Samuel Jordan (died 1623) was an early settler and
ancient planter "Ancient planter" was a term applied to early colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia in what is now the United States, when the colony was managed by the Virginia Company of London. They received land grants if they stayed in the colony fo ...
of colonial
Jamestown. He arrived in Virginia around 1610, and served as a
Burgess __NOTOC__
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in the
first representative legislative session in North America. Jordan patented a plantation known as
Jordan's Journey (a.k.a. 'Beggar's Bush'), which became a safe haven and stronghold for settlers during the
Second Anglo-Powhatan War
The AngloPowhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy in the early seventeenth century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The ...
that ensued after the
Powhatan surprise attack of 1622. Jordan died in 1623. After his death, the control of Jordan's Journey was uncertain: his widow
Cecily Jordan became involved in the
first breach-of-promise dispute in North America, the suit filed by Rev. Greville Pooley. Cecily Jordan won the case, then married
William Farrar; her daughters with Jordan inherited Jordan's Journey.
Early life and arrival in New World
Samuel Jordan came to Virginia sometime around 1610,
[ as his 1620 patent mentions him as having lived ten years in the colony.][
Samuel Jordan's early life is uncertain. ]Alexander Brown Alexander Brown may refer to:
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*Sandy Brown (footballer, born 1877) (Alexander Brown, 1877–1944), Scottish footballer
*Sandy Brown (footballer, born 1939) (Alexander Dewar Brown ...
suggests "he was probably married more than once".[ Some authors state that he had three sons from a first wife who were born in England: Robert, Samuel, and Thomas.][ Though the genealogist John Dorman does not mention either Robert or Samuel, he does acknowledge the possibility that Thomas Jordan, who arrived in Virginia at age 18 aboard ''Diana'' in 1619, could be Samuel's son from an earlier marriage in England; however, he also points out there is no conclusive evidence to establish this relation.][
]
Role in Virginia government
When Deputy-Governor George Yeardley
Sir George Yeardley (1587 – November 13, 1627) was a planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated Third Supply M ...
called the first representative legislative assembly in Virginia in 1619, Jordan served as a Burgess __NOTOC__
Burgess may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Burgess (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Burgess (given name), a list of people
Places
* Burgess, Michigan, an unincorporated community
* Burgess, Missouri, U ...
on behalf of Charles City.[ During this first meeting, Jordan also served on the committee of readers for the Great Charter, which been recently received from the ]Virginia Company
The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Main ...
and had authorized the assembly.[ As a privilege granted by the Great Charter, Jordan also became an ]ancient planter "Ancient planter" was a term applied to early colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia in what is now the United States, when the colony was managed by the Virginia Company of London. They received land grants if they stayed in the colony fo ...
,[ which entitled him to 100 acres of land.
]
Marriage to Cecily
Sometime before 1620, Jordan married Cecily,[ who had arrived in Virginia around 1611][ and was around 18 when they married. {{notetag, Based on Jamestown muster of 1625, which gives Cecily's age as 24 at the time.][{{r]
210
} By 1621, their first daughter Mary had been born,[{{r]
210
} and when Jordan died in 1623, Cecily was pregnant with her second daughter, Margaret.
In 1620, Samuel Jordan officially received his patent for 450 acres of land. {{notetag, The patent was not entered into the record until 1690 when Richard Bland
Richard Bland (May 6, 1710 – October 26, 1776), sometimes referred to as Richard Bland II or Richard Bland of Jordan's Point, was an American Founding Father, planter and statesman from Virginia. A cousin and early mentor of Thomas Jeffers ...
had acquired the property.[ This patent included 200 acres for both his and Cecily's claim as ancient planters, as well as an additional 250 acres as ]headright A headright refers to a legal grant of land given to settlers during the period of European colonization in the Americas. Headrights are most notable for their role in the expansion of the Thirteen Colonies; the Virginia Company gave headrights to s ...
for paying the transportation costs to Virginia for five indentured servants
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...
.[ Jordan's patent, located at today's ]Jordan Point, Virginia
Jordan Point (or Jordan's Point) is a small unincorporated community on the south bank of the James River in the northern portion of Prince George County, Virginia, United States. It is about 20 miles from Richmond and 30 miles upstream from James ...
, was originally known as Beggars Bush[ and later as Jordan's Journey.][
When the ]paramount chief
A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and arch ...
Opechancanough
Opechancanough (; 1554–1646)Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas, Powhatan, ''Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown.'' University of Virginia Press: Charlottesville, 2005 was paramount chief of the Tsenacommacah, Powhatan Confed ...
of the Powhatan Confederacy
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
launched the surprise attack of 1622 that killed nearly a third of the English colonists and triggered the Second Anglo-Powhatan War
The AngloPowhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy in the early seventeenth century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The ...
