Silvester Jourdain ( - ), was an English traveler who became a colonist at the

Jamestown, Virginia The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent British colonization of the Americas, English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about southwest of present-day Willia ...

settlement. During the journey in 1609, a tropical storm caused the ship, the ''

Sea Venture ''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission flotilla to the Jamestown Colony in 1609. She was the 300 ton flagship of the London Company. During the voyage to Virginia, ''Sea Venture'' encount ...

'' to be run aground on the uninhabited

St. George's Island, Bermuda St. George's Island is one of the main islands of the territory of Bermuda and lies within St. George's Parish (originally designated the ''General Land'', in distinction to the other eight parishes subdivided as private shares) at the ''East E ...

, with Jourdain,

George Somers Sir George Somers (before 24 April 1554 – 9 November 1610) was an English privateer and naval hero, knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of the Virginia Company of London. He achieved renown as part of an expedition led by ...

, Thomas Gates,

William Strachey William Strachey (4 April 1572 – buried 16 August 1621) was an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonisation of North America. He is best remembered today as the eye-witness reporter ...

, and other settlers marooned for nine months. Silvester Jourdain was old enough in 1603 to ship goods from

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis ( ) is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and ...

, Dorset.Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jourdain, Silvester. (2020, December 27). In Wikisource . Retrieved 17:46, August 22, 2024, from https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Jourdain,_Silvester&oldid=10739369 Silvester authored a pamphlet in 1610, ''A Discovery of the Barmvdas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels'' (later part of the 1613 publication, ''A Plaine Description of the Barmvdas, now called Sommer Ilands, etc.''), which scholars have attributed as inspiration for William Shakespeare's ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

''. Silvester died unmarried in the parish of St Sepulchre, in the spring of 1650. He was the son of William Jourdain of

, a brother to merchant Ignatius Jourdain of Exeter, and a cousin of

John Jourdain John Jourdain (? – 17 July 1619), was a captain in the service of the English East India Company (EIC), and the first president of the EIC Council of India Life and career He was the sixth child and fourth son of John Jourdain, a Lyme Regis bas ...

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A plaine description of the Barmudas (PDF)
on WikiCommons Castaways People from Jamestown, Virginia 1650 deaths People from colonial Virginia {{England-bio-stub

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