at importance, for the mortality among
the colonists was so great that but a small percentage of those that
came over in the early years survived the dangers that they were
compelled to face. In 1622, after the memorable massacre of that year,
there were but 1258 persons in the colony and during the next few
years there was no increase in the population.[148]

The immigration to Virginia of free families of humble means began in
the early years of the colony's existence, and continued throughout
the 17th century. The lowness of wages and the unfavorable economic
conditions that existed in England induced many poor men to seek their
fortunes in the New World.[149] The law which allotted to every
settler fifty acres of land for each member of his family insured all
that could pay for their transportation a plantation far larger than
they could hope to secure at home.[150] Thus it was that many men of
the laboring class or of the small tenant class, whose limited means
barely sufficed to pay for their passage across the ocean, came to
Virginia to secure farms of their own. The number of small grants in
the first half of the 17th century is quite large. Frequently patents
were made out for tracts of land varying from fifty to five hundred
acres in extent to immigrants that had entered the colony as
freemen.[151] The law allowed them to include in the head-rights of
their patents their wives, children, relatives, friends or servants
that came with them, and some immigrants in this way secured
plantations of considerable size. Thus in 1637 three hundred acres in
Henrico County were granted to Joseph Royall, "due: 50 acres for his
own personal adventure, 50 acres for the transportation of his first
wife Thomasin, 50 acres for the transportation of Ann, his now wife,
50 for the transportation of his brother Henry, and 100 for the
transportation of two persons, Robt. Warrell and Jon. Wells."[152]
These peasant immigrants sometimes prospered in their new homes and
increased the size of their plantations by the purchase of the
head-rights of other men, and the cheapness of land in the colony made
it possible for them to secure estates of considerable size. It is
probable that the average holding of the small farmers of this period
was between three and four hundred acres.[153]

Owing to the demand for servants and the cost of transporting them to
the colony, it was seldom that any other than wealthy planters could
afford to secu