George Yeardley

Sir George Yeardley (1587 - 1627) was a plantation owner and three time colonial Governor of the British Colony of Virginia. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the "Sea Venture", was shipwrecked on Bermuda for 10 months, he is best remembered for presiding over the initial session of the first representative legislative body in Virginia in 1619. With representatives from throughout the settled portion of the colony, the group became known as the House of Burgesses. It has met continuously since, and is known in modern times as the Virginia General Assembly.

Early life

George Yeardley was baptized 28 July 1588 in St. 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.

The Shipwreck

Yeardley set sail on 1 June with the newly appointed Gates aboard the "Sea Venture", the flagship of the ill-fated Third Supply expedition to Jamestowne. Leaving England in 1609, 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.

Jamestown

The shipwreck survivors found the colonists of Jamestown in desperate condition. 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. 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, and one of the few survivors of the Starving Time".

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. He was granted convert|300|acre|km2|1 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 convert|1000|acre|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 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.

Yeardley led the first representative Virginia General Assembly, the legislative House of Burgesses, to meet on American soil convened at the church in Jamestown, 30 July 1619. 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. 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. No issue.
*Argoll Yeardley (1617-1655).
*Francis Yeardly (1620-1623), died young.

After Yeardley's death Temperance Flowerdew married Governor Francis West.

ources

*Deetz, James,"Flowerdew Hundred: the Archaeology of a Virginia Plantation 1619-186". (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/