Captain Edmund Rossingham | |
---|---|
Born | unknown |
Died | unknown |
Other names | Edmund Roffingham, Ensigne Rossingham, Edmund van Rasseghem |
Occupation | Factor |
Years active | 1619-1633 |
Parent(s) | Dionysis Rossingham (father), Mary Flowerdew (mother) |
Relatives | Temperance Flowerdew (aunt), George Yeardley (uncle) |
Member Virginia House of Burgesses | |
Personal details | |
Residence(s) | Flowerdew Hundred Plantation, Virginia Colony |
Military service | |
Branch/service | Virginia colonial militia |
Rank | Ensign (1619); later Captain |
Edmund Rossingham was the nephew of and factor for Sir George Yeardley, who was Governor of the Colony of Virginia and his wife Temperance Flowerdew. Rossingham was a member of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619, representing Flowerdew Hundred Plantation. After Yeardley's death, he sued the estate for unpaid wages, but Ralph Yeardley refused him on multiple requests.
Rossingham was a son of Temperance Flowerdew's elder sister Mary Flowerdew and her husband Dionysis Rossingham. [1] [2] According to records, Edmund's original surname was "van Rasseghem". [3]
Rossingham arrived in Jamestown in April 1619 with the returning Governor Yeardley, aboard the George. [4] [5]
Upon Yeardley's return to Virginia, he found the colony short of food. Yeardley sent Captain John Martin along with Ensign Harmon Harrison and Ensign Edmund Rossingham to the Chesapeake Bay to trade for corn with the native Indians. When the Indians refused to sell their corn, Martin took it from them by force. The General Assembly considered the matter but unlike with later controversies concerning Martin, Rossingham, as well as Speaker John Pory and others supported Martin's side. [6]
Along with John Jefferson, Ensign Edmund Rossingham represented Yeardley's plantation, Flowerdew Hundred, in the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, July 30–August 4, 1619 (N.S.). [4] [7]
Rossingham reported that Yeardley gave him a power of attorney and sent him to Newfoundland to trade in January 1620. [4] Rossignham worked for Yeardley as a factor in 1621 and 1623. [4] He also was in England in 1622 to seek debt relief for Yeardley from the Virginia Company of London and the Society of Southampton Hundred. [4] While in England, he testified against Captain John Martin in a Virginia Company hearing concerning Martin's disputes with Yeardley as well as giving information about conditions in Virginia. By this time, Rossingham was identified as Captain. [8]
Sir George Yeardley died in Jamestown on November 10, 1627. [5] Rossingham then tried to obtain payment for his services from Yeardley's estate, stating that he was the chief means of raising the value of the estate to £6,000. [9] Ralph Yeardley, brother of George and administrator of his estate, refused to pay Rossingham. [4] The commissioners for Yeardley's plantation awarded Rossingham 360 pounds on September 25, 1629 but Yeardley still refused to pay. [9] After Rossingham petitioned the Privy Council, on February 19, 1630, the Council ordered Ralph Yeardley to pay Rossingham 200 pounds. [4] [9] Since Yeardley still refused to comply with the order, Rossingham brought suit against him in the Court of Chancery which continued until at least November 1630. [4]
Reliable and verifiable information about Rossingham's later years and death aren't definitively known. [10]
The House of Burgesses was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States when Virginia was a British colony. From 1642 to 1776, the House of Burgesses was an important feature of Virginian politics, alongside the Crown-appointed colonial governor and the Virginia Governor's Council, the upper house of the General Assembly.
Sir George Yeardley was a planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated 1609 Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for ten 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 and continued to meet, becoming the Virginia General Assembly.
Francis West was a Deputy Governor of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia.
Adam Thoroughgood [Thorowgood] (1604–1640) was a colonist and community leader in the Virginia Colony who helped settle the Virginia counties of Elizabeth City, Lower Norfolk and Princess Anne, the latter, known today as the independent city of Virginia Beach.
Flowerdew Hundred Plantation dates to 1618/19 with the patent by Sir George Yeardley, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia, of 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the south side of the James River. Yeardley probably named the plantation after his wife's wealthy father, Anthony Flowerdew, just as he named another plantation "Stanley Hundred" after his wife's wealthy mother, Martha Stanley. A "hundred" was historically a division of a shire or county. With a population of about 30, the plantation was economically successful with thousands of pounds of tobacco produced along with corn, fish and livestock. Sir George paid 120 pounds to build the first windmill in British America.
