e, the number of
headrights is unusually large and the grants patented in consequence
extensive. Thus Edmund Bibbie and others are credited with 3,350 acres,
Robert Ambrose and others with 6,000, George Archer and others with
4,000.[3-26]

It is clear, then, that the size of the average patent in the
Seventeenth century is not an indication of the extent of the average
plantation. If economic conditions were such as to encourage large
holdings, extensive farms would appear regardless of the original
patents, for the small proprietors would be driven to the wall by their
more wealthy rivals and forced to sell out to them. On the other hand,
if the large planters found it difficult to secure adequate labor they
would of necessity have to break up their estates and dispose of them to
the small freeholders. That the latter development and not the former
actually took place in Virginia during the Seventeenth century a careful
examination of the country records makes most apparent.

Over and over again in the records of various land transfers it is
stated that the property in question had belonged originally to a more
extensive tract, the patent for which was granted under the headright
law. A typical case is that of John Dicks who purchased for 8,500 pounds
of tobacco, "all the remaining part of 900 acres gotten by the
transporting of 19 persons."[3-27] Similarly we find John Johnson in
1653 selling to Robert Roberts half of 900 acres which he had received
by patent.[3-28] In 1693 John Brushood sold to James Grey 200 acres, a
part of 5,100 acres originally granted to Mr. Henry Awbrey.[3-29] Such
cases could be multiplied indefinitely.

Perhaps the most instructive instance left us of this development is the
break up of a tract of land known as Button's Ridge, in Essex country.
This property, comprising 3,650 acres, was granted to Thomas Button in
the year 1666.[3-30] The original patentee transferred the entire tract
to his brother Robert Button, who in turn sold it to John Baker. The
latter, finding no doubt that he could not put under cultivation so
much land, cut it up into small parcels and sold it off to various
planters. Of these transactions we have, most fortunately, a fairly
complete record. To Captain William Moseley he sold 200 acres, to John
Garnet 600, to Robert Foster 200, to William Smither 200, to William
Howlett 200, to Anthony Samuell 300, to William Williams 200. It is
probable that he sold also a small