d turned two or three
hogs into the woods by it. Or else they would clear one acre of land and
plant a little Indian corn for one year, trusting that this evasion
would square them with the letter of the law. By such means, Randolph
adds, vast tracts were held, all of which had been procured on easy
terms and much by means of false certificates of rights. "Which drives
away the inhabitants and servants, brought up only to planting, to seek
their fortunes in Carolina or other places."[8-15]

Randolph suggested that the evil might be remedied by requiring a strict
survey of lands in every county, by demanding all arrears of quit rents,
by giving strict orders that in the future no grant should exceed 500
acres. These measures, he believed, would cause 100,000 acres to revert
to the Crown, and "invite home those who for want of Land left
Virginia." It would encourage other persons to come from neighboring
colonies to take up holdings and "mightily increase the number of
Planters." This would augment the production of tobacco by many
thousands of hogsheads, stimulate trade and industry in England, and aid
his Majesty's revenue.

The Board of Trade was deeply impressed. They wrote to Governor Andros
explaining to him the substance of Randolph's report and asking what
steps should be taken to remedy the evils he had pointed out. "But this
seeming to us a matter of very great consequence," they added, "we have
not been willing to meddle in it without your advice, which we now
desire you to give fully and plainly." But Andros knew full well that it
was no easy matter to make the large landowners disgorge. The thing had
been attempted by Nicholson several years earlier, when suit was
instituted against Colonel Lawrence Smith for arrears of quit rents upon
tracts of land which had never been under cultivation.[8-16] But before
the case came to trial Nicholson had been recalled and it was afterward
compounded for a nominal sum. The proceedings had caused great
resentment among the powerful clique which centered around the Council
of State, and Andros was reluctant to reopen the matter. He knew of no
frauds in granting patents of land, he wrote the Board, and could
suggest no remedy for what was past, "being a matter of Property." He
agreed, however, that to limit the size of future patents would tend to
"the more regular planting and thicker seating of the frontier
lands."[8-17]

Consequently when Francis Nicholson was commissi