out
complying with the headright requirement. And it was not until 1666 that
the Assembly gave a definition for "seating and planting" in the
declaration that "Building an house and keeping a stock one whole yeare
upon the land shall be accounted seating; and that cleering, tending and
planting an acre of ground shall be accounted planting." Either one or
the other fulfilled the condition for the patent, and throughout the
seventeenth century there was no relation between the size of the tract
and the amount of improvement required. The minimum performance
satisfied the law. Therefore, either the building of a small cabin,
putting a few cattle or a few hogs on the tract for a year, or planting
as little as an acre of ground--any one of the three protected the
grant.

For most of the patents issued, this requirement presented little
problem because the owner was interested in settling and improving his
holdings. Violation of the provision was most likely to come in the case
of land speculators who had taken up large tracts or in the case of
landholders who were interested in acquiring adjacent tracts for the
purpose of grazing or for forest supply. In the case of the latter,
there was some question whether the requirement applied to adjacent
tracts; but the Assembly in 1692 declared that tracts added to an
original patent must be seated and planted as the law provided for other
grants.

To a considerable extent there was the same attitude toward the
requirement for "seating and planting" as has been noted previously for
obtaining patent by headright. Light regard for the spirit of the law
and at times the letter of the law came in part as a result of the
unlimited expanse of land that tempted the established settler as well
as the newcomer. Evasion of the law cast no stigma upon the offender,
and some who were aware of their neighbor's dereliction winked at the
action, thinking perhaps that they too might sometime engage in the same
practice. Furthermore, the necessity of the provision for "seating and
planting" which was well founded for the early years of the colony
decreased in significance as the population and occupied areas of
Virginia increased.

The second condition for perfection of title to land--payment of a
quitrent--likewise had a checkered career in the seventeenth century.
Under the company there is some question whether quitrents were due. It
is clear that "the greate charter" of 1618 in order to enco