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Mary Jordan[1]

Female Abt 1621 - Yes, date unknown


Personal Information    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Mary Jordan 
    Born Abt 1621  Beggar's Bush, Virginia Colony Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Died Yes, date unknown  Jordan's Journey, Jordan's Point, Virginia Colony Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I6149  My Reynolds Line
    Last Modified 16 Jan 2018 

    Father Samuel Jordan,   b. Est 1575, Prob. England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1623, Jordan's Journey, Jordan's Point, Henrico Co., Virginia Colony Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 48 years) 
    Mother Cecily Phippen Reynolds,   b. Abt 1600, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 12 Sep 1660, Charles City, Virginia Colony Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 60 years) 
    Married Bef Dec 1620  Virginia Colony Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F2045  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Sources 
    1. [S122] Genealogy. com, http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/m/a/y/Lyndall-J-Mayes/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0109.html.
      CECILY AND SAMUEL JORDAN
      As was the custom of the time it was an absolute necessity for the safety of the early female settlers to have a male protector. For this reason we frequently find widows marrying within a few weeks or months following the death of their husbands. Cecily 20, promptly married her much older neighbor Samuel Jordan 42, shortly before December 1620. Cecily was about a year younger than Samuel Jordan's eldest son. Samuel had been previously married in England with four known children, but after his first wife died he immigrated to America in 1609 aboard the "Seaventure" which was shipwrecked off Bermuda, not arriving in Virginia till May 1610. He was a member of the initial House of Burgesses of the Colony in 1619 where the first specific instance of genuine self-government emerged in the British Colonial Empire.
      Samuel and Cecily settled at "Beggar's Bush" later renamed "Jordans Journey" near the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers southside. One of Sir George Yeardley's first acts was to grant a patent of land at James City on Dec. 10, 1620 to Samuel Jordan of Charles City in Virginia. Gent. an ancient planter "who hath abode ten years Compleat in the Colony" and to "Cecily his wife an ancient planter also of nine years continuance." The land grants for being "Ancient Planters" were the rewards they had earned by their perseverance in establishing the first permanent beachhead of English colonization on American soil.
      Samuel Jordan later added large holdings on the south bank of the James at Jordan's Point. On the point jutting out into the James River, Samuel and Cecily developed alarge home plantation later renamed "Jordan's Journey," consisting of a palisaded fort enclosing 11 buildings. They were soon expanding their family too with the arrival of daughter Mary Jordan, born in 1621 or early 1622.
      Baby Mary Jordan probably had no memory of that fateful day of the vernal equinox, 22 March 1622, when the Great Indian Massacre fell on the colony like a thunderbolt from the sky. Powhattan's tribe tried to wipe out the entire English Colony in a concerted uprising on Good Friday. Fortunately for the Jordans they received a forewarning of the plot in sufficient time to fortify "Beggar's Bush" against attack. Early that morning Richard Pace had rowed with might and main three miles across the river from Paces Paines to Beggars Bush to warn Samuel Jordan of the impending blow. Without losing an instant, Samuel Jordan summoned his neighbours from far and near and gathered them all, men, women and children, within his home at Beggar's Bush, "where he fortified and lived in despight of the enemy." So resolutely was the place defended, that not a single life was lost there on that bloody day. They were also able to save their buildings and most of the livestock. The agony and terror of the women and children huddled together in the farthest corner of the little stronghold can only be imagined. The next day their neighbor Mr. William Farrar reached "Beggar's Bush" a few miles journey from his plantation on the Appomattox River. Ten victims had been slaughtered at his home and he himself had barely escaped to safety at the Jordan's where circumstances would force him and other survivors to remain for some time. About one third of Virginia colonists died during the Indian Massacre including Samuel's son Robert Jordan at Berkley Hundred in Charles City while trying to warn neighbors across the water of the impending Indian attack. In those days most people got around by boat and freely went from one side of the river to the other.
      Less than a year later in early 1623 Samuel Jordan passed away at the home he built later known as Jordan's Journey. Cecily was soon due to give birth to their second child. Samuel Jordan is known to have died prior to the February 16, 1623 census of Virginia colonists because his name is conspicuously missing from the list of inhabitants at Jordan's Journey and his and Cecily's second daughter Margaret had recently been born:
      From Persons of Quality: "A List of Names; of the Living in Virginia, February the 16, 1623"
      "Living
      At Jordan's Jorney
      Sislye Jordan
      Temperance Baylife
      Mary Jordan
      Margery Jordan
      William Farrar"
      (37 more names follow the above listed.)