Temperance Flowerdew

Temperance Flowerdew (c. 1567-Dec 1628) was the daughter of Anthony Flowerdew of Hethersett, Norfolk, England and Martha Stenley of Scottow, Norfolk, England.

Tempestuous Sea Voyage

Temperance sailed for [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown] aboard the Falcon in 1609 in a ship convoy as part of the Virginia Company of London's Third Supply Mission. During trip, they encountered a severe storm, possibly a hurricane. The flag ship of the convoy, the Sea Venture, had the new leaders for Jamestown, and it became separated from the convoy. The Sea Venture was grounded on the island of Bermuda with George Yeardley aboard. The Falcon, with Temperace Flowerdew aboard, made port in Jamestown a few weeks later, and none too soon. So many of the provisions had been depleted that the passengers had been reduced to eating rats.

The colonists in Jamestown feared that the Sea Venture had gone down. Temperance Flowerdew survived the "Starving Time" that winter and was there ten months later when the survivors of the Sea Venture finally arrived in two smaller ships made from its wreckage. The survivors of the Sea Venture thought they would find a thriving colony and were shocked to discover that of the 500 colonists living there the previous autumn, only about 65 had survived.

Temperance Flowerdew returned to England shortly after this.

Marriage to George Yeardley

Three years later, in 1613, Temperance married George Yeardley and they had three children. * Elizabeth (c. 1614)

• Argoll (1618)
• Francis (1623).

In 1616, her husband, then Deputy Governor of Virginia, secured a peace with the Chickahominy Tribe that made it possible for the colonists to trade with them and live in peace for the next two years. Yeardley's term ended in 1617.

When traveling to England in 1618, Yeardley was knighted and appointed Governor of Virginia. Governor Yeardley was purported to be one of the wealthiest men in Virginia.

Governor Yeardley returned to Jamestown, and in 1619 he initiated the first legislative assembly by ordering representatives from all parts of the colony to convene at the Jamestown church on July 3, 1619 to determine the laws that would govern them. The was the founding of the House of Burgesses.

Governor Yeardley was given a patent grant of 1,000 acres and named it Flowerdew Hundred Plantation. There are conflicting stories regarding the naming of this land. It is said that he named it for his wife, but since the land was previously owned by Temperance Flowerdew's brother, it is likely that the plantation was named for him.

Yeardley commissioned the building of America's first windmill on the plantation in 1621.

Tumultuous Times

On March 22, 1622, the Powhatan Indians enacted a carefully orchestrated attack of the colonists and wiped out approximately twenty-five percent of them. Records show that Flowerdew Hundred lost six out of approximately thirty people who lived and worked there. None of the Yeardley family members were killed in the attack.

Second Marriage

In 1627, Temperance's husband died and she married his successor, Governor Francis West (1586-1634), son of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr, on March 31, 1628. Unfortunately, she died in December of the same year, leaving her three children, ages 14, 10, and 5, orphans.

External Links

• - Biography of Temperance Flowerdew

• - Starving Winter of 1609-1610 - Temperance Flowerdew

• Lady Yeardley in Historical Jamestown

• JSTOR News - Concerning George Yardley and Temperance Flowerdew - A synopsis and review By James P. C. Southall

Sources:

Weis, Frederick Lewis. Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 2006.

Athearn, Robert G. The New World: American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, Volume 1. Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1963.

Collins, Gail. America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2003.