| Notes |
- NOTE: At the time of this writing, the FAG memorial dedicated to our "Gateway" ancestor, Samuel Jordan (1578-1623), is woefully inadequate. I will try to correct the many misleading errors and omissions with information from accepted sources. I will not list all of the problems with his memorial but his death date of "1623" is clearly stated on the two Virginia historical highway signs attached to his memorial but his death date on his memorial is recorded as "1632". His name was "Samuel Jordan". I have spent several years researching Samuel Jordan and no where from any reliable source have I seen his middle name recorded as "Silas". He is listed on his memorial as dying in St. George Co., VA which didn't exist until 1703. None of these careless errors are accepted by the "Jamestowne Society".
Samuel Jordan
Birth: 1578
Wiltshire, England
Death: 1623
Henrico County, Virginia, USA
Samuel Jordan's English birth date was circa 1578 so he would have been about 32 years old when he arrived in
Jamestown in 1610. It has been postulated that he was a widower with four sons, two of whom later followed their father
to the Virginia colony, e. g. Thomas Jordan (1600-1644) and Robert Jordan, who is discussed below. Samuel departed
London on the "Sea Venture" on 16 May 1609. This Third Supply Mission from England to Jamestown consisted of five to six hundred people including Admiral Sir George Somers (1554-1610), Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Yeardley (1588-1627), Samuel Jordan (1578-1623), and John Rolfe (1585-1622), who later married "Pocahontas (1595-1617)", in a fleet of eight ships. These five men were on the new flagship of the Virginia Company, the "Sea Venture", and were unwittingly embarking on an adventure later immortalized by William Shakespeare in his play, "The Tempest".
To summarize the harrowing voyage of the "Sea Venture": On 25 July 1609 (St. James Day) after nearly completing the
Atlantic crossing, the fleet was "caught in the tail of a hurricane" (tempest) and became separated from the "Sea Venture". The "Sea Venture" was forced toward uninhabited Bermuda and foundered off the coast but not before the crew salvaged most of the equipment, supplies, tools, and what they could of the vessel's superstructure, especially her rigging (this is memorialized by Bermuda's Coat of Arms-see attached copy and caption). Of the surprisingly few deaths recorded during the span of this shipwreck and stranding ordeal were the wife and infant child (daughter) of John Rolfe, future husband of "Pocahontas". The survivors of the "Sea Venture" were shipwrecked on the desolate coast of uninhabited Bermuda for nine months, surviving in part by hunting and gathering. During this period in Bermuda, under the direction of Admiral Sir George Somers, the men built two full-rigged pinnaces, which were named the "Patience" and the "Deliverance" using the wreckage of the original ship and native Bermuda cedar trees in their construction. These two small vessels carried them the remaining 900 miles to Virginia, arriving there on 23 May 1610, during the dreadful "starving time" of 1609/10 which had reduced the infant colony from about 500 souls to "a haggard remnant of 60 all told; men, women and children scarcely able to totter about the ruined village". The starving Jamestown survivors had given up any hope of resupply and in some cases had resorted to "cannibalism" as discovered by recent archaeological excavations at Jamestown. The Jamestown colonists had also given up all hope that anyone from the "Sea Venture" had survived the hurricane. These 60 Jamestown survivors included the colonists from the other ships accompanying the "Sea Venture" who had escaped being caught in the hurricane en route to Virginia the previous summer. Without the leadership, and most of the supplies, all of which had been aboard the "Sea Venture", the rest of the colonists who had arrived at Jamestown on the other ships and those already there were ill-prepared to survive, resulting in the "starving time" of November 1609-May 1610. Several local factors also contributed to the "starving time" including famine caused by a severe prolonged drought in the area and local Indian hostility which included the Indians ceasing to supply the colonists with food. From the 1607 establishment of the colony, no plans had been made to make the colony self sufficient by growing its own food. All food up to this point was brought on supply ships.
Fortuitously, a rescue fleet of three ships including the "Tryall", the "Noah" and the "Swan" led by Thomas West (twelfth
Lord De La Warr, pronounced "Delaware") arrived soon after on June 10, 1610 with 250 passengers and a year's worth of supplies for 400 colonists prevented the total abandonment of Jamestown. De La Warr's timely arrival prevented Virginia from becoming another failed venture like the colony on Roanoke Island in the 1580s. The "Swan" also brought 10 year old "Cecily (__?__) [unknown maiden name]", the future wife of Samuel Jordan (1578-1623).
