ns of the nobles did not
succeed to their fathers' rank, but sank to the gentry class, or at
most became "knights." They usually married beneath the rank of their
fathers and thus formed a link binding the nobility to the commons of
the country. Often the sons and brothers of earls were sent to
Parliament as representatives of the shires, and as such sat side by
side with shopkeepers and artisans from the towns. It is this
circumstance that explains why so many middle-class Englishmen of the
present day can trace back their lineage to the greatest and noblest
houses of the kingdom. The healthy political development which has
been such a blessing to the English nation is due in no small measure
to the lack of anything like caste in British society.

These facts help to explain much in the origin of the Virginia
aristocracy that has only too often been misunderstood. They make
evident the error of presuming that many persons of gentle blood came
to Virginia because there was an immigration of so called Cavaliers,
or because certain families in the colony could trace back their
ancestry to noble English houses.

Immigration to Virginia during the seventeen years after the founding
of Jamestown was different in character from that of any succeeding
period. The London Company in its efforts to send to the colony
desirable settlers induced a number of men of good family and
education to venture across the ocean to seek their fortunes in the
New World. Since the Company numbered among its stockholders some of
the greatest noblemen of the time, it could easily arouse in the
influential social classes extraordinary interest in Virginia. It is
due largely to this fact that among the first settlers are to be found
so many that are entitled to be called gentlemen.

Moreover, the true nature of the task that confronted the immigrants
to the wilds of America was little understood in England at this time.
Those unhappy gentlemen that sailed upon the Discovery, the Godspeed
and the Susan Constant hoped to find in Virginia another Mexico or
Peru and to gain there wealth as great as had fallen to the lot of
Cortez or of Pizarro. Had they known that the riches of the land they
were approaching could be obtained only by long years of toil and
sweat, of danger and hardship, they would hardly have left their homes
in England. That the First Supply took with them a perfumer and six
tailors shows how utterly unsuited they were to the task o