thumb|250px|right|"Cultivation of tobacco at Jamestown 1615"
"Ancient planter" (sometimes called ancient colony men) was a term applied to early colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia when the settlement was managed privately by the Virginia Company of London. A colonist received a land grant if they remained in Virginia for at least three years. Under the terms of the "Instructions to Governor Yeardley" (issued in 1618), these colonists received the first land grants in the New World.
History
These land grants constituted a dividend paid out by the Virginia Company of London, which was constituted as a joint stock company. Under the terms of the Second Charter, issued in 1609, the Company offered shares for twelve pounds ten shillings per share, to be invested and reinvested for seven years. Those men who ventured to Virginia in person, investing their time and risking their lives, would each be counted as holding one share.
In 1616, at the end of the administration of Sir Thomas Dale, the first dividend became due and payable to all who had invested, whether by the purchase of shares or by "personal adventure". However, since the colony had not prospered, there was no money to divide. Instead, the Company offered grants of land. Colonists who had paid their own passage to Virginia received a "first dividend" of , free of quit-rent, for their "personal adventure", and an additional hundred acres for each share they owned in the London Company: