, a total of 1,261 emigrants left England for Virginia, over
800 of them at the company's charge. This substantial evidence of the
company's determination to assume the lead encouraged additional
associations of adventurers to take up patents for their own
plantations, with the result that by the summer of 1622 the council
could announce that over 3,500 people had migrated to Virginia since
the spring of 1619. This was a remarkable record, testifying to the
very great gifts Sir Edwin possessed as a leader and the confidence men
placed in his leadership.

The minutes of the company's courts have survived for the period after
the election of Sandys, and so it is possible to get a clearer picture
of the company's organization and procedures than can be had for any
earlier date. Further help comes from the "Orders and Constitutions"
drawn up after Sandys' election and published in 1620 as part of a
pamphlet skilfully written to convey the impression that Virginia's
affairs were then being managed much better than in the past. The
company depended basically upon decisions reached in four great quarter
courts, which were general assemblies of all the adventurers who wished
to attend and which were scheduled for regular meeting on next to the
last Wednesday of each of the quarterly terms in which the king's
courts sat at Westminster. Only a quarter court could elect officers,
either of the colony or of the company, enact laws and ordinances, or
determine policies governing the distribution of lands in the colony
and the conduct of its trade. On the Monday preceding each meeting of
the quarter court, a preparatory court would settle the agenda for the
following Wednesday, in order that the members might have warning of
the business to be taken up at that time. Each fortnight, except in the
"long vacations" between court terms, an ordinary court would meet,
again on Wednesday, with a quorum that required the presence of at
least five members of the council, the treasurer or his deputy, and
"fifteene of the generality." The hour of meeting for all courts was 2
P.M., and at no court could a question be put after 6 P.M. A decision
reached by any lesser court, including the extraordinary court that
might be called in case of special emergency, could be overridden by a
quarter court. This was the governing body of the company, a popular
assembly in which Sir Edwin often demonstrated his special talent as a
parliamentary tactician. At