Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
THIS IS A REPEAT OF A PREVIOUS POST IN THREAD ENTITLED "THOMAS JORDAN (1600-) ORIGINS" NO. 10632 OF OCT. 02, 2011
THOMAS JORDAN 1600 – ALTERNATIVE ORIGINS
By Michael Lutley Jordan
(September 2011)
Ever since I began researching the life of Samuel Jordan (d. 1623), the “Ancient Planter” of Virginia, some years ago, I have been puzzled and intrigued as to why many researchers locate his birth in Wiltshire rather than in Dorset where his supposed parents and family lived.
Since there appears to be no primary source data for Samuel’s place or date of birth, I have been drawn to the conclusion that Wiltshire is deduced from his supposed paternal association with Thomas (1600- ), whose place of birth is almost universally cited as Wiltshire.
Now there was, at this period, a notable Wiltshire Jordan family which was not immediately related to the large Dorset family. Could it be that Thomas, the settler of 1618, was not in fact Samuel’s son at all? After years of searching, I, like a number of other researchers, have been unable to find solid evidence for any of Samuel’s alleged sons; Robert, Thomas, Samuel and, for some, Daniel and Richard. The paternal relationship seems to have been assumed from the fact that they all had the same surname and were all in the infant colony of Virginia around the time of Samuel’s death in 1623 (which itself went unrecorded). So what about Peter Jordan, also recorded in the Muster list (first dead, then living)? Why not add him too to complete the picture?
If these were really Samuel Jordan’s sons, then why did none of them, according to the custom of the times, inherit his substantial estates, which appear to have passed down through his wife Cicely and their daughters?
A crucial, but unsubstantiated claim is sometimes made that Thomas lived on land in Pasbehayes that was due to Samuel, but had not been patented by him. If this can be proven, it could establish a direct blood relationship.
HERALDIC EVIDENCE
As an aid to sorting out ancient Jordan family relationships, I have made a considerable study of their coats of arms. The only reference I have been able to find to a Jordan coat of arms in America is to a stained-glass window in Saint Luke’s Church (“The Old Brick Church”) located near Smithfield in Isle of Wight county, Virginia. This bears the inscription “In Memoriam Col. Josiah William Jordan who departed this life January 8th 1652.”
URL: http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2010/09/memorial-heraldry-at-st-lukes-part-1.html#comments
SEE ALSO, for portrait and biographical sketch,
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=53024650
These arms display a football crest above with the motto below “Percussa Ressurgo”. These features together are unique in English heraldry to the family of Jordan of Chitterne and Whitley (Whistley) in Wiltshire, close to the world-famous site of Stonehenge. The arms in the glass bear, between eight crosses crosslet fitchée a lion rampant or, holding a crescent in the dexter paw.
This is almost identical to the base of the Chitterne and Whitley arms, which differ in having a plain yellow (or) chief.
The LDS database at FamilySearch traces Josiah’s family back to Thomas Jordan.
URL: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/PRF/individual_record.asp?recid=510297031&lds=2®ion=-1®ionfriendly=&frompage=99
Josiah William [1801-55!], William [1776-1814] (Martha Bidgood), John [1705- ] (Mary Goodson), James I [1665-1732] (Ann Roseter Tyrrell), Thomas II [1634-69] (Margarett Brasseur), Thomas I [1600-44] (Lucy Corker).
The Visitation of Wiltshire of 1623, on p. 86, gives us a three-generation pedigree of Jordan of Chitterne and Whistleye
URL: http://www.ukgenealogyarchives.org.uk/visitations/index.html - Vis. ;Wilts 1623 p. 86
and Burke’s Encyclopaedia of Heraldry … , 1847 (as well as other sources), gives us the arms as:
“JORDAN (Somersetshire; Chittern and Whitley, co. Wilts 1604) Az, a lion ramp. betw. eight crosses crosslet fitchée or; a chief of the second. (Another, the lion charged with a crescent gu.) Crest – A mount or, over it a scroll with this motto – Percussa ressurgo. (Another crest – a football ppr.)”
