Our JORDAN Family
 
JORDAN - BRASSEUR
 
       Samuel Jordan, born in England, arrived in America in 1610 after a 14-month journey. The ship had been wrecked on an island in the Bermudas where nine months of hard labor were spent building a new vessel before sailing on to Jamestown. As one of the most educated men on the company, Jordan was selected to keep a journal of the proceedings, published in London under the title A Discovery of Bermudas. The new governor, Lord De La Ware, and John Rolfe arrived in Virginia on the same ship. This reinforcement of men and supplies saved the Jamestown settlement whose survivors were about to return to England.
       In Virginia, Samuel was granted 450 acres of land in his own right and 250 acres more for transporting his five servants. His estate was known as Jordan's Journey and was located on the James River, just south of the mouth of the Appomattox. He was a Member of the first Assembly at Jamestown in 1619 and was listed as a gentleman planter at Charles City. He was also a member of the committee to review the first four books into which the Great Charter of Virginia was divided. He fortified his house, Beggar's Bush, during an Indian ambush of 1622, and lived in despight of the enemy. The governor, Francis Wyatt wrote to the Council in London, in April of 1622, that he thoughtit fitt to hold a few outlying places including theJamestown. Samuel, a widower with three sons (Samuel, Robert and Thomas) still in England, married Cecily (Bailey?) who had arrived in Virginia on the Swann in 1611. They had three daughters before he died in 1623.

       Thomas Jordan was born in England in 1600 and came to America on the ship Diana in 1623. In 1624-5 he headed the list of the governor's men at James City, which indicates that he was a soldier in Governor Yeardley's Guard. He settled in the present Isle of Wight County and in 1635, he received a grant of 900 acres. He was a Commissioner of Wariscoyack and a Burgess in the Virginia Assembly in 1604. Thomas's wife, previously believed to be Lucy Corker, is unknown. and they had moved to Nansemond County by 1637. Thomas died before 1644, but the date of his wife's death is also unknown. Their children were Thomas; a daughter who married Thomas Davis; and a son (probably) Richard, who married Elizabeth Reynolds.
       
       The second Thomas Jordan married Margrett Brasseur.

She was the daughter of Richard and Florence Brasseur, immigrants from Avignon, France who first made their home in Maryland. Richard is reported to have given the land on which the Capitol was built. He patented 1,200 acres in Nansemond County on April 12, 1652.
       Thomas and Margrett Jordan were persecuted for their Quaker beliefs. The following is a tribute (as it was written) by his family after his death:

Thomas Jordan of Chuckatuck in Nansemond County in Virginia was Born in ye year 1634 and in ye year 1660 hee Received ye truth and [abode] faithfull in it: and in Constant unity with ye faithfull friends there of: and stood in opposition Against all wrong and [Deceitful] spirits: having suffered ye spoiling of his goods: & ye Imprisonment of his Body for ye truth sake: and Continued in ye truth unto the End of his days: is ye [Belief] of us his Dear wife and Children above Ritten.
Hee Departed this Life ye Eight day of ye tenth month on ye sixth day of ye weeke about ye second hour in ye afternoone and was Buryed ye twelfe day of ye said month on ye third day of ye weeke in ye year 1699.
       
       The children were Thomas, John, James, Robert, Richard (who married Rebecca Ratcliffe), Joseph, Benjamin, Matthew, Samuel, and Joshua.

      James Jordan (1665-?) married Elizabeth Ratcliffe (1668-1695). We know the names of three of their children: John, James, and Elizabeth.

      Elizabeth Jordan (1693-?) married John Knight .