahatock which was
actually within the College lands. This was a poor beginning and meant
that little would happen within a year. Weldon thought the land to be
excellent; "a goodly heritage beinge as pleasant & fruitfull a soile as
any this land yeeldeth." It troubled him, however, that two of the best
locations were already claimed and planted: one by Mathews, "for the
use of Sir Thomas Midleton & Alderman Johnson," and one by Thomas Dowse.
Both were by virtue of grants from Argall. He knew, too, that he needed
more men and more supplies. In the meanwhile Virginia's first assembly
had endorsed the idea of the "University and Colledge" and asked that it
be pushed to fulfillment.

In England, the early beginnings were seen not to have been too
successful and the Company committee set up for the purpose explored
various possibilities. In the spring of 1620, George Thorpe, a gentleman
of the King's privy chamber and a member of the Company Council, was
made deputy for the Company to prosecute the project. Already he had
gone to Virginia in the interest of Berkeley Hundred. Previously, it
appears, an additional fifty tenants had been dispatched to the Colony.

In the meanwhile, much Comp