The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established in 1619, became a bicameral institution.
Mary Shakespeare was the mother of William Shakespeare.
Richard Bland, sometimes referred to as Richard Bland II or Richard Bland of Jordan's Point, was an American Founding Father, planter, lawyer and politician from Virginia. A cousin and early mentor of Thomas Jefferson, Bland served 34 years in the Virginia General Assembly], and with John Robinson and this man's cousin Peyton Randolph as one of the most influential and productive burgesses during the last quarter century of the colonial period.
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 Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for ten months from 1609 to 1610, 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. Yeardley died in 1627.
Thomas Dowse, also known as Thomas Dawse and Thomas Dawles was an English-American immigrant who represented City of Henricus in the first meeting of the House of Burgesses on July 30, 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia.
Samuel Jordan was an early settler and Ancient Planter of colonial Jamestown. He arrived in Virginia around 1610, and served as a Burgess in the first representative legislative session in North America. Jordan patented a plantation known as Jordan's Journey, which became a safe haven and stronghold for settlers during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War that ensued after the Powhatan surprise attack of 1622. Jordan died in 1623. After his death, the control of Jordan's Journey was uncertain: his widow Cecily Jordan became involved in the first breach-of-promise dispute in North America, the suit filed by Rev. Greville Pooley. Cecily Jordan won the case, then married William Farrar; her daughters with Jordan inherited Jordan's Journey.
Isham Randolph was a planter, a merchant, a public official, and a shipmaster. He was the maternal grandfather of United States President Thomas Jefferson.
William Randolph I was a planter, merchant and politician in colonial Virginia who played an important role in the development of the colony. Born in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, Randolph moved to the colony of Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673, and married Mary Isham a few years later. His descendants include many prominent individuals including Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Paschal Beverly Randolph, Robert E. Lee, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Randolph, John Randolph of Roanoke, George W. Randolph, and Edmund Ruffin. Due to his and Mary's many progeny and marital alliances, they have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia".
Sir Dudley Digges was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1610 and 1629. Digges was also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in the Virginia Company of London; his son Edward Digges would go on to be Governor of Virginia. Dudley Digges was responsible for the rebuilding of Chilham Castle, completed in around 1616.
Richard Bennett was an English planter and Governor of the Colony of Virginia, serving 1652–1655. He had first come to the colony in 1629 to represent his uncle Edward Bennett's business interests, managing his plantation known as Bennett's Welcome in Warrascoyack.
Thomas Barbour was a prominent landowner and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Lt. Col. Samuel Mathews (1630–1660), Commonwealth Governor of Virginia, of Warwick County in the English Colony of Virginia, was a member of the House of Burgesses, the Governor's Council, and served as Commonwealth Governor of Virginia from 1656 until he died in office in January, 1660. There was no Royal Governorship at the time of the "Protectorate", and the Governor technically answered to the Cromwellian Parliament, although Royalist sentiment was prevalent in the colony of Virginia at this time. The former Royalist governor Berkeley arrived to replace him March 13, 1660.
William Dawson (1704–1752) was an Anglican clergyman, poet and member of the Governor's Council of Virginia who became the second president of The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia (1743-1752).
Theodorick Bland, also known as Theodorick Bland of Westover, was a planter, merchant and politician in colonial Virginia who served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses, as well as in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. The founder of the Bland family of Virginia, his son and grandson of the same name also served in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Revolutionary Was, and later descendants sharing the same name would become a federal judge and congressman.
William Farrar was a landowner and politician in colonial Virginia. He was a subscriber to the third charter of the Virginia Company who immigrated to the colony from England in 1618. After surviving the Jamestown massacre of 1622, he moved to Jordan's Journey. In the following year, Farrar became involved in North America's first breach of promise suit when he proposed to Cecily Jordan.
Samuel Sharpe, sometimes referred to as Samuel Sharp 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 Spence was an early Virginia colonist on Jamestown Island. He was member of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Spence became an ensign in the local militia and is thus sometimes identified as Ensign William Spence or Ensign Spence. He was an early farmer on Jamestown Island, a tobacco taster and landowner at Archer's Hope. He, his wife and his young daughter, Sara, or Sarah, avoided the Indian massacre of 1622, but Spence and his wife were reported "lost" at the census of February 16, 1624.
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.
George Reade was a prominent landowner, military officer, judge, and politician who served as a member of the House of Burgesses and as Acting Governor of Virginia Colony. He is the great-great-grandfather of the first President of the United States, George Washington.
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.
