From 1683 to 1701, Philadelphia grew with over 2500 new European settlers. The Quaker stronghold in Philadelphia and its pledge of religious tolerance was probably a significant draw. For example, before 1722, the Catholics forced all protestant religions out of Austria, giving them two weeks to pack up and be gone! Most historians credit the most significant influx of the Irish in Philadelphia to the 1844 famine.
However, let us look at some families who arrived in Philadelphia during the early 1700s and elected to go to the far Western frontier to receive free public land. For those who went into the Shenandoah Valley and Augusta County, they faced Indian raids and other hardships. Robert Poage appeared in the Orange County court on May 22, 1740, to “prove his importation” to take up public lands. The record showed that he had a wife and nine children (named) who came from Ireland to Philadelphia “and from thence to this colony” at his own expense.
The Poage family settled on a 772-acre plantation three miles north of Staunton, which was probably purchased from William Beverley, as the land was in Beverley’s Manor. Free public land was the premium reason for millions of Irish, Scots, Germans, etc., migrating to the American shores. The reason that public land was offered was to settle the western frontier. Virginians along the eastern shores profited from tobacco crops since John Rolf planted his first successful crop in 1609.
Yet, even before the Revolutionary War, the plant depleted the soil and needed rich soil. A study of the old deeds and records in Orange County, Virginia, tells the story. Mr. Poage acquired his land directly from the government. The evidence is a patent on parchment executed by Governor Gooch dated July 30, 1742, granting Poage 306 acres of land in the county of Orange on the west side of the Blue Ridge “to be held in free and common soccage, and not in spite or by knight’s service,” in consideration of thirty-five shillings; provided the grantee should pay a fee rent of one shilling for every fifty acres, annually, on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. . .” The patent contained the impression of the royal crown of Great Britain. The terms used in the records are of old English origin, encompass English Law, and should be noted to understand new settlers' problems or situations better. Soccage is a feudal tenure of land involving payment of rent or other non-military service to a superior. Capite is an ancient English tenure (abolished by 1660) by which the king held the land or person.
Source: Orange County, Virginia deeds; Annals of Augusta County by Joseph A. Waddell, pp 258-259.
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