ians, sea captains, and various other individuals under
the company, the practice continued under royal control after 1624.
Governor Wyatt in 1638 was instructed to issue land patents for
meritorious service according to provisions previously adopted for such
cases. And a few years later Charles II awarded lands in Virginia to
servants or others who aided him, although it is not certain whether
these individuals were ever able to take up the claim bestowed upon
them.

The third condition for a patent was practically a corollary to the
second, for it involved rendering service to the colony by settling and
fortifying the frontier. One example during this period may be found in
securing the Peninsula. Following the massacre of 1622 Governor Wyatt
and his Council wrote to the Earl of Southampton about a plan for
"winning the forest" by running a pale between Martin's Hundred on the
James River and Cheskiack on the York. Again in 1624 the suggestion was
made to the royal commissioners who were sent over by the King to
determine the most suitable places for fortification. To effect the
construction of this palisade, the General Assembly in 1633 offered land
as an inducement to settle between Queen's Creek and Archer's Hope
Creek, promising fifty acres and a period of tax exemption to freemen
who would occupy the area of Middle Plantation, later Williamsburg. In
February, 1633, the order was issued for a fortieth part of the men in
the "compasse of the forest" between the two previously mentioned creeks
and Chesapeake Bay to meet at Dr. John Pott's plantation at the head of
Archer's Hope Creek for the purpose of erecting houses to secure the
neck of land known as the Peninsula. With this encouragement by the
Assembly, a palisade six miles in length was completed, running from
Queen's Creek to Archer's Hope Creek and passing through Middle
Plantation. Houses were constructed at convenient distances, and a
sufficient number of men were assigned to patrol the line of defense
during times of imminent danger. By setting off a little less than
300,000 acres of land, this palisade provided defense for the new
plantations between the York and James rivers and served as a
restraining barrier for the cattle of the colony.

Granting of land was again used on a large scale for the establishment
of forts after the Indian massacre of 1644. By order of the Assembly in
1645 blockhouses or forts were established at strategic points: Fort
Ch