it is
very difficult to determine what proportion of the servants listed in
the muster roll of that year subsequently became landowners. Some light
is thrown on the matter by a search through the patent books. Here are
found a surprisingly large number of persons who in 1624 were servants.
Among these are Anthony Jones, John Sparkes, John Cooke, Roger Delk,
John Trussell, William Woolritch, Pettyplace Cloyse, Edward Sparshott,
William Dawson, Richard Bell, Robert Browne, Nicholas Browne, John
Chandler, Lionell Rowlston, Thomas Savadge, Samuel Bennett, Daniel
Shurley, James Hatfield, Adam Thoroughgood, John Robinson, John Hill,
John Seaward, William Ramshaw, Samuel Weaver, John Upton, John Watson,
Thomas Crompe and John Russell.[4-50]

Of these persons several acquired a fair degree of wealth and became of
importance in the early life of the colony. It is interesting to note
also, that some were men of good condition in England, the case of Adam
Thoroughgood, whose brother Sir John Thoroughgood was at one time
secretary to the Earl of Pembroke, is notable in this respect. John
Hill, before coming to Virginia, had been a book binder in Oxford
university, and his father had been a fletcher.[4-51] The patents of
Thomas Crompe and John Russell state that fifty acres was due in each
case for the "personal adventure" of the patentee, but since they are
distinctly listed as servants in 1624 it seems probable that
subsequently each made a visit to England and put in claims for the
headright for the return voyage.[4-52]

Thus it is evident that a large proportion of the landholders during and
prior to 1635 had come to the colony under terms of indenture, either
under the Company or with private individuals. Perhaps it would not be
unfair to estimate this proportion at from thirty to forty per cent, but
it must be distinctly understood that the matter cannot be determined
with any degree of accuracy or finality. Some years later Governor
Berkeley in an address before the Assembly, stated that hundreds of
examples testified to the fact that no man in Virginia was denied the
opportunity to rise and to acquire both property and honor.[4-53]
Careful research tends to corroborate this assertion but it does not and
cannot show whether the bulk of the early planters came to the colony as
freemen or as indentured servants.

During the years from 1635 to 1660 the process of building up a class of
small farmers in large part from freedm