There was another cause of irritation on the part of the colonists, both in North and South Carolina. The terms of the tenure of land were of paramount interest to them and their children. The quantity offered in 1663 was augmented in 1666, and two years later, by the “Great Deed of Grant,” the fear of forfeiture was removed for not clearing and planting a specified portion of the land; in other words, settlers were permitted to hold lands as they were held in the adjoining royal province of Virginia. At first each freeman received one hundred acres, the same for his wife, each child and manservant, and fifty for each woman-servant; paying a half-penny per acre. After the expiration of servitude, each servant received a liberal quantity of land with implements for tillage.[717] In 1669, in the settling of the colony at Ashley River, one hundred and fifty acres were offered to all free persons above sixteen years of age, and the same for able-bodied men-servants; and a proportionate increase for others, if they arrived before the 25th of March, 1670; then a less number of acres for subsequent arrivals. The annual rent was a penny or _the value of a penny_ per acre (as also announced in the unalterable Constitutions); payments to begin September, 1689.[718] When Governor Sayle died (a year after settling on Ashley River), Sir John Yeamans came from Barbadoes to the new settlement; and having been made a landgrave claimed the government as vice-palatine under the Fundamental Constitutions. Such claim was denied by the colonists;[719] but he soon received a commission, and his first measure, on assuming control, was to have an accurate survey made and a record of lands held by settlers in South Carolina, with a view to the collection of quit-rents for the Proprietors. When ten years of outlay for their province had brought them no pecuniary return, they began to think “the country was not worth having at that rate.” They removed their former favorite Yeamans, because further outlays were incurred, and placed West in authority, who had attended more successfully to their interests. In November, 1682, all prior terms for granting land were annulled, and if a penny an acre (the words “or the value of a penny” being omitted) was not paid, a right of reëntry was claimed: “to enter and distraine, and the distress or distresses then and there found to take, lead, and carry and drive away and impound, and to detain and keep until they shall be fully satisfied and paid all arrears of the said rent.” This produced inequality of tenure, or operated to the injury of many who had previously taken up, on more liberal terms, only part of the lands they were entitled to.[720] Their lordships were too just to interfere with the stability of titles, but the alteration of the tenure for new grants or of the mode of conveyance, from time to time, was at least unwise. Besides, there was scarcely any coin in the