While the headright system was designed to maintain some proportion between the population of the colony and the amount of land patented, it was also designed to stimulate the migration of immigrants to the colony. Therefore, under the system it was possible for individuals who would engage in transporting or financing the transportation of immigrants to obtain large areas of land. This trend was started under the company; and in the four years prior to 1623, forty-four patents of 5,000 acres each were awarded to persons who were to transport at least 100 immigrants to the colony. In 1621, for example, 5,000 acres were granted to Arthur Swain and Nathaniel Basse and a similar grant to Rowland Truelove and "divers other patentees" each grant to be based on the transportation of 100 persons; 15,000 acres were to go to Sir George Yeardley for engaging to transport 300 persons.
For the years following the dissolution of the company, valuable information of the nature and size of land grants can be found in the "Virginia Land Patents" which fortunately have survived the usual hazards of fire and carelessness. The two following tables (Tables I and II) have been compiled from the analysis of the land patents by Philip A. Bruce and summarized in his Economic History of Virginia (volume I, pages 528-532).
I. Table Showing Size of Land Grants From 1626 to 1650
Based on the Record of Virginia Land Patents
| Year or years |
Average grant for the period |
Largest grant for the period |
| 1626-1632 | 100-300 acres | 1,000 acres |
| 1634 | 719 acres | 5,350 acres |
| 1635 | 380 acres | 2,000 acres |
| 1636 | 351 acres | 2,000 acres |
| 1637 | 445 acres | 5,350 acres |
| 1638 | 423 acres | 3,000 acres |
| 1640 | 405 acres | 1,300 acres |
| 1641 | 343 acres | 872 acres |
| 1642 | 559 acres | 3,000 acres |
| 1643 | 595 acres | 4,000 acres |
| 1644 | 370 acres | 670 acres |
| 1645 | 333 acres | 1,090 acres |
| 1646 | 360 acres | 1,200 acres |
| 1647 | 361 acres | 650 acres |
| 1648 | 412 acres | 1,800 acres |
| 1649 | 522 acres | 3,500 acres |
| 1650 | 677 acres | 5,350 acres |
II. Table Showing Size of Land Grants From 1650 to 1700
Based on the Record of Virginia Land Patents
| Period of years | Average grant for the period | Number of largest grants for the period | |||
| 1650-1655 | 591 acres | 1,000 - 2,000 acres | ( 92) | ||
| 2,000 - 5,000 acres | ( 41) | ||||
| 5,000 - 10,000 acres | ( 3) | ||||
| 1655-1666 | 671 acres | 1,000 - 2,000 acres | (252) | ||
| 2,000 - 5,000 acres | (147) | ||||
| 5,000 - 10,000 acres | ( 20) | ||||
| 1666-1679 | 890 acres | 1,000 - 2,000 acres | (220) | ||
| 2,000 - 5,000 acres | (154) | ||||
| 5,000 - 10,000 acres | ( 25) | ||||
| 10,000 - 20,000 acres | ( 12) | ||||
| 1679-1689 | 607 acres | 1,000 - 2,000 acres | (143) | ||
| 2,000 - 5,000 acres | ( 66) | ||||
| 5,000 - 10,000 acres | ( 17) | ||||
| 10,000 - 20,000 acres | ( 2) | ||||
| 1689-1695 | 601 acres | 1,000 - 2,000 acres | ( 63) | ||
| 2,000 - 5,000 acres | ( 23) | ||||
| 5,000 - 10,000 acres | ( 7) | ||||
| 1695-1700 | 688 acres | 1,000 - 2,000 acres | ( 14) | ||
| 2,000 - 5,000 acres | ( 13) | ||||
| 5,000 - 10,000 acres | ( 7) | ||||
| 13,400 acres | ( 1) | ||||
[Note: In compiling this table, two changes have been made to correct what seems clearly to be errors in Bruce's description. Forty-one grants were listed for 2,000-5,000 acres from 1650-1655 rather than forty-one grants of 1,000-5,000 acres as noted by Bruce. The date 1685 listed in Bruce has been changed to 1689 to give the proper time period of 1689-1695.]
For the period from 1634 to 1650 included in Table I, there were occasional grants of 5,000 acres, but the average size of the patents for the period was not over 446 acres. It was possible, of course, for one individual to build up a large landed estate by putting together several smaller grants; and this was done by a limited number of persons during the seventeenth century in Virginia as will be discussed later. There was also the possibility that grants of considerable size in the original patent might be broken up and distributed to others in smaller amounts. In any case, the second half of the century as reflected in the land patents saw a moderate increase in the size and number of large grants as the population increased, and the average size for the land patent of this period was 674 acres, an increase of 228 acres over the period prior to 1650.
While the second half of the century witnessed this increase, much of it came during the third quarter of the period. Near the end of the century there was a definite trend to break up some of the larger patents into smaller landholdings by sales to servants completing their indenture, by distribution of land to children, or by sale because of an inadequate labor supply either of slaves, indentured servants, tenant farmers, or wage earners.
The existence of the small farm and the small farmer as a major part of the socio-economic system of Virginia at the end of the seventeenth century has been well established. Professor Wertenbaker suggested that "a full 90 per cent of the freeholders" at the time the rent roll was compiled in 1704⁄05 included the "sturdy, independent class of small farmers." Through examination of land patents, land transfers, tax rolls, and a sampling of other county records, he found substantial evidence to corroborate the suggested trend of the breakup of a number of large patents and their distribution to small freeholders. Illustrative of this development was the land known as Button's Ridge in Essex County. Originally including 3,650 acres, the tract was patented to Thomas Button in 1666. The estate then passed first to the brother of Button and later was sold to John Baker. Baker divided the large tract and sold small amounts to the following people: 200 acres to Captain William Moseley, 600 to John Garnet, 200 to Robert Foster, 200 to William Smither, 200 to William Howlett, 300 to Anthony Samuell, and 200 to William Williams.