There were several English published accounts of the terrifying 1609 Bermuda shipwreck, stranding and survival ordeal
including that of Sylvester Jourdan (a "Sea Venture" shipwreck passenger; no kin to Samuel Jordan (!578-1623). In
modern times a detailed comparison to survivors' narratives shows that the account of William Strachey (also a "Sea
Venture" shipwreck passenger), published in 1625 as "True Reportory of the Wrack, and Redemption of Sir Thomas
Gates Knight", was the primary source of influence on Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".
Samuel Jordan married the 20 year old widow, Cecily (__?__) Bailey (aka Baley), in 1620. Evidence indicates that Cecily
had married her first husband, a man named Bailey, at the age of about 16/17. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the widow, Cecily (__?__) Bailey, brought a daughter, Temperance Bailey (b. circa 1617 in Virginia, to her second marriage, Samuel Jordan. There is no direct evidence that Cecily married Bailey but a six year old Temperance Bailey is listed as living at Beggar's Bush (later Jordan's Journey) in Charles City, 1623/24 (home of Samuel Jordan and his wife, Cecily) and is also listed there in the muster (1624/25) of William Farrar and the widowed Cecily Jordan. (Alexander Brown states in his book, "Genesis of the United States", 1890, page 933, that Samuel Jordan's plantation was probably the first to receive an alliterative name which became the fashion of the colony). Cecily's second marriage resulted in the birth of two daughters, Mary Jordan (b. 1621) and Margaret Jordan (b. 1623 after her father's death), whose lineages can't be traced presently. Since Temperance Bailey was a land owner at the age of three, it is evident that her father was dead and, as there is no record of a guardian to manage the estate, the probability is that she was the daughter of Cecily by a previous marriage. Thus, it is generally accepted that Cecily married Mr. Bailey (given name unknown) circa 1616 resulting in a child born in 1617 named Temperance Bailey. Mr. Bailey possibly died of malaria in 1619, making Cecily a widow for the first time and leaving his 200 acres to his 3 year old daughter, Temperance, making her a wealthy child. Her land was located adjacent to Samuel Jordan's land (see attached map for location of Temperance Bailey's land). Apparently, Samuel Jordan's land patent ranks next in date to "the earliest extant patent" (Nugent, Introduct., p.xxiv), which was granted by Gov. Sir George Yardley to Ancient Planter "William Fairefax, Yeoman of James Citie," 20 Feb 1619/20 (Nugent, p109). Samuel Jordan's extant patent for 450 acres, dated 10 Dec 1620, further confirms his arrival to Virginia in 1610 by stating he was an "ancient planter who hath abode 10 years complete in this colony". Temperance (Bailey) Baley's patent, which she received from the death of her father, was dated 20 Sept 1620 but isn't extant.
As Temperance Bailey Browne (her first husband was John Browne), she later became the first wife of Richard Cocke
and her descendants are well documented (see attached historical marker).
An interesting aside involved Joan Vincent, the wife of William Vincent of Bermuda Hundred. She apparently was a
habitual gossip, for in November 1624 the General Court decided to punish her for slandering her neighbor Alice Boyse
(Boise) also of Bermuda Hundred, whom she accused of bastardry and claimed Samuel Jordan had had a romantic
relationship with Alice causing problems between him and his wife, Cecily ("Where there's smoke, there's fire"; as
ironically Alice was accused in 1627 of having sex with Capt. William Epps in James Slight's house at Martin Brandon's).