URL: Encyclopaedia of Heraldry or general Armory of England, Scotland ... John Burke - 1847 - Full view
http://books.google.com/books?id=a_FBAAAAcAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22John+Burke%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s
There is some confusion here between a “mount” and a heraldic “mound”, the latter being a regal orb, looking something like … a football! See Berry and Papworth.
William Berry, Encyclopaedia heraldica or complete dictionary of heraldry, Volume 1, Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1828 (Dictionary of Heraldic terms and mottoes, including Glover’s Ordinary)
http://books.google.com/books?id=w_5BAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
William Berry, Encyclopaedia heraldica ....., Vol 2, 1828 (Dictionary of Arms)
http://books.google.com/books?id=e_lBAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Encyclopœdia heraldica, or, Complete dictionary of heraldry Vol. 3 – Explanatory Plates (Plate XI)
William Berry - 1830 - Full view
http://books.google.com/books?id=qCcAAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
• John W. Papworth and Alfred W. Morant, Ordinary of British Armorials, volume 1 (1874) (Google Books) [Hints and tips]) [NO ONLINE VERSION]
[Other copies at: Internet Archive - Text Archive: 1 ; 2 .] [ONLINE VERSION]
• John W. Papworth and Alfred W. Morant, Ordinary of British Armorials, volume 2 (1874) (Internet Archive - Text Archive) [ONLINE VERSION]
[Other copies at: Internet Archive - Text Archive.]
http://books.google.com.br/books?id=a_FBAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
SEE ALSO:
“Mound” crest for Jordan
Fairbairn’s Book of crests
http://www.archive.org/stream/fairbairnsbookof01fair#page/n0/mode/2up
Reeves and Turner, The Book of Family Crests, 1882
http://www.family-crests.info/index.php
Elven, Vol. 2, H. Washbourne, London, 1851, 6th Ed. (p. 260 – JOR [None in 2nd Dict.])
For an illustration of these arms quartered with another family (Doran) and the crest and motto see:
URL: http://www.chitterne.com/ccmar08.pdf
You can find out more about Chitterne and its Jordan family on this website.
The Jordan arms of Chitterne should be compared with those of Lyme Regis and Exeter, of the family of Captain John Jordain of the East India Company and of the Exeter Merchant Adventurer brothers John and Ignatius Jordan. (It should be remembered that the Exeter Merchant Adventurers financed Raleigh’s early expeditions to the New World and John and Ignatius’ uncle Richard was a ship owner in John Davis’ second expedition to explore the Northwest Passage.[An Elizabethan Guild])
URL: http://www.archive.org/stream/elizabethanguild00cottuoft/elizabethanguild00cottuoft_djvu.txt p. 82
These arms are cited in Frances B. Troup’s An Exeter Worthy and his Biographer, after Isacke.
URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=e_lBAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Rose B. Troup, AN EXETER WORTHY AND HIS BIOGRAPHER p.351 (fn)
REPORT AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE DEVONSHIRE ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. [KINGSBRIDGE, JULY, 1897.] VOL. XXIX. PLYMOUTH : W. BRENDON AND SON, PRINTERS. 1897.
The Jourdain arms are:
1. Azure; a lion rampant between five crosslets fitchy, or ; a chief of the 2nd.
2. Azure; a bend between two water boudges, or.
Motto, “Potestate et formidine."
(See Izacke's Legacies to the Poor of Exeter.[ Rights and priviledges of the freemen of Exeter, 1736]) [NO ONLINE VERSION FOUND - aka Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter? pp. missing.]
Comparison should also be made with the arms of William Jordan of Shalcombe (Shawcombe) in the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, on the 1648 memorial to his daughter Jane, found in the church of Milford on Sea.
'Parishes: Milford', A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 (1912), pp. 115-124.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42058&strquery=
These arms differ from those of Chitterne only in the chief gules and most probably belonged to William III Jordan of Chitterne, the son and heir of Sir William Jordan. (In the Visitation of Wilts of 1565, we find John Temys of Clarewell in the Isle of Wight, and the last William’s grandmother, Anne Temys, came from this family. William’s wife’s name was Jane Long.)
