Carol, You can educate yourself tremendously by searching this list's archives. Land patents as well as many other things you need to know in order to do colonial VA gen research have been discussed at one time or another. The LOV website also has info on patents as well as a lot of other subjects. Their website also has digitized those patents for your access. Hening's Statues (VA Laws) has also been transcribed and is on the web. USE GOOGLE.

Don't forget to read the Introduction to the books you use since it explains what's contained in the pages of the book. The Introduction to the entry book you referred to explains that an entry for land was "but a statement of intention". No money had passed at that point and the patent process had not begun. Probably, for that reason, those land hungry Scots-Irish coming down the valley made many more land entries than they could either afford or seat. Therefore, a lot of those first entries were transferred, reassigned (as shown in the entry book) or reverted back to the Crown for lack of seating.

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