He held lands, and was endowed with a bold, adventurous temper and a genius for business.

In a few years he had established widespread trading relations with the Indians.
He and the men whom he employed penetrated to the upper shores of Chesapeake, into the forest bordering Potomac and Susquehanna: Knives and hatchets, beads, trinkets, and colored cloth were changed for rich furs and various articles that the Indians could furnish.

The skins thus gathered Claiborne shipped to London merchants, and was like to grow wealthy from what his trading brought.
Looking upon the future and contemplating barter on a princely scale, he set to work and obtained exhaustive licenses from the immediate Virginian authorities, and at last from the King himself.

Under these grants, Claiborne began to provide settlements for his numerous traders.
Far up the Chesapeake, a hundred miles or so from Point Comfort, he found an island that he liked, and named it Kent Island.

Here for his men he built cabins with gardens around them, a mill and a church.
He was far from the river James and the mass of his fellows, but he esteemed himself to be in Virginia and upon his own land.