Samuel Silas Jordan b.1578 and d. 1623 was my 9th great grandfather on my paternal side of the family. His son Thomas Fleming Jordan had a son Thomas Fleming Jordan II that had a son Joseph Jordan that had a son Joseph Jordan II that had a daughter Mary Elizabeth Jordan that married a Henley and their daughter Millicent Henley married Benjamin White - making Benjamin my 4th great grandfather.
Samuel Jordan - Jordan's Journey and Beggars Bush.
Samuel Jordan of Charles City, Virginia, had a house called Beggars Bush at his plantation Jordan’s Journey, on the confluence of the James and Appotomattax rivers, near Jordan’s Point. According to various Jordan County and Jordan family websites the house was named after the play by Beaumont & Fletcher. The chronology makes this highly unlikely, as Jordan must have left England before it was written. The name is likely to have been given by Jordan and to have been ironic given the situation.Jordan was reputedly from a family based in Dorset, and to have been married and widowed in England, leaving behind a son Thomas Jordan but there are no records to prove any of this.
Apart from the normal risks of being an early settler Jordan was also reputed to have been shipwrecked on Bermuda en route in the Sea Venture between 1609/10, but again there is no evidence of this or that he was related to Sylvester Jourdain, whose account of the shipwreck was reputed to be a source for The Tempest.
Jordan was a substantial citizen – in 1619 he was a representative of Charles City to the first legislative assembly Jamestown, the first ever to be convened in America, and on a committee to consider it’s rulebook. In 1620 Samuel married Cecily Bailey, (nee Reynolds) a young widow, also reputedly from Dorset. He died at Beggars Bush in 1623.
Jordan’s Journey Samuel Jordan and his new wife received the second land grant in the colony in December 1620 of about 450 acres which he may have managed for the colonial administration till then. He was described as a “an ancient planter who hath abode ten yeares compleat in this Colony”, with five servants. From this he must have came in the Third Supply, or on the Patience or Deliverance (with the Sea Venture survivors) or another ship in 1610.
It is recorded in The Generall Historiie of Virginia, New-England and the Summer Isles, by John Smith (1624) that during the Indian uprising by the Pamunkeys in 1622 when many settlers were killed that “Master Samuel Iordan gathered together but a few of the straglers about him at Beggers Bush which he fortified and lived in despight of the enemy”.
Jordan’s Journey was only occupied from 1620, when Samuel Jordan, and his household took up residence, until 1635, although the name is used in a land grant of 1638. (Thanks to Connie Grund)
Apart from the normal risks of being an early settler Jordan was also reputed to have been shipwrecked on Bermuda en route in the Sea Venture between 1609/10, but again there is no evidence of this or that he was related to Sylvester Jourdain, whose account of the shipwreck was reputed to be a source for The Tempest.
Jordan was a substantial citizen – in 1619 he was a representative of Charles City to the first legislative assembly Jamestown, the first ever to be convened in America, and on a committee to consider it’s rulebook. In 1620 Samuel married Cecily Bailey, (nee Reynolds) a young widow, also reputedly from Dorset. He died at Beggars Bush in 1623.
Jordan’s Journey Samuel Jordan and his new wife received the second land grant in the colony in December 1620 of about 450 acres which he may have managed for the colonial administration till then. He was described as a “an ancient planter who hath abode ten yeares compleat in this Colony”, with five servants. From this he must have came in the Third Supply, or on the Patience or Deliverance (with the Sea Venture survivors) or another ship in 1610.
It is recorded in The Generall Historiie of Virginia, New-England and the Summer Isles, by John Smith (1624) that during the Indian uprising by the Pamunkeys in 1622 when many settlers were killed that “Master Samuel Iordan gathered together but a few of the straglers about him at Beggers Bush which he fortified and lived in despight of the enemy”.
Jordan’s Journey was only occupied from 1620, when Samuel Jordan, and his household took up residence, until 1635, although the name is used in a land grant of 1638. (Thanks to Connie Grund)