John Berkeley, Sir William Morton, and John
Trethewy. The new document required the recognition of grants in the
Northern Neck made by the Governor and Council prior to September 29,
1661, and it limited the title of the proprietors to that land which
would be planted and inhabited within twenty-one years. The political
jurisdiction of the area was still under the Virginia government. The
laws of the colony were to remain operative, and in effect the grant was
"to create a subordinate fief or proprietorship within Virginia." But
considerable confusion prevailed over the retroactive recognition of
grants, and many landholders sought confirmation of their ownership.
"Besides there are many other grants," stated Governor William Berkeley,
"in that patent inconsistent with the settlednesse of this government
which hath no barr to its prosperitie but proprieties on both hands, and
therefore is it mightily wounded in this last, nor have I ever observed
anything so much move the peoples' griefe or passion, or which doth more
put a stop to theire industry than their uncertainty whether they should
make a country for the King or other proprietors."

The confusion that existed was further confounded by the grant of
Charles II on February 25, 1672/73, of all of Virginia for thirty-one
years to Lord Arlington and to Lord Thomas Culpeper, son of one of the
original patentees of the Northern Neck by the same name. These two
proprietors of the whole colony were to control all lands, collect
rents, including all rents and profits in arrears since 1669, and
exercise authority that sprang from grants previously made. Up until
1669 amid all the controversy over control of the Northern Neck, grants
were regularly made by the local government on the basis of headrights
as revealed in the land patent books. After that date the number
decreased; and in March, 1674/75, the first land grant of 5,000 acres,
later George Washington's Mount Vernon, was issued to Nicholas Spencer
and John Washington of Westmoreland in the name of the proprietors with
the common seal being affixed to the grant by Thomas Culpeper and
Anthony Trethewy. By this date Thomas Culpeper had obtained from the
proprietors of 1669 recognition of one-sixth interest in the Northern
Neck for him and his cousin on the basis of their fathers having been
original patentees.

Opposition to the proprietary grant of the Northern Neck in Virginia led
to efforts of the Assembly, encoura