<P> After paying for the passage of an individual to make it to the colonies, one needed to obtain a patent for the land . First, the governor or local county court had to provide a certificate that certified the validity of the importation of a person . One would then select the land one desired and have an official survey made . The two basic surveying instruments used to mark plots of land were a chain known as Gunter's chain and a compass . The patent's claimant would then take the description of this land to the colony's secretary, who created the patent to be approved by the governor . Once a headright was obtained, it was treated as a commodity and could be bought, sold, or traded . It also could be saved indefinitely and used at a later date . </P> <P> Individuals who could afford to do so would accumulate headrights by providing funds for poor individuals to travel to Virginia . (During the 17th century, the cost of transport from England to the colonies was about six pounds per person .) This system led to the development of indentured servitude where poor individuals would become workers for a specified number of years and provide labor in order to repay the landowners who had sponsored their transportation to the colonies . The claimaints to headrights could receive grants for men, women and children since anyone could become an indentured servant . Early documentation from the Virginia Company seems to suggest that a landowner could receive a headright even if the indentured servant whose trip they sponsored did not make it to Virginia alive . While the majority of headrights distributed were issued under the names of British immigrants, as time went on, indentured servants who provided the heads - of - households with land came from throughout Europe and could be used as headrights, as could slaves from Africa . </P> <P> Plantation owners benefited from the headright system when they paid for the transportation of imported slaves . This, along with the increase in the amount of money required to bring indentured servants to the colonies, contributed to the shift towards slavery in the colonies . Until 1699, a slave was worth a headright of fifty acres . According to records, in the 1670s over 400 slaves were used as headrights in Virginia . This number increased in the 1680s and 1690s . Many families grew in power in the colonies by receiving large tracts of land when they imported slaves . For example, George Menefie purchased sixty slaves, and received a total of 3,000 acres in 1638 . In 1699, it was decided that headrights would only be granted for English citizens and that transportating a slave would no longer guarantee land . </P> <P> According to records, there was a large discrepancy between the number of headrights issued and the number of new residents in the colonies . This gap may be explained by high mortality rates of people during their journey to the colonies . Landowners would receive headrights for the dead and thus, the gap would widen between population growth and amount of headrights issued . Another explanation suggests that the secretary's office that issued the headrights grew more lax . There were few regulations in place to keep the headright system in check . Because of this, several headrights were claimed multiple times and people took advantage of the lack of governance . For instance, when a person was brought to the colonies, both the ship captain and the individual paying the transportation costs may have attempted to receive land patents or headrights for the same person . Another problem was that secretaries sometimes issued headrights for fictitious people . During the 1660s and 1670s, the number of headrights was about four times more than the increase in population . If this large discrepancy must be attributed to more than fictitious issuing, a final explanation suggests that people had accumulated and saved headrights . Headrights could be bought for about 50 pounds of tobacco each . The owners of the grants then claimed the land years later once the land had risen in value . Although keeping a count of the number of headrights issued may not lead to accurate estimations of population growth in the colonies, the number of patents issued acts as an indicator of the demand for land . </P>

Under the headright system settlers who paid their own way to virginia were entitled to