e made with equal favour except the
differency of rent." Rent proved to be a diverse term covering tobacco,
capons, merchantable Indian corn and such. Rent payments were a matter
of concern and led the planters in the Assembly of 1619 to petition for
the appointment of an officer in Virginia to receive them. Payment to
the Company in London, in money, was described as impossible.

All tracts, including those allotted prior to the general division, now
would have to be laid off and surveyed. The prescribing of bounds became
a necessity to resolve existing, and to prevent future, uncertainties
and disputes. This was to be the function of William Claiborne,
surveyor-general, who reached Virginia in October, 1621.

Headrights were another matter which entered the picture in these
formative years. This began as a device, a good one it proved to be,
used by the Company to stimulate immigration and settlement in Virginia.
It allowed any person who paid his own way to the Colony to receive
fifty acres for his own "personal adventure." In addition he could
collect fifty acres for each person whose passage he paid. If a person
brought himself and three others, for example, he could claim 200 acres
under this arrangement. This headright system was later adopted in other
colonies and continued in use for generations.

The early success of the land division can be seen, perhaps, in the
report of John Rolfe written in January, 1620:

All the ancient planters being sett free have chosen places
for their dividendes according to the commission, Which giveth
all greate content, for now knowing their owne landes, they
strive and are prepared to build houses & to cleere their
groundes ready to plant, which giveth ... [them] greate
incouragement, and the greatest hope to make the Colony
florrish that ever yet happened to them.

Participation in the affairs of government was another element in the
new Company approach. Soon after his arrival, Yeardley issued a call for
the first representative legislative assembly in America which convened
at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, and remained in session until August 4.
This was the beginning of our present system of representative
government. The full intent behind the moves that led to this historic
meeting may never be known. It seems to have been another manifestation
of the determination to give those Englishmen in America the rights and
privileges of Englis