Sir George Yeardley (1587 - 1627) was a plantation owner and three time colonial Governor of Virginia. Fundamentally a plantation is usually a large Farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country on which Cotton, Tobacco The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state
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Early life
George Yeardley was baptized 28 July 1588 in St. Events 1540 - Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of Treason. Saviour's Parish, Southwark, Surrey. Yeardley was the son of Ralph Yeardley (1549-1604), a London merchant-tailor, and Rhoda Marston (d. 1603). He chose not to follow his father into trade, but instead became a soldier and joined a company of English foot-soldiers to fight the Spanish in the Netherlands. As captain of a personal bodyguard, he was selected to serve Sir Thomas Gates during his term as Governor of Virginia. Sir Thomas Gates (fl 1585 - 1621) followed George Percy as governor of Jamestown the English colony of Virginia (now the Commonwealth of Virginia
The Shipwreck
Yeardley set sail on 1 June with the newly appointed Gates aboard the Sea Venture, the flag-ship of the 1609 expedition to Jamestowne. Events 193 - Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is Assassinated 987 - Hugh Capet is elected After seven weeks at sea and eight days from expected landfall the convoy ran into a tropical storm and the Sea Venture was shipwrecked in the Bermudas. No lives were lost, despite numerous problems and civil unrest amongst the former passengers, causing Gates to declare martial law, in 10 months time two small ships were built, the 30 ton Deliverance and the pinnance Patience, they arrived at Jamestowne 23 May 1610. Events 1430 - Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne
Jamestown
The shipwreck survivors found the colonists of Jamestown in desperate condition. Jamestown, located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony, was founded on May 14 1607 Most of the settlers had died from sickness, starvation, or been killed by Indians. Sir Thomas Gates agreed with the Jamestown settlers to abandon the colony and return to England. He ordered Captain George Yeardley to command his soldiers to guard the town preventing settlers from setting fire to the structures that were evacuated. Lord de la Warr soon arrived bringing supplies to save the struggling colony. Thomas West 3rd (or 12th Baron De La Warr ( July 9, 1577 &ndash June 7, 1618) was the Englishman after whom the bay, Captain Yeardley was co-commander of the early Forts Henry and Charles at Kecoughtan. In October 1610, Lord De La Warr ordered Captain Yeardley and Captain Edward Brewster to lead 150 men into the mountains in search of silver and gold mines.
Marriage and Deputy-Governorship
In 1613 Yeardley married Temperence Flowerdew, daughter of Anthony Flowerdew of Hethersett, County Norfolk, and his wife Martha Stanley of Scottow, County Norfolk. Temperence had also sailed for Virginia in the 1609 expedition aboard the Faulcon, arriving at Jamestowne in August 1609. In 1616 George Yeardley was designated Deputy-Governor of Virginia. One of his first duties was to come to an agreement with the Chickahominy Indians that secured food and peace for two years. He served from 1616-1617. Yeardley was appointed Deputy-Governor again in 1625.
Knighthood and Governorships of Virginia
Sir George Yeardley was knighted at Newmarket, England, on 24 November 1618, six days later he was commissioned Governor of Virginia. Events 380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal He was granted 300 acres (1. 2 km²) of land to help defer the cost of maintaining himself as governor. He owned another private plantation on the south side of the James River opposite Weyanoke, named Flowerdew Hundred.
Flowerdew Hundred plantation dates to 1618 with the patent of 1,000 acres (4. 0 km²) on the south side of the James River in Virginia. Sir George Yeardley, a Governor and Captain General of the Virginia Colony, named the property after his wife, Temperance Flowerdew. The plantation elected two representatives to the first General Assembly in Jamestown in 1619: one was an ancestor of President Thomas Jefferson. With a population of about thirty, the plantation was economically successful with thousands of pounds of tobacco produced along with corn, fish and livestock. Sir George paid 120 pounds (possibly a hogshead of tobacco) to build the first windmill in British America in 1621.
The plantation survived the 1622 onslaught of Powhatan Indians losing only six people. It remained an active and fortified private plantation unlike many others in the area, such as the Citie of Henricus. The "Citie of Henricus ", also known as Henricopolis or Henrico Town, was a city founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative The windmill was an English post design and was transferred by deed in the property’s 1624 sale to Abraham Piersey, a Cape Merchant of the London Company. The London Company (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) was an English Joint stock company established by royal charter by
Yeardley led the first representative General Assembly, the legislative House of Burgesses, to meet on American soil convened at the church in Jamestowne, 30 July 1619. Events 1419 - First Defenestration of Prague. 1502 - Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off One of the first acts of the this representative body was to set the price of tobacco. Yeardley was appointed Deputy-Governor again in 1625. He served a second time as Governor from 4 March 1626/7 until his death 13 November 1627. Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth Events 1002 - English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St Sir George Yeardley is buried in the church at Jamestowne, Virginia.
Yeardley married Temperance Flowerdew, daughter of Anthony Flowerdew and Martha Stanley. The couple had three children:
- Elizabeth Yeardley (1615-1660), married Major Joseph Croshaw. Major Joseph Croshaw (1610-1667 was a substantial Planter living near Williamsburg in the US Colony and Dominion of Virginia who served in the No issue.
- Argoll Yeardley (1617-1655).
- Francis Yeardly (1620-1623), died young.
After Yeardley's death Temperance Flowerdew married Governor Francis West. Francis West (28 October 1586 - February 1634 was a Deputy Governor of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia.
| Preceded by Thomas Dale | Colonial Governor of Virginia 1616-1617 | Succeeded by Samuel Argall |
| Preceded by Samuel Argall | Colonial Governor of Virginia 1619-1621 | Succeeded by Francis Wyatt |
| Preceded by Francis Wyatt | Colonial Governor of Virginia 1626-1627 | Succeeded by Francis West |
Sources
Deetz, James,Flowerdew Hundred: the Archaeology of a Virginia Plantation 1619-186. Sir Thomas Dale (d August 19, 1619) was a British naval commander and deputy-governor of the Virginia Colony in 1611 and from 1614 to 1616 This is a list of colonial governors of Virginia. Note Some of those who held the lead role as governors never visited the New World and governed through deputies resident in the Sir Samuel Argall (baptized 4 December 1580 &ndash c 24 January 1626) was an English adventurer and naval officer Sir Samuel Argall (baptized 4 December 1580 &ndash c 24 January 1626) was an English adventurer and naval officer This is a list of colonial governors of Virginia. Note Some of those who held the lead role as governors never visited the New World and governed through deputies resident in the Sir Francis Wyatt, ( 1588 – 1644) the first English colonial governor of Virginia. Sir Francis Wyatt, ( 1588 – 1644) the first English colonial governor of Virginia. This is a list of colonial governors of Virginia. Note Some of those who held the lead role as governors never visited the New World and governed through deputies resident in the Francis West (28 October 1586 - February 1634 was a Deputy Governor of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993). Hatch, Charles E. , The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1957). Morman, J. F. , ed. , Adventures of Purse and Person, Virginia 1607-1624/5 (Alexandria: Order of First Families of Virginia, 1987). Hume, Ivor Noël, The Virginia Adventure. New York, Alfred A. Knopf. 1994). Kolb, Avery, "The Tempest",American Heritage: Four Hundred Years of American Seafaring,April/May 1983. "Wreck and Redemption", The Web of Time: Pages from the American Past, Issue Two, Fall 1998.
Links
- http://www.flowerdew.org
- http://www.virginia.org/johnsmithtrail/
- http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/
- http://www.jamestowne.org/
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