y small indeed. When, in 1624, James I took from the
London Company its charter, the colony contained few others than
indentured servants and freemen of humble origin and means. In 1623
several of the planters, in answering charges that had been brought
against the colony by a certain Captain Nathaniel Butler, said that
the inhabitants were chiefly laboring men.[7]

With the downfall of the London Company one influence which had tended
to send to Virginia persons of good social standing ceased to exist.
The personal interest of those noblemen that had owned stock in the
enterprise was no longer exerted to obtain a desirable class of
settlers, and economic forces alone now determined the character of
those that established themselves in Virginia. During the remainder of
the 17th century it was the profit that could be obtained from the
planting of tobacco that brought the most desirable class of settlers
to the colony. It is true, however, that dissipated and spendthrift
gentlemen still came over at times, seeking in Virginia a refuge from
creditors, or expecting amid the unsettled conditions of a new country
to obtain license for their excesses. It was this element of the
population, doubtless, that the Dutch, trader De Vries referred to
when he asserted that some of the planters were inveterate gamblers,
even staking their servants.[8] Such a character was Captain Stone,
whom De Vries met at the home of Governor Harvey. This man was related
to families of good standing in England, but strutted, was lewd, swore
horribly and was guilty of shameless carousals wherever he went. While
in New Amsterdam he entered upon a drinking bout with Governor Von
Twiller, and stole a vessel of Plymouth. In Massachusetts he called
Roger Ludlow a just ass, and later, having been detected in other
crimes, was forced to flee from the colony. Beyond doubt men similar
to Stone were to be found in Virginia during the first half of the
17th century, but they became rarer and rarer as time went on.[9]

How few men of good social standing there were in the colony in this
period is shown by the number of important positions filled by
uneducated persons of humble origin and rank. The evidence is
conclusive that on many occasions indentured servants that had served
their term of bondage and had acquired property were elected by the
people to represent them in the House of Burgesses. This is notably
true of the first half of the 17th century, when t