There is some ambiguity here, but I believe *possibly*: if sold, the 
recipient would be buying a fee simple title (all rights); and, if 100 
acres were leased, the lessee could name three people on the lease, and 
usually the lease would be valid so long as the rent of 20 shillings was 
paid every year by each living person. Any of the three lives could be 
renewed in case one died by paying a year's rent.

Marilyn

On 8/20/2012 1:56 PM, CLAUDE RICHARDS wrote:
> In May 1686 William Fitzhugh advertised for french Protestants to come to his plantation with the following offer:
> "...I will either sell them in fee at L17 sterling for every hundred acres, or else lease it to them for three

lives paying 20 shillings p. annum for every hundred acres, and they may 
have the liberty of renewing one two or

  three lives at any time, paying for each life to be renewed one year's 
Rent ..."    Nan Netherton, "Fairfax County Virginia, A History,"  pp. 
13-14.
>
> What is the meaning of three lives and how does that relate to the payment of rent?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Claude Richards
>
> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. Government is force; like fire it is a dangerous servant -- and a fearful master.”
>
> —George Washington
>
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