Inevitably, perhaps, history repeated itself. In 1710 the Act for Ports, like its predecessors, was rescinded. The reasons given in London were brief and straightforward; the Act, it was explained, was "designed to Encourage by great Priviledges the settling in Townships." These settlements would encourage manufactures, which, in turn, would promote "further Improvement of the said manufactures, And take them off from the Planting of Tobacco, which would be of Very Ill consequence," thus lessening the colony's dependence on the Kingdom, affecting the import of tobacco, and prejudicing shipping.[18] Clearly, the Crown did not want the towns to succeed, nor would it tolerate anything which might stimulate colonial self-dependence. The Virginia colonists' dream of corporate communities was not to be realized. Most of the towns either died entirely or struggled on as crossroads villages. A meager few have survived to the present, notably Norfolk, Hampton, Yorktown, and Tappahannock. Marlborough lasted as a town until about 1720, but in about 1718 the courthouse and several dwellings were destroyed by fire and "A new Court House being built at another Place, all or most of the Houses that had been built in the said Town, were either burnt or suffered to go to ruin."[19] The towns were artificial entities, created by acts of assembly, not by economic or social necessity. In the few places where they filled a need, notably in the populous areas of the lower James and York Rivers, they flourished without regard to official status. In other places, by contrast, no law or edict sufficed to make them live when conditions did not warrant them. In sparsely settled Stafford especially there was little to nurture a town. It was easier, and perhaps more exciting, to grow tobacco and gamble on a successful crop, to go in debt when things were bad or lend to the less fortunate when things were better. In the latter case land became an acceptable medium for the payment of debts. Land was wealth and power, its enlargement the means of greater production of tobacco--tobacco again the great gamble by which one would always hope to rise and not to fall. When one could own an empire, why should one worry about a town? FOOTNOTES: [16] Ibid., pp. 404-419. [17] "Petition of John Mercer" (1748), (Ludwell papers, Virginia Historical Society), _VHM_ (Richmond, 1898), vol. 5, pp. 137-138. [18] _Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscdit. William P. Palmer, M.D. (Richmond, 1875), vol. 1, pp. 137-138. [19] _JHB, 1742-1747; 1748-1749_ (Richmond, 1909), pp. 285-286. ESTABLISHING COURTHOUSES