The similarities between the Jordan of Chitterne arms and the memorial window to Josiah Jordan are remarkably striking and the differences small. Note particularly the presence of the crescent in both. Berry, in his Introduction to Heraldry … , Vol. 1, p. clxx and Vol. 3, Plate XI, informs us that the crescent was used as a distinction to indicate the second house or line of a second son.
William Berry, Encyclopaedia heraldica or complete dictionary of heraldry, Volume 1, Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1828 (Dictionary)
URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=w_5BAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Encyclopœdia heraldica, or, Complete dictionary of heraldry Vol. 3 – Plates (Plate XI)
William Berry - 1830 - Full view
http://books.google.com/books?id=qCcAAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Now the second son of William I Jordan of Chitterne, in 1604, when the arms were granted, was Temys Jordan. William did have other sons, Thomas, Edward and Henry, not included in the pedigree, but mentioned in his will of 1602 and elsewhere (PCC 2 Montague 1602). However this Thomas would have been born well before this time when Anne was described as beyond child-bearing age.
Temys Jordan, described as of Calne (Whitley?), Wilts in 1620, had two recorded sons, Temys and Edward Jordan, executors (but still minors) to the will of their uncle Edward, probated 18 May 1620 with administration granted to Temys sr. during his sons’ minority.
WILL (PROBATE) OF EDWARD JORDAN, GENT, OF BATH, 18 May 1620
178 SOAME, FOL. 46, 153
URL: www.archive.org/stream/abstractsofwills00churrich/abstractsofwills00churrich_djvu.txt
Full text of "Abstracts of wills in the Prerogative court of ...
http://www.archive.org/stream/yearbooksofproba01cantuoft/yearbooksofproba01cantuoft_djvu.txt
This means that Temys jr. could have been born around 1600. The name Temys (his mother’s family name) could easily have become modified to Thomas, or, alternatively, Temys sr. could have had another unrecorded son Thomas. It should be remembered that Thomas Jordan arrived in Virginia aboard the Diana in 1618, and it is customary in probate records to mention people “now in foreign lands”.
We learn from the History of Parliament Online website
URL: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/jordyn-william-i-1602
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/jordyn-william-ii-1566-1623
that Sir William II Jordan (1566-1623) moved to Wilcot, just outside Pewsey, after selling Chitterne manor (apparently without the house) in 1604 and he is reported there in 1611. His mother Anne left in her will several “progressive” protestant books. Sir William and his wife were given license to travel for a year to the Low Countries and Heidelberg, the principal European centres for new protestant theology. This would provide just the right kind of background for Thomas II’s later conversion to Quakerism under the influence of his Huguenot wife, Margaret Brashear, one of the first known Quaker converts in Virginia.
Wilcot lies only about 10km NE of Wedhampton, home to John Corker (1554- ), which itself lies some 20km NE of Chitterne across Salisbury Plain. Sir William Jordan and John Corker were effectively neighbours, and their children and nephews and nieces would almost certainly have known one another, especially since Sir William was MP for Westbury in 1593, representing the interests of Wiltshire wool growers in parliament. John Corker is, according to Corker family genealogy, the grandfather of Lucy Corker (1604-1645) who married Thomas Jordan in Virginia in about 1624.
We cannot break free of the widespread yet perhaps mythical notion of the Samuel Jordan/ Thomas Jordan relationship unless we can come up with a credible alternative hypothesis. A rapid web-search of the Jordan name together with local place names reveals that there are still a large number of Jordans living in the Chippenham area, notably in Hilmarton, and undoubtedly some of these are from traditional local families. Katie Jordan has made a special study of the Hilmarton Jordans. A DNA comparison of these with known descendants of Thomas Jordan in the USA could provide scientific proof of this genealogy.
I should welcome your comments.
