| Temperance (Flowerdew) West resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies |
Temperance Flowerdew,[1] wife of Governor Sir George Yeardley and of acting Governor Francis West, was related by blood or marriage to several people of significance in the first 20 years of the Virginia colony; but not much is on record about the lady herself.
Indeed, the identity of Lady Yeardley was long a mystery. By 1896 it had been discovered that she was called "Dame Temperance Yardley als West" after her death,[2] from which it was mistakenly concluded by some that she was born a West, or at least, she was a West when she married Yeardley, and some old articles identify her thus. Clearly the mistake was corrected at some later date, but the relevant publication has not been identified.
Temperance is now placed [3] as a daughter of Anthony Flowerdew, of Hethersett, Norfolk, and his wife Martha (Stanley).[4] No baptism has been found and her date of birth is unknown. A Stanley Flowerdew, apparently her brother, is said to be mentioned in colony records in 1619, and a nephew, Edmund Rossingham,[5] represented Flowerdew Hundred at the first Assembly in 1619.[6] Temperance is also said to be a cousin-german [first cousin] of John Pory,[citation needed] sometime Secretary of the Virginia Company.
Subsequent events are confused, and accounts vary, relying on guesswork and supposition, as there are no contemporary records of Temperance before 1622. The date of her marriage to George Yeardley is unclear.
The Company census of 1623/4 found her with Sir George and their 3 children, and several servants, living with the Corporation at James City, as Jamestown was then called. In the Muster taken a year later, the same family were again listed at James City.[7]
The Muster (not noted for precision) does not give Temperance's age, but reports that she had arrived on the Falcon "in 1608". This presumably refers to a ship of that name said to have formed part of the expedition (often but misleadingly called the "Third Supply" mission) sent under Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates in 1609 to relaunch the failed colony.[8][9][10]
The Falcon had arrived in Jamestown in August 1609, having evidently survived or avoided the storm which led to the loss of the flagship, the Sea Venture. There is no contemporary record of the Falcon passengers, so Temperance's surname at the time is not known, nor is it known what family members she might have travelled with. Neither she nor any of her kinsfolk appears in Virginia records before 1619.
Her future husband, Yeardley, had apparently also sailed with the 1609 Somers expedition, but separately, traveling with Somers and Gates on the doomed flagship, and eventually arriving at Jamestown from Bermuda in 1610. He was made Deputy Governor in 1616, but was replaced by Argall in 1617. He then returned to England at some point, before or after the death of the absentee Governor, Lord Delaware, in 1618, whereupon he was appointed the next Governor and knighted by the King. He returned to Virginia in 1619. It isn't known whether he had a wife or any children with him when sailing.
Lady Yeardley, as she had become upon her husband being knighted, witnessed the will of John Rolfe on 10th March 1621/2,[11] shortly before the Indian Massacre. She appears in court proceedings in September 1625 and January 1626/7,[12] and was left a third of her husband's estate in his will, written 12th October 1627 (codicil 29th).[11][2][13]
Sir George was buried on 13th November, and on the 16th she renounced any dower rights in Flowerdew Hundred and Weyanoke, affirming that her husband had previously sold those properties to Abraham Piersey.[14][12]
Temperance was named as sole executor of her late husband's will, but authority in England was evidently needed. Letters of administration were therefore granted to his brother Ralph Yeardley on 14th March 1627/8, at the PCC in London, in view of Temperance being overseas.[11][2][13]
Very soon afterwards, in late March 1628,[15] she married Capt Francis West, who had been elected in the colony to act as Governor. He had recently lost his first wife, Margaret (widow of Capt William Powell and then of Edward Blaney), after a brief marriage.[12]
But he was to have no children by Temperance, as she died in December the same year, not leaving a will. On 14th February 1628/9, Ralph Yeardley (described as a London apothecary) was granted commissions at the PCC to administer her goods and her husband's, during the minority of her three named children.[2][13] [16]
Temperance was named one of the Virginia Women in History by the Library of Virginia in 2018.[17]
1. One Temperance Flowerdew married a Richard Barrow at St. Gregory by St. Paul's, in London, on 29th April 1609,[18] shortly before the Somers fleet sailed on 2nd June. There is nothing to connect this marriage with our subject except the name, which is unusual enough, but the habit of naming babies after relatives makes it dangerous to assume that any name is unique. If this is in fact the same lady, presumably she sailed with her new husband, but no trace of him or his death has been found in Virginia.
McCartney is presumably aware of that marriage record, but chooses not to mention it. She does however have that Temperance married George Yeardley in Virginia in 1613.[19]
Several writers say that Temperance and Yeardley were married in England on 18th October 1618. Presumably these reports trace back to a single original source, not yet identified. It would seem that the primary source, if any, is not a register entry or license grant, since no venue is stated; nor do we know what name the bride was using at the time, which would settle the question of whether she had a previous marriage.
Yeardley had it recorded in the Muster that his children Elizabeth, age 6, Argall, age 4, and Francis, age 1, were all born in the colony. The date of the Muster was 5 years and 9 months after Yeardley returned to Virginia, so if Elizabeth was born in the colony and had indeed turned 6, her pregnant mother must have sailed ahead, or perhaps never left the colony.
The eldest son Argall is said to have patented land in 1637,[3] and was appointed to the Council in 1639, suggesting that he at least was somewhat older than stated, and probably born before his father's return to England. Argall's brother Francis patented land in January 1642/3, suggesting a date of birth of 1621 or earlier.
These considerations might tend to support the earlier marriage date.
It can be noted that in 1618, Yeardley was shortly to acquire considerable inheritable estate and steps might have had to be taken to reduce the risk of his heir's legitimacy being open to challenge.
On the other hand, with few records and few survivors, it would have been easy and probably not uncommon for young people, especially orphans, to overstate their age and attain their majority early.
2. Opinions differ as to who was the mother of Francis West's children, if indeed they ever existed. (A potential source of confusion might be that West had Yeardley stepchildren called Francis and Elizabeth.)
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F > Flowerdew | W > West > Temperance (Flowerdew) West
Categories: Jamestown, Virginia Colony | Ancient Planters of Virginia | Starving Time | Featured Connections Archive 2023 | Jamestown Colonists | Jamestowne Society Qualifying Ancestors
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https://www.eclectibles.com/product-p/25020104.htm
which says in part that on 28 November 1618, John Pory wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton that he had been chosen to be "Secretary of Estate" in Virginia and "this Sir George Yardley hath married my cousin German and infinitely desires my company..." citing Alexander Brown, The First Republic in America. https://archive.org/details/firstrepublicina01brow/page/294/mode/2up?q=Yardley
edited by Kathie (Parks) Forbes
"...parentage of Temperance.... statement made by Edward Rossingham that George Yeardley was his uncle. His litigation with Ralph Yeardley revealed that Lady Yeardley was his aunt.... further search in Chancery Proceedings revealed the maiden name of Mrs. Rossingham and Lady Yardley. ... Edward Rossingham's grandmother Martha ... bequeathed her signet ring to her daughter Temperance Yardley, otherwise Flowerdew."
"= Research Notes = "Sir George Yeardley, or Yardley, governor and captian general of Virginia, and Temperance (West) Lady Yeardley, and some of their descendants"
see also ...
> Hotten's Original List of Immigrants; Capt. Nelson Martin, Master
> N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg. p415 and was Temperance West when she married Sir George. Her parentage is still undecided. "