The first John Madison of Virginia, great-great-grandfather of President James Madison, acquired considerable land in Virginia by the importation of immigrants; in a land patent dated 1682, he called himself a ship-carpenter. At this time, good ships of three hundred tons and over were being built in Virginia, and probably John Madison aided in the construction of one or more of these. It is evident that many of the shipwrights, who came to Virginia from England, found the life of a planter more desirable than that of a shipbuilder, while some of them combined the two occupations. CONTROVERSIES OVER BOATS The Council and General Court of Virginia were called upon occasionally to settle controversies over vessels of various kinds and to hear reports concerning others. The following reports are from the records of the Court for 1622 to 1632. At an early date, Robert Poole reported a trading voyage with the Indians for Mr. "Treasurer," in the pinnace _Elizabeth_, during which he gave ten arms length of blue beads for one tub of corn and over, and thirteen arms length for another tub. Anne Cooper complained that her late husband, Thomas Harrison, loaned a shallop to Lieutenant George Harrison, late deceased. It was ordered by the Court that she should receive one hundred pounds of merchantable tobacco from George Harrison's estate. An argument between John Utie and Bryan Caught resulted in the order that the latter should build Utie a shallop eighteen feet, six inches keel; six feet, six inches breadth; with masts, oars, yard and rudder, and to find the 1100 nails and six score "ruff and clench" desired. Utie was to pay Bryan for building the shallop six score pound weight of tobacco, and to furnish the help of a boy and the boy's diet. Also, he was to pay Bryan six score pounds of tobacco for a boat previously built for him. Captain Francis West, a member of the Council, desired that he be given the use of the Spanish frigate with all her tackle, apparel, munitions, masts, sails, yards, etc., that had been captured by John Powell, with a shallop built for that purpose, on an expedition to the West Indies in the man-of-war, _Black Bess_. He was required to pay 1200 pounds of tobacco to the captain and men. In trading for corn for Southampton Hundred, John Powntis was allowed a barrel of the corn for the use of his pinnace.