ands' deeds for sale of land or property, when the time arrived that
the deed must be acknowledged in Court, the wife requested some male
friend to represent her and acknowledge the deed. Mrs. Elizabeth
Sheppard, in 1654, wrote a note asking her "dear brother Cockerham" to
represent her in Court. The same year, Daniel Llewellyn acknowledged a
deed in Charles City Court, for his stepdaughters Sara Woodward and Anne
Gundry.

Notwithstanding the limitations put upon women of the seventeenth
century, both by custom and by law, their husbands evidently had
complete confidence in their discretion and their abilities to direct
wisely the disposition of estates, which came into their hands. Their
business experience was confined to household management and plantation
activities, but these were enterprises of no mean proportions, and the
successful handling of such matters by the women impelled the men, very
frequently, to name in their wills their wives as executrices. At the
same time, overseers were also named to assist in handling the details.
Colonel Bridger named his wife Hester as executrix to dispose of his
large landed estate and his extensive mercantile business, but directed
that her brother and their mutual friend Arthur Smith assist her, which
they did very ably.

Perhaps, there is no more outstanding example of an astute woman of the
seventeenth century and her courage than that which the experiences of
Sarah Bland set forth. She was the wife of John Bland of England, and
the daughter-in-law of the well known merchant of the same name, who, as
an active member of the Virginia Company of London, developed large
plantation interests in Virginia, and a thriving mercantile business.
Sarah Bland's only surviving son Giles had come to Virginia about the
time of the untimely death of Theodorick Bland, who had managed the
Bland interests in Virginia. Giles was a young "hot head," joined with
the Bacon forces, and upon the collapse of that abortive revolution in
the Colony, was apprehended, promptly condemned by Governor Berkeley's
Court held at "Greenspring" and executed. Two years after her son's
untimely death, and when some of the drastic measures confiscating the
holdings of the deceased rebels had been lifted, Mrs. Sarah Bland, armed
with power-of-attorney from her husband, crossed the seas alone to look
into and settle the huge Bland estate. While she was in Virginia, her
husband died in England, and Thomas Povey, w