A tardy response to last week's queries about land-holding in 18th-c
Virginia : Holly Brewer's article about entail (in the William and Mary a
few years ago) seems, to me at least, to have _profound_ consequences for
reexamining 18th-c Virginia society. Her exploration of the consequences
of primogeniture and especially of entailed estates suggests that far more
land was tied up by these quasi-feudal provisions (designed to create and
sustain family dynasties) than many historians have thought.
  And while John Randolph of Roanoke has his quirks (!) his animus toward
Jefferson's role in the abolition of entail strikes me (in light of
Brewer's insights) as likely to have a significant dimension in the real
or perceived early-19th-century decline-of-the-VA-gentry phenomenon :
i.e., if Brewer is correct that entailed estates involved much more land
than Kaim et al have recognized, then the effect of abolishing entail
would be proportionally greater......



Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463

Fax 434-376-2647

- M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager
- Karen Gorham-Smith, Associate Curator
- Edith Poindexter, Curator

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html