Tim has asked about the "rent rolls" of colonial Stafford County, VA.  I think the answer may benefit many since particularly the Northern Neck was involved.  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paul Drake 


Hi,Tim.

The word "rents" in the English legal system is a thousand or more years old, and it meant simply money paid by someone to another person for the use of land.  As you might guess, when the precise meaning became part of the common language and was broadened in meaning (as haved thousands of words), the term came to mean as it had previously, but also included taxes. The word "rolls" then meant simply a "list" or a tax or fee for land use determined and reduced to writing.  An example known to all of us are the "Quit Rents of VA, 1704". 

However, as in  early MD, those rents for the Northern Neck Proprietorship, which included Lancaster, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Richmond, and your Stafford Cos., were rents as we now know the term, and were payments to the owner of the proprietorship for use of his land.  Such land was often given to men of affluence by the Crown in order that the land be settled as population was increased, thereby increasing the income of the Crown or whoever else.  At the same time, the owner of the proprietorship usually profited, and still owned the land without working it to any substantial degree.    

While some of such "rents" were the price paid (usually annually) for such terms as use for the "life of the tenant" or for such uses that were stated to end after some specified number of years (usually a long term), in my own family, there was a use to end when the last of any of three men - my ancestor and his two sons - died.  

By such terms, some uses could last MANY years, if father and sons were long-lived, many of such "rents" later were converted to what we now know as "forever" - or outright ownership.  Then too, a few of the arrangements provided almost automatic ownership at the end of the declared term, rather like our "land contracts" or "purchase money mortgages".  Same too, when the original proprietorship ended.   

So, only a title search seeking out a chain of title for yor ancestor will adequately reveal the nature of his tenancy and from whom he gained title.  Sadly, many of such records are not to be found by reason of the loss/deterioration of records across the 250 years since the 1760 date you mentioned in the query.

Hope this helps.

Paul    




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