equally conscious
that estimates in the absence of more complete records cannot be final,
Professor Thomas J. Wertenbaker in his _Planters of Colonial Virginia_
summarized his analysis of patents and concluded that both before 1635
and in the following two or three decades, thirty to forty per cent of
the landholders of Virginia came to the colony as indentured servants.

Professor Wertenbaker also indicated general agreement with conclusions
drawn by William G. Stanard about the proportion of immigrants that
were indentured servants. From an analysis of the patent rolls from
1623 to July 14, 1637, printed in the April, 1901, issue of the
_Virginia Magazine of History and Biography_, Stanard estimated that
seventy-five per cent of immigrants from 1623 to 1637 were imported
under term of the indenture. Out of 2,675 names on the rolls, 336
entered as freemen at their own cost and an additional 245 persons were
believed for the most part to be of the same status although there was
some uncertainty about this group. Transportation expenses were paid by
others for 2,094. From these numbers, the conclusion was reached that
675 persons on the patent rolls were freemen, including women and
children; the remaining 2,000 were servants and slaves, the latter in
very small number at this time. Thus the analysis roughly confirms the
conclusion that three-fourths of the immigrants during this period were
indentured servants.

Use of the headright system for distribution of land had a close
correlation with expanding population, for it was hoped that the
increase of population would keep pace with the acquisition of private
title in the soil. As the seventeenth century progressed, there were
many abuses and evasions of the system; and by the end of the period its
significance declined in favor of acquisition of title by purchase, or
the "treasury right." To understand the various deviations from the
system, it will be helpful to review the steps by which title to land by
headright was obtained.

The first step involved the proving of the headright by the claimant
appearing before either a county court or the Governor and Council and
stating under oath that he had imported a certain number of persons
whose names were listed. The clerk of the court issued a certificate
which was validated in the secretary's office. Authorization for the
headright was then passed on to a commissioned surveyor who ran off
fifty acres for each person i