1 William Fitzhugh to William Fitzhugh, 22 April 1686; David, ed., Fitzhugh Letters, 174.

2 In Surry County, Virginia, historian Kevin Kelly finds that male tithables were distributed as follows by material status in 1703/04:

Status

Number (%)

Free landowners

96(11.1%)

Great landowners (950 acres+)

8

Upper middling landowners (650-949 acres)

6

Lower middling landowners (350–649 acres)

15

Small landowners (1-349 acres)

67

Free non-landowners

344 (39.8%)

Non-free non-landowners

425 (49.2%)

Dependent sons of landowners

74

White male servants

131

Black slaves

220

Total tithables

865 (100.1%)

Total population

2,230

Surry was a low, swamp-filled county directly across the James River from Jamestown. Inventoried estates in 1690 showed a Gini ratio of .55, which was exceptionally egalitarian by Virginia standards at that date. Tithables in this county included males from 16 to 60, and widows who held property, plus male servants and slaves. See Kelly, “Economic and Social Development of Seventeenth Century Surry County, Virginia” (thesis, Univ. of Washington, 1972), 19, 111, 135.