Samuel Jordan married about 1595 and had children, Anne Marie, Thomas, Robert and Samuel. His first wife died about 1608. He left the children behind when he first came to the New World. He married secondly to Cicely Reynolds who arrived in Jamestown on the "Swann" in 1611.


Captain Samuel Jordan was from England, the son of Thomas Jordan. He was a member of the Virginia Company. On June 2 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" .

The "Sea Venture " encountered a severe storm off the coast of Bermuda . It was wrecked beyond repair. The other ships outrode the storm and proceeded to Jamestown with the Sea Venture's cargo but not her passengers. The officers and crew of the Sea Venture remained on the coast of Bermuda for nine months building two ships, aptly named Patience and Deliverance. These ships arrived at Jamestown in May 1610.
Samuel Jordan, an educated man, was assigned the task of keeping a record of events which are found in "Voyages, Travels and Discoveries", Volume 5, p 555.
The transcription of the adventures of people stranded in 1609 on Bermuda from the ship Sea Venture was Sylvestor Jordan, Samuel Jordan's cousin.This transcription is the basis of "The Tempest" by Shakespeare. Samuel Jordan also was one of the authors of "The Book of The Fowler" which essentially was the first constitution in the New World.

Perhaps this is one of the first examples of the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. (An area in the western Atlantic Ocean where many ships and planes are supposed to have been mysteriously lost) !


Samuel, is called "An Ancient Planter" of Virginia due to his early arrival in May of 1610. He established himself in Charles City County and patented a piece of land which jutted out into a great James River curl he named "Jordan's Point".   There he built his plantation known as  in the present day Prince George County, VA near the town of Hopewell. 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.


Samuel was a member of the first House of Burgesses, a representative of St, James City, which convened in 1619 by George Yardley, Governor and Captain General of Virginia. This was the first legislative body to convene in America.


A land grant of four hundred and fifty acres was made at St. James City in 1620 to Samuel and Cicely. He patented the land which lay on the south side of the James River just below the confluence of the Appomattox with the James River.

In July 1622 an additional 100 acres in "Diggs His Hundred" was assigned to Samuel Jordan. In 1623 census he is mentioned as a member of the House of Burgesses.
In 1625 "Captain Samuel Jordan" founded Jordan's Journey, also known as "Beggers Bush" on 450 acres near where the Appomattox River empties into the James. He fortified his house during the Indian Massacre of March,1622, and survived. His grandson Samuel Jordan, 1684-1742, was the officall interpreter of 1713 offical peace talks with American Indians as he had learned several native languages. At the request of the Indians he built a trading post behind his home.