Christopher Lawne was an English merchant and Puritan of note, who was among the earliest settlers in the Virginia Colony in the early 17th century. Born in Blandford, Dorset, he emigrated on his ship, the Marigold in May, 1618, and died in Virginia the following year.
John Pory (1572–1636) was an English politician, administrator, traveller and author of the Jacobean and Caroline eras; the skilled linguist may have been the first news correspondent in English-language journalism. As the first Speaker of the Virginia General Assembly, Pory established parliamentary procedures for that legislative body still in use today.
Captain Samuel Mathews was a Virginia planter, political figure, and the father of Governor Samuel Mathews. Also known as Colonel Mathews, the elder Samuel became one of the most prominent men in the colony.
Temperance Flowerdew, Lady Yeardley was an early settler of the Jamestown Colony and a key member of the Flowerdew family, significant participants in the history of Jamestown. Temperance Flowerdew was wife of two Governors of Virginia, sister of another early colonist, aunt to a representative at the first General Assembly and "cousin-german" to the Secretary to the Colony.
William Powell, was an early Virginia colonist, landowner, militia officer and legislator. Considered an ancient planter for living in the Virginia colony during its first decade, he was one of two representatives from what became James City County, Virginia in the first Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619. His former plantation, now across the James River in Surry County, Virginia is now within Chippokes State Park.
In May 1607, one hundred men and young boys were on an expedition where they arrived in what is now known as Virginia. This group were the first permanent English settlers in America. They named the colony of Jamestown, after the English King James. The site was chosen precisely for its location and beneficial factors. Jamestown was surrounded by water on three sides of the land; this made it easily accessible for ships to come and go. It was far enough inland, making it easier to defend from a possible Spanish attack. At the time, it was said that the men had to be able to create a living before any women could be a part of the colony.
William Farrar was a planter, lawyer, real estate investor and politician in colonial Virginia who served on the Virginia Governor's Council. A subscriber to the third charter of the Virginia Company, Farrar immigrated to the colony from England in 1618. After surviving the Jamestown massacre of 1622, Farrar moved to Jordan's Journey. In the following year, Farrar became involved in North America's first breach of promise case when he proposed to Samuel Jordan's widow, Cecily, who was allegedly engaged to another man. In 1624, the case was dropped, and Farrar and Cecily married.
Cecily Jordan Farrar was one of the earlier women settlers of colonial Jamestown, Virginia. She arrived in the colony as a child in 1610 and was established as one of the few female ancient planters by 1620. After her husband Samuel Jordan died in 1623, Cecily obtained oversight of his 450-acre plantation, Jordan's Journey. In the Jamestown Muster of 1624-1625, she is one of fewer than ten women mentioned as a head of household and the only woman listed as sharing the head of household with a man she was not married to. In the year of Samuel Jordan's death, she set off the first breach of promise lawsuit in English North America when she chose the marriage proposal of William Farrar, who was bonded to help settle her estate, over that of Greville Pooley, who claimed his proposal had already been accepted. In 1625, Cecily prevailed when Pooley withdrew his claim. Afterward, she married William Farrar.
Samuel Sharpe, sometimes referred to as Samuel Sharp or "Ssamuel" was an early Virginia colonist who settled in the area that became Charles City County, Virginia. He came to Virginia in 1610 with most of the passengers and crew of the Sea Venture as they made their way to the colony after 10 months in Bermuda. They had wrecked in a storm there and built two small boats to complete their journey to Jamestown. Along with Samuel Jordan, he represented Charles City as a burgess in the first general assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. He was a representative for Westover, an incorporation of Charles City, in the 1623/24 assembly and signed a letter along with several burgesses at the time of that assembly.
William Spencer was an early Virginia colonist on Jamestown Island, who was an Ancient planter and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia for Mulberry Island in 1632/33.
William Sharpe was an early Virginia colonist, soldier, ancient planter, and Virginia Company shareholder who settled in the Bermuda Hundred area that became part of Charles City County, Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1629.
John Pollington was an early Virginia colonist who was a member of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 for the "Citie" of Henricus, Virginia. In 1624, he was a burgess for Warrosquyoake Shire sometimes shown as Warresqueak and other variations, now Isle of Wight County, Virginia. He also was a landowner and merchant.
Robert Stacy was a colonist and politician in the Colony of Virginia who briefly served as one of the 22 members of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619.
This is a timeline of events related to the settlement of Jamestown, in what today is the U.S. state of Virginia. Dates use the Old Style calendar.