HATCHER website: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nhatcher/faq.htm
HATCHER DNA project: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nhatcher/hatDNA.htm
Researching: Cook, Hall, Hatcher, Miller, Shepherd, Timberman
"Genealogy without Documentation is Nothing" - Paul Drake

Langdon wrote:
The 500 pounds of tobacco is all the "money" the owner will see, and is the real consideration....

Paul wrote:
Tobacco sells for about $1.90 per lb today, and the prices are relative.  At that time it was 2 pence per lb., so the land was VERY poor if that was the lease rental per year. 
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AH! Now this sounds as if the 500# tobacco may have been a one-time payment with one fat hen as the yearly "rent." OR that 67A parcel was a very poor piece of land.

Paul also pointed out that if the "rent" on this land could be determined to be below the going rate, it was possible that George Taylor was close family to the William Bowling family and was helping out a struggling relative. No matter how you look at it, it does sound as if Wm Bowling was a poor man not in the best of circumstances. Having lived on 50A, I know how small it is when you consider back then every acre was used to plant a crop, raise a cow or pig or two, just to keep your large family in food and still have a sou or two left over for the other necessities of life.

Nel


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