When he was Lieutenant Governor he had tried to force the large landholders to pay their rents by taking the matter into the courts. Making a test case of Colonel Lawrence Smith, who had several large properties, he ordered the Attorney General to prosecute him. The case was ready for trial when Nicholson was removed and it was afterwards compounded for a small sum.[1] At the time Nicholson had had some thoughts of drawing up "an exact, true, and perfect rent roll." But the Council, who had no desire to have their own "concealed" acres exposed, pointed out that it would be a difficult and costly undertaking. So for the time being the matter was dropped. But when Nicholson began his second administration he resumed his efforts. He instructed William Byrd, the Auditor, to order the sheriffs to make accurate rolls of holdings in their counties. But as late as October, 1703, Byrd reported that though he had urged this on the sheriffs he realized that there was "still very great abuse therein."[2] Yet the next year the Governor had in his hands a rent roll, which, however imperfect, must have been of great value in the collection of the rents. Undoubtedly much of the unoccupied lands were not put down on the rolls, yet some of the members of the Council were hard hit. Byrd now had to pay on 20,700 acres, Custis on 12,600, Harrison on 9,100, and the others on holdings ranging from 2,000 to 7,000 acres. Other members of the aristocracy, many of them related to one or more Councillors, were put down for thousands of acres. Lewis Burwell had 7,000 acres in the Isle of Wight County, 4,800 acres in King William, 3,300 acres in Gloucester, 2,100 acres in York, and 1,300 in James City County.[3] Having alienated the Councillors and other influential men by striking at their pocketbooks, Nicholson proceeded to cross swords with another influential group--the vestrymen. The Virginia clergymen had long complained of the insecurity of their tenure, for the vestries who appointed them claimed the right also of dismissing them when they proved unsatisfactory. "They are to their vestries in the nature of hired servants, agreed with from year to year, and dismissed ... without any crime proved or so much as alleged against them," Commissary Blair complained.