Silvester Jourdain (abt. 1565 - abt. 1650)

Born about 1565 in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England

Died about 1650 at about age 85 in St Sepulchre Newgate, London, England

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Biography

Silvester Jourdain was a Jamestown colonist.

Silvester Jourdain, a son of William Jurdaine and Elizabeth Ryder^[1] was born around 1565, the year he was baptised in Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, England.^[2]

Silvester became a merchant and shipper, but never matched the accomplishments of his brother, Ignatius.^[3] He would, however, make a name for himself in another way: by his writing.

Silvester was possibly influenced by a neighbor, Sir George Somers, who had agreed to command a fleet of ships destined for Jamestown in 1609.^[4] Admiral Somers sailed aboard the flagship Sea Venture, and Silvester boarded the Sea Venture as well.^[5]

When the fleet was only about seven days away from Virginia, the ships were overtaken by a violent storm, probably a hurricane. Silvester Jourdain later wrote of their experience in this "most sharp and cruel storm." He reported that "with the violent working of the seas our ship became so shaken, torn, and leaked that she received so much water as covered two tier of hogsheads above the ballast; that our men stood up to the middles with buckets, barricos, and kettles to bail out the water and continually pumped for three days and three nights together without any intermission."^[4] The Sea Venture was separated from the fleet, and eventually wrecked upon the Bermudas, a place called "Devil's Island."

Silvester continued to record the adventures of the castaways, as they survived on Bermuda for eleven months, and finally made their escape to Virginia using two small boats fashioned from timbers found on the island and remnants from the wrecked Sea Venture.^[6]

They reached Jamestown to find a colony of starving and despondent people who had given up and were preparing to attempt an escape. In fact, they had boarded their four boats and were midway down the James River, when Lord de la Warr arrived with supplies and ordered them back to Jamestown.

Silvester was not the only person who believed that God had preserved them. He was one of a few who wrote about it. When Sir Thomas Gates and Captain Christopher Newgate returned home to England, they took with them two texts: Robert Rich's poem, The Lost Flocke Triumphant, and Silvester Jourdain's narrative, A Discovery of the Bermudas, Otherwise Called the Isle of Devils. Both writers conveyed the theme that their experience had been a result of God's "most gracious and merciful providence." A third document was not long behind: William Strachey's A True Reportory of the Wreck and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates. All three of these writings convinced the people of England that "the ship -- and the English nation -- had been chosen by God for greatness."^[4]

Both Strachey's and Jourdain's accounts captured the Sea Venture experience, but Jourdain omitted details like the mutinies that occured and the deplorable conditions found in Virginia. Both documents, however, are believed to have influenced William Shakespeake's writing of The Tempest.^[7]

We do not know how long Silvester Jourdain remained in Jamestown; he did eventually return to England, where he died unmarried, in the parish of St. Sepulchre beyond Newgate, London. in the spring of 1650.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Biography of Silvester Jourdain, Dictionary of National Biography, Vo. 30, author Gordon Goodwin.
2. ↑ Wikidata on Silvester Jourdain (accessed 12 Jul 2021)
3. ↑ Biography of Ignatius Jourdain
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Glover, Lorri., Smith, Daniel Blake. The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2008., pp. 72-74.
5. ↑ Passenger List of the Sea Venture 1609 Research and compilation by Anne Stevens, packrat-pro.com.
6. ↑ Sea Venture Monument, St. George, Bermuda (accessed 12 Jul 2021)
7. ↑ Summary of the Narratives of Strachey and Jourdain (accessed 12 Jul 2021)