>
> Basic question here -- did a person have to be an adult to be claimed
> in a headright grant?  I say no, that otherwise the underage servants
> and families wouldn't be claimed, but another researcher I'm
> corresponding with insists that minors weren't claimed on headright
> grants.
>
> Can anyone supply me with a reference to back me up, if I am indeed
> correct?

Nell Marion Nugent, in the introduction to Vol. I of Cavaliers &
Pioneers (pp. xxiv-xxvi)
does not address the question directly, but says, in a general
discussion of headrights, first, that one cannot assume the headright is
necessarily an immigrant, and then

..On page 121 in the photographic reproduction of a patent, Jan 6,
1639/40, of Capt. Nicholas Martiau, the French Walloon, who is the
earliest American ancestor of George Washington, appear among the
fourteen persons transported at his own cost and charges Capt Martiau
himself, his wife, a son and a daughter. On the other hand in a patent
of Councillor George Read, of Nov 2, 1658, the headrights include Capt
martiau, his wife and his daughter Elizabeth, whom Col Reade married.

Also

Among the headrights are found persons of all social classes, nobility
and gentry, yeomanry, indentured servants (some of good family and
connection in England), and negroes.

*****
The implication is certainly that pretty much anyone could be a
headright; if juveniles were excluded I would think she would have
mentioned it. The line I always try to remember is

..despite all precautions fraud and deception were by no means uncommon.


John Ottinger

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