SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF VIRGINIA (1634-1652) During the vicissitudes of government in Virginia the colony continued to increase in wealth and population, and in 1634 eight counties were created;[1] while an official census in April, 1635, showed nearly five thousand people, to which number sixteen hundred were added in 1636.

The new-comers during Harvey's time were principally servants who came to work the tobacco-fields.[2] Among them were some convicts and shiftless people, but the larger number were persons of respectable standing, and some had comfortable estates and influential connections in England.[3] Freed from their service in Virginia, not a few attained positions as justices of the peace and burgesses in the General Assembly.[4] The trade of Virginia was become so extensive that Dutch as well as English ships sought the colony.

The principal settlements were on the north side of James River, and as the voyager in 1634 sailed from Chesapeake Bay he passed first the new fort at Point Comfort lately constructed by Captain Samuel Matthews.

About five miles farther on was Newport News, chiefly remarkable for its spring, where all the ships stopped to take in water, at this time the residence of Captain Daniel Gookin, a prominent Puritan, who afterwards removed to Massachusetts.

Five miles above Newport News, at Deep Creek, was Denbeigh, Captain Samuel Matthews's place, a miniature village rather than plantation, where many servants were employed, hemp and flax woven, hides tanned, leather made into shoes, cattle and swine raised for the ships outward bound, and a large dairy and numerous poultry kept.
A few hours' sail from Denbeigh was Littletown, the residence of George Menifie.