, nobody from Jordan's Journey was listed as killed.[{{rp, 556 Jordan's Journey withstood the attack and became a fortified refuge.][ After the initial assault, many of the outlying settlements were temporarily abandoned, and most of the colonists were ordered to move to a small number of relatively safer settlements, one of which was Jordan's Journey.][{{rp, 612 As a result, Jordan's Journey grew. In February 1624, 42 people were living at Jordan's Journey;][{{r]
171
} a year later, 56 people were living there.[{{r]
209–213
}
Death and aftermath
{{See also, Cecily Jordan v. Greville Pooley dispute
Samuel Jordan died sometime before mid-February 1623,{{notetag, Archaeologists who excavated Jordan's Journey have speculated that one of the more elaborate graves adjacent to the main residence containing the remains of a man between 35 and 39 may be Samuel Jordan's. If this is the case, Jordan was most likely born c. 1584-1588.[{{rp, 51–53,63–64 as his name does not appear among living at Jordan's Journey in a list submitted to the Virginia Company that month.][{{r]
171
} After he died, Cecily almost immediately became involved in a legal dispute that has been called the first breach-of-promise suit in North America.[ About three days after Jordan had died, Reverend Greville Pooley proposed marriage.][ By June 1623, Cecily had contracted herself to another man who was currently living at Jordan's Journey, William Farrar, who was bonded to execute Samuel Jordan's will.][{{r]
42
} Pooley took the case to the Virginia Council
The Governor's Council (also known as the "Council of State" or simply "the Council") was the upper house of the colonial legislature (the House of Burgesses was the other house) in the Colony of Virginia from 1607 until the American Revolution i ...
, claiming his proposal had initially been accepted.[{{r]
218
} The outcome of this dispute not only determined who would marry Cecily, but also who would ultimately have say over the management of Jordan's property.[ After a prolonged period of litigation that lasted until 1625, when Pooley eventually forswore any claims against her.][{{r]
42
} In 1625, Cecily Jordan and William Farrar married.[ Even though William Farrar had married Cecily, the lists of patents sent back to England still listed Jordan's Journey as owned by the Jordan family.][{{r]
554
} Farrar eventually acquired his own rights to a 2000 acre patent on Farrar's Island
Farrar's Island is a peninsula on the west side of the James River in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It is the site of the Dutch Gap Conservation Area and Boat Landing and the Henricus Historical Park. Originally, Farrar's Island was formed by ...
at the site of what had previously been Henricus
The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at Jamestow ...
,[ Historian Martha McCartney suggests Jordan's Journey may have remained with one or both of Jordan's daughters,][ but their fates are not recorded.
]
Notes
{{notefoot
References
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[{{cite book , editor-last=Dorman, John Frederick , title=Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607–1624/5: Families G-P (Volume 2), date=2004 , publisher=Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing , edition= 4th., url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tcM40zgdAZgC&dq=Samuel+Jordan+dorman&pg=PA363, pages=363–364, isbn=978-0806317632]
[{{ Cite book , author= Hatch, Charles E., year=1957, title=The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624, publisher=Williamsburg, VA: Jamestown 350th Anniversary Celebration Corp., page=68, url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30780/30780-h/30780-h.htm#JORDAN_R {{free access]
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[{{cite book , author=Miller, Brandon Marie , year=2016 , chapter= In This New Discovered Virginia: Cecily Jordan Farrar, “Ancient Planter” of Virginia, title=Women of Colonial America: 13 Stories of Courage and Survival in the New World, publisher= Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, pages=36–42, isbn=9781556525391, chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D95ZCwAAQBAJ&q=Cecily+Jordan]
[{{cite book, author1=McLearen, Douglas C. , author2=Mouer, L. Daniel, author3=Boyd, Donna M., author4= Owsley, Douglas W., author5= Compton, Bertita, year=1993, title=Jordan's Journey: A Preliminary Report on the 1992 Excavations at Archaeological Sites 44PG302, 44PG303, and 44PG315, publisher= Richmond, VA: Virginia Commonwealth University Archaeological Research Center, doi=10.6067/XCV81J98NK, url=https://core.tdar.org/document/6083/jordans-journey-a-preliminary-report-on-the-1992-excavations-at-archaeological-sites-44pg302-44pg303-and-44pg315 {{free access {{registration required]
[{{cite book , author=Nugent, Nell Marion, date=1934, chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cavalierspioneer00nuge/page/226, title=Cavaliers and Pioneers, a Calendar of Land Grants 1623-1800, volume=1, publisher=Richmond, VA: Dietz Press, chapter=Patent Book No. 2, page=226 {{free access]
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[{{cite book, url=http://www.americanjourneys.org/pdf/AJ-082.pdf, title=The Generall Historie of Virginia, the Fourth Booke, last=Smith, first=John, date=1624, page=370, publisher=Madison, WI: Madison Historical Digital Library and Archives, AJ-082, author-link=John Smith (explorer) {{free access]
[{{cite journal , author= Southall, James P. C., year=1942, title=Cicely Jordan Farrar and Temperance Baley, journal=The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, volume=50, issue=1, pages=74–80, jstor=4245145 {{limited access {{registration required]
[{{cite journal , author= Southall, James P. C., year=1943, title=Links in a Chain, journal=The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, volume=51, issue=4, page=383, jstor=4245260 {{limited access {{registration required]
[{{cite book, title=Story of Virginia's First Century, author=Stanard, Mary Newton, author-link=Mary Newton Stanard, date=1928, publisher=Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, url=https://archive.org/details/storyofvirginias00stan/page/180, page]
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[{{cite book, author=Winslow, Ellen G. R., year=1931, title=History of Perquimans County As Compiled from Records Found There and Elsewhere, url=https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/text/13772, publisher= Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton, page=367 {{free access]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Samuel
1623 deaths
Virginia colonial people