fourth yeare of his Maties. reigne, to
confirme the said graunt for the said tract or parcell of land to
the said Thomas Lord Culpeper his heires & assignes for ever, as by
the said graunt, relation beinge there unto had, will more at large
appeare

_And_ the said Thomas Lord Culpeper he beinge since deceased all
the rite title and interest of in and to the said tract of land
lawfully desendinge on the Honorble. Mrs. Katherine Culpeper sole
daughter and heire of the said Thomas late Lord Culpeper, and
Allexander Culpeper Esqr. who cometh in part propriator by lawfull
conveyance from Thomas late Lord Culpeper, and confirmed by the
said Mrs. Katherine Culpeper, who are thereby now become the true
and lawfull propriators of the said tract or territory, and

_Whereas_ the said propriators have thought fitt under there hands
& seales to depute me Phillip Ludwell Esqr. with full power and
authority to act in the prmisses. persuant to the powers granted by
there said Maties. as fully & amply to all intents & purposes as
they the said propriators them selves might or could doe if they
were personally present,

NOW KNOW YEE therefore....

The provisions in the fourth paragraph above designating Mrs.
Katherine Culpeper and Alexander Culpeper as "the true and lawfull
propriators" were obsolete after the former married Lord Fairfax
while Ludwell was still agent. By law the husband also became a
proprietor and should have been added to the list. This omission was
corrected by George Brent and William Fitzhugh, the two agents who
succeeded Ludwell in 1693 and continued to serve during the 1690's
in the land office at Woodstock in Stafford County. In a much
simplified form, Brent and Fitzhugh merely listed the proprietors
including the husband as follows:

Margarett Lady Culpeper, Thomas Lord Fairfax, Katherine his wife
and Alexander Culpeper Esquire, proprietors of the Northern Neck
of Virginia....

The grants made by the various agents of the proprietors in the Northern
Neck were not substantially different in nature from those held under a
Virginia land patent. Both tenures reflected the feudal law of the
manor. The proprietors held their land in free and common socage, and
the planters in the Northern Neck paid quitrents and fees to the
proprietors rather than to the crown.

While the nature of t