Source: Blairs of Richmond, Virginia, Louisa Coleman Gordon Blair, William Byrd Press, Richmond, VA, 1933, p 102
"Samuel Jordan arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1610. He was owner of the plantation "Jordan's Journey", now Jordan's Point, on lower James RIver. He fortified his house, "Beggar's Bush" (named after Fletcher's Comedy), and escaped the Indian massacre of 1622. He resided there when the Virginia census of 1623 was taken. Member of the first Virginia House of Burgesses, 1619.
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Source: Summaries of major plays of Jacobean and Caroline Drama, http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/17cdrama.htm
Beggar's Bush (1622) , a comedy by Fletcher & Massinger , Set in and around Bruges (Belgium). Florenz is heir to Flanders but does not know it; he is living as a rich merchant in Bruges. He loves Bertha; she is heiress of Brabant but does not know it; she has been stolen away and placed with the mayor of Bruges. Florenz's father, Gerrard, the earl of Flanders, has been driven from his lands by Wolfort and is living as the leader of a band of beggars near Bruges, while he watches over Florenz. Wolfort wants to marry Bertha in order to gain Brabant. He sends a nobleman, Hubert, to get Bertha for him; Hubert loves Jacqueline, Gerrard's daughter, who is living with her father among the beggars. He joins the beggars, helps Gerrard capture Wolfort, and all is well. Florenz and Bertha marry.
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Source: Captain Samuel Jordan, http://www.genealogy.com/users/j/o/r/Rick-Jordan-2/FILE/0001page.html
Captain Samuel Jordan was from Dorsetshire in England, the son of Thomas Jordan. He was a member of the Virginia Company. In June of 1609, he set sail from Plymouth Harbor, bound for Virginia. He was a passenger on the Sea Venture,one of the nine ships which, in all, contained some 500 settlers, known as the "Third Supply" (Virkus,1942; Carrington, 1924). According to tradition his voyage to the New World became the basis for Shakespeare's play the Tempest.
The fleet was "caught in the tail of a hurrican" in the Atlantic. Of the original nine ships, one was sunk, and the flagship the Sea Venture-bearing Samuel Jordan, was wrecked off the cost of Bermuda, thus forming the basis of the The Tempest. For three days and nights the crew of the Sea Venture worked to keep the ship from foundering on the rocks. Wedged on the craggy shore, the Sea Venture was secured long enough for the crew and passengers to escape and most of the cargo was salvaged.
Also among the passengers was one Silvester Jourdain, also of Dorsetshire, and therefore likely a relation of Samuel Jordan. It is probable that the first authentic news of the Sea Venture disaster to reach England was throught Jourdain's pamphlet on the discovery of the "Barmudas" published in London in the Fall of 1610. Silvester Jourdain was the son of William Jourdain of Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire (Southall).
Samuel, is called "An Ancient Planter" of Virginia due to his early arrival in May of 1610. He established himself in Charles City County on the the plantation known as Jordan's Journey. His home was called "Beggar's Bush," named for a play by Fletcher. Samuel, doesn't appear again into the records in VA till 1619 when he was a representative to the first legislative session in Jamestown.
(The Family Chronicles Book Two The Jordan Family & Related Lines by Joseph Neal Luther 1993 pgs.2-4 found at SLC US/CAN 929.273 L977lg V.2 1 Apr 1997)
Samuel Jordan, the "Ancient Planter" who sailed on the ill-fated "Sea Venture" in the 3rd Supply in 1609, arrived in Jamestown in 1610 and established his home up the River at the confluence of the James and Appotomattox Rivers, calling his plantation "Jordan's Journey" and his home "Beggars' Bush". Samuel, b. ca. 1578, was a young widower at the time of his arrival in Virginia, and was the father of three sons who later followed him to the Colony.
Samuel and Sylvester Jordan had joined with some "six hundred land men" in a fleet of "eight good ships" and one pinnace under the command of Admiral Sir George Somers. The Seaventure, flagship of the flotilla and the newest vessel of the group, floundered in a severe storm and was dashed upon the rocks on Bermuda. Among other notables aboard were Sir Thomas Gates, who was to be interim Governor for the struggling colony at Jamestown, John Rolfe, who later introduced the cultivation of tobacco into Virginia and married the Indian Princess, Pocahontas, and Capt. William Pierce, whose wife and small children sailed on the "Blessing", another ship of the flotilla which arrived safely in Virginia in August 1609. Also aboard the ill-fated Seaventure was Stephen Hopkins, who later was a passenger on the Mayflower to Plymouth, MA.
The two Jordans, Samuel and Sylvester*, are mentioned in a novel by author F. VanWyk Mason about the voyage of the Seaventure, but their relationship to one another has not been ascertained.. They may have been cousins, or perhaps even brothers. After a number of months on Bermuda the survivors of the wreck managed to build two small pinnaces named the "Patience" and the "Deliverance", using the wreckage of the original ship in the construction. These two small vessels were to carry them the rest of the way to Virginia. By the time of their arrival, all hope had been given up for their survival, and it was a joyful reunion for the families of those presumed lost many months before.
*Sylvester Jordan is noted for his written account of the voyage
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