M. L. Jordan
September 2011
================================================================================
SOURCES
IM Josiah W. Jordan
http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2010/09/memorial-heraldry-at-st-lukes-part-1.html#comments
SEE ALSO
Incl. portrait/ biogr.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=53024650
Vis. Wilts 1623
http://www.ukgenealogyarchives.org.uk/visitations/index.html Vis. Wilts 1623 p. 86
Burke’s Encyclopaedia… , 1847, (JOR – No p. nos.)
Encyclopaedia of Heraldry or general Armory of England, Scotland ... John Burke - 1847 - Full view
http://books.google.com/books?id=a_FBAAAAcAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22John+Burke%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Cp. PAPWORTH
• John W. Papworth and Alfred W. Morant, Ordinary of British Armorials, volume 1 (1874) (Google Books) [Hints and tips]) [NO ONLINE VERSION]
[Other copies at: Internet Archive - Text Archive: 1 ; 2 .] [ONLINE VERSION]
• John W. Papworth and Alfred W. Morant, Ordinary of British Armorials, volume 2 (1874) (Internet Archive - Text Archive) [ONLINE VERSION]
[Other copies at: Internet Archive - Text Archive.]
http://books.google.com.br/books?id=a_FBAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
William Jordan’s Unusual Crest
http://www.chitterne.com/ccmar08.pdf
Berry, Encyclopaedia heraldica ....., Vol 2, 1828
http://books.google.com/books?id=e_lBAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
An Elizabethan Guild])
URL: http://www.archive.org/stream/elizabethanguild00cottuoft/elizabethanguild00cottuoft_djvu.txt p. 82
Rose B. Troup, AN EXETER WORTHY AND HIS BIOGRAPHER p.351 (fn)
REPORT AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE DEVONSHIRE ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. [KINGSBRIDGE, JULY, 1897.] VOL. XXIX. PLYMOUTH : W. BRENDON AND SON, PRINTERS. 1897.
The Jourdain arms are:
1. Azure ; a lion rampant between five crosslets fitchy, or ; a chief of the 2nd.
2. Azure ; a bend between two water boudges, or.
Motto, “Potestate et formidine."
(See Izacke's Legacies to the Poor of Exeter.[ Rights and priviledges of the freemen of Exeter, 1736] )
http://www.archive.org/stream/reportandtransa12artgoog/reportandtransa12artgoog_djvu.txt
Richard Isacke, Samuel Isacke, Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter: Giving an Account of the Laws and Customs of the ... (1731)
http://www.archive.org/details/remarkableantiq00izacgoog
William Jordan of Shawcombe [Shalcombe], Isle of Wight
'Parishes: Milford', A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 (1912), pp. 115-124.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42058&strquery=
Jordan
“Mound” def.
William Berry, Encyclopaedia heraldica or complete dictionary of heraldry, Volume 1, Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1828 (Dictionary)
http://books.google.com/books?id=w_5BAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Encyclopœdia heraldica, or, Complete dictionary of heraldry Vol. 3 – Plates (Plate XI)
William Berry - 1830 - Full view
http://books.google.com/books?id=qCcAAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
“Mound” crest for Jordan
Fairbairn’s Book of crests
http://www.archive.org/stream/fairbairnsbookof01fair#page/n0/mode/2up
Reeves and Turner, The Book of Family Crests, 1882
http://www.family-crests.info/index.php
Elven, Vol. 2, H. Washbourne, London, 1851, 6th Ed. (p. 260 – JOR [None in 2nd Dict.])
http://books.google.com/books?id=cFoBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Will of William Jordan – 1602
?????????????????????????? PCC Online?
WILL (PROBATE) OF EDWARD JORDAN, GENT, OF BATH, 18 May 1620
178 SOAME, FOL. 46, 153
http://www.archive.org/stream/abstractsofwills00churrich/abstractsofwills00churrich_djvu.txt
Full text of "Abstracts of wills in the Prerogative court of ...
http://www.archive.org/stream/yearbooksofproba01cantuoft/yearbooksofproba01cantuoft_djvu.txt
History of Parliament Online – Biographical sketches
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/jordyn-william-i-1602
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/jordyn-william-ii-1566-1623
Notify Administrator about this message?
Followups:
|
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/jordan/messages/10738.html | ||
 |
Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|