"Beggar's Bush" (later renamed "Jordan's Journey") was located along the south side of the James River across from "
Berkley Hundred" (see accompanying map and historical marker). Early on the morning of Friday, 22 March 1622, a more or less simultaneously orchestrated treacherous Indian surprise attack killed 347 people, a quarter of the English
population of the Jamestown colony. The colonists at "Beggar's Bush" successfully repelled the attack without loss of life
and it was reported: "he (Samuel Jordan) gathered a few stragglers about him at "Beggar's Bush" where he fortified
himself and lived in spite of the enemy". One of these stragglers, William Farrar, (I), a neighbor, following 10 deaths at his
residence, rowed with his other household survivors down the Appomattox River onto the James trying to escape the
murder and mayhem at his plantation by seeking refuge at Beggar's Bush (see map for approximate location of Farrar's
household on the Appomattox River). Governor Francis Wyatt, after the massacre, wrote in April 1622 "that he
recommended having only a few outlying fortifications including the plantation of Mr. Samuel Jordan; while abandoning
most households and concentrating the colonists in Jamestown". Robert Jordan, son of Samuel Jordan was born about
1598 in England. Robert was detained at London's Bridewell Prison and Hospital and was sent to Virginia on 31 Dec 1619 and was recorded as being killed in the 1622 Indian massacre. The story goes that he was living at "Beggar's Bush" with his father, Samuel, and his stepmother, Cecily, and had gone to "Berkley Hundred", a distance of about 5 miles, to warn of the Indian attack and was killed there with the Berkleys. By 1623, Jordan had changed the name of his plantation to "Jordan's Journey".
Samuel was an important man in the colony, demonstrated by him being one of two men representing Charles City at the first legislative assembly in the New World which convened at Jamestown on 30 July 1619. He was also one of 8 men appointed to review one of the four books of laws sent to Virginia by the Virginia Company. In 1621, the Virginia Company sent him numerous barrels of cider, which suggests he was in their employ. One of his servants was identified as an apprentice which raises the possibility that Jordan had some type of specialized skill.
Samuel Jordan's very eventful life ended before April 1623 and he was probably buried in a family plot on his plantation, "Jordan's Journey". He has the designation of "Ancient Planter" ("Ancient Planter" was a term applied to colonists who
migrated to the Colony of Virginia "before the coming away of Sir Thomas Dale" (1616) and who remained in the colony
for at least three years). William Farrar, (I), an English barrister, who was living at Jordan's Journey at the time of Samuel
Jordan's death, was appointed administrator of Samuel Jordan's estate on 19 Nov 1623. Luckily for me, William Farrar
(age 42) and Cecily (age 25) finally married on 02 May 1625 in Henrico County amid the scandal of William residing in her household during the settlement of the civil suit (Breach of Promise). As the cohabitation of an unmarried heterosexual couple was illegal, their living arrangements had attracted the attention of their neighbors and ultimately, the authorities.
On 02 Jan 1625, Nathaniel Causey (then a resident of Jordan's Journey) testified that "he had never seen Mrs. Jordan
and Mr. Farrar indulge in unfitting behavior but he had seen them kiss". Her third and final marriage to William Farrar, (I)
produced three children; William II, John and Cicely.
At "Jordan's Journey", in 1676, the volunteers of Charles City County, south of the James River, assembled to join
Bacon's Rebellion.
Jordan's Journey appears to have been abandoned by 1635. In 1656, the land at Jordan's Point was acquired by
Theodorick Bland. In 1671, his son Richard Bland, (I) of Berkeley Plantation inherited it, and established a home known
as "Jordan's Point Plantation" there at some time before his death in 1720. For over 100 years Jordan's Journey was the
home of members of the Bland family. Richard Bland, (II) of Jordan's Point, who served as a member of the House of
Burgesses from Prince George Co. from 1742 to 1775 and was acknowledged as one of the leading ardent revolutionary patriots in the struggle against the British, owned it at the time of the Revolution but the old plantation house has long since vanished (see attached Jordan's Point historical marker).
Archeological excavations were done on the site at present day Jordan's Point, Prince George Co., VA near the
confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers between 1990 and 1992 by Virginia Commonwealth University. The site was one of the richest prehistorical and historical archeological sites in Virginia (see attached Jordan's Point historical marker).
Sources:
1) "These Jordans Were Here" by Octavia Jordan Perry, 1969, pp15-19,26-33.
2) "Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5" by John Frederick Dorman, 4th Ed., Vol. II, 2005, pp363-364.
3) "John Pankey of Manakin Town, Virginia, and his Descendants" by George Edward Pankey, Vol. I, 1969. p418.
4) "The Harrisons of Skimino" Edited by Fairfax Harrison, 1910, pp20-23.
5) "Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635" by Martha W. McCartney, 2007, pp433,435.
6) "The Farrar's Island Family" by Alvahn Holmes, 1986, pp113-114,123-124.
7) "Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5" by John Frederick Dorman, 4th Ed., Vol. I, 2004, pp927-928.
Bio by Gresham Farrar.
|
1578 - 1623 (45 years)
