"Ancient planter" was a term applied to early colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia in what is now the United States, when the colony was managed by the Virginia Company of London. They received land grants if they stayed in the colony for at least three years. Under the terms of the "Instructions to Governor Yeardley" (issued by the London Company in 1618), these colonists received the first land grants in Virginia. History These land grants constituted a dividend paid out by the Virginia Company of London, which was constituted as a joint stock company. Under the terms of the Second Charter, issued in 1609, the Company offered shares for twelve pounds ten shillings per share, to be invested and reinvested for seven years. Those men who ventured to Virginia in person, investing their time and risking their lives, would each be counted as holding one share. In 1616, at the end of the administration of Sir Thomas Dale, the first dividend became due and payable to all who had invested, whether by the purchase of shares or by "personal adventure". However, since the colony had not prospered, there was no money to divide. Instead, the Company offered grants of land. Colonists who had paid their own passage to Virginia received a "first dividend" of , free of quit-rent, for their "personal adventure", and an additional hundred acres for each share they owned in the London Company: Those who had been brought at the Company's expense (as indentured servants) also received 100 acres for their "personal adventure", but in their case the land was subject to an annual rent of one shilling per 50 acres: Colonists who arrived after the departure of Sir Thomas Dale were entitled to a lesser grant of 50 acres. The London Company reasoned that "... by the singular Industry and virtue of the said Sir Thomas Dale the former Difficulties and Dangers were in greatest part overcome to the great ease and security of such as have been since that time transported thither",. In other words, those who had come earlier received twice as much land, supposedly in recognition of the greater risks and hardships they had endured. Of course, reducing the size of the grant to 50 acres also saved the hard-pressed Company a great deal of money, and the later colonists can scarcely be said to have experienced the "great ease