There is strong evidence that Jamestown was the first to feel the impact of the advantages and fruits that growth produced. Material progress is evident as early as 1619 in the letter of John Pory, Secretary of the Colony, written from Virginia late in that year:
Nowe that your lordship may knowe, that we are not the veriest beggars in the worlde, our cowekeeper here of James citty on Sunday goes accowtered all in freshe flaming silke; and a wife of one that in England had professed the black arte, not of a schollar, but of a collier of Croydon, weares her rought bever hatt with a faire perle hatband, and a silken suite thereto correspondent.
But it is good to remember, perhaps, that Virginia was still not the perfect paradise. On March 15, 1619 a letter reaching England reported sad news and very likely not unusual news—"about 300 of the Inhabitants ... died this last yeare."
In 1618 there were internal changes and dissensions in the Virginia Company that led to the resignation of Sir Thomas Smith, as Treasurer, and to the election of Sir Edwin Sandys as his successor. This roughly corresponded to changes in Company policy toward the administration of the Colony and to intensified efforts to develop Virginia. It led to the abolition of martial law, to the establishment of property ownership, to greater individual freedom and participation in matters of government and to the intensification of economic effort. The program was prompted by a desire to make the Virginia enterprise a financial success, to increase the population, and to make the Colony attractive as well as to give the colonists more of a sense of participation.
Sir George Yeardley, recently knighted, returned to Virginia as Governor, in April 1619, and was the first spokesman in the Colony for the new policy toward Virginia. In England it had been ably advanced on behalf of the Colony by Sir Edwin Sandys, the Earl of Southampton, and John and Nicholas Ferrar.
Land was one of the great sources of wealth in Virginia and soon after early commercial enterprise failed, was recognized as such. Its acquisition became a prime objective. Initially the Company had determined that no land would be assigned to planters, or adventurers, until the expiration of a seven year period. And this period was in actual practice delayed. The first real, or general, "division" was provided for in 1618 and this became effective in Virginia in 1619.
It was recognized that there were several groups meriting land. First came the Company and its investors. The second was the particular hundreds and plantations sponsored and belonging to private adventurers joined in investing groups in England. The third was composed of individual planters who lived and resided in Virginia. Yeardley came armed with instructions to effect the division. The boundaries of the four Incorporations (James City, Charles City, Henrico and Kecoughtan) were to be fixed and public lands for the support of their officers and churches were to be set aside as well as tracts for Company officials in Virginia and others for Company use and profit. The consolidation of all settlements into the four listed "Cities or Burroughs" was soon consummated.
Two classifications of planters were noted—those who came to Virginia before Dale departed in 1616 and those who came later. The first group, called "ancient planters," may have been Virginia's first "aristocracy." Each such person with three years of residence was entitled to 100 acres as a "first division." Those having come to Virginia after Dale's departure were in a different position. If they had come, or were to come, at their own charge they were to obtain only fifty acres at the "first division." If transported by the Company they were first to serve as "tenants" on the Company's land for a term of seven years.
All grants it was specified would "be made with equal favour except the differency of rent." Rent proved to be a diverse term covering tobacco, capons, merchantable Indian corn and such. Rent payments were a matter of concern and led the planters in the Assembly of 1619 to petition for the appointment of an officer in Virginia to receive them. Payment to the Company in London, in money, was described as impossible.