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William Farrar (farrar1)

Father: John Farrar
Mother: Sissley Kelke

b. April 25, 1583 in Ewewood, Halifax Parish, England [Poet]

d. June 11, 1637 in Jamestown, Virginia[Poet]

m. May 2, 1625 in Jamestown, Virginia, Cecily Green, widow of Thomas Bailey and of Samuel Jordan, b. 1600 in Dorsetshire, England, d. 1677 in Henrico County, Virginia [Poet]

Issue [Poet]

William Farrar II, (farrar11), b. 1626, d. February 11, 1678

Cicely Farrar, bc. 1627 at Jordan's Journey, Henrico County, Virginia, d. 1703

m. Henry Sherman, Sr.

John Farrar, b. 1631 at Jordan's Journey, Henrico County, Virginia, d. March 1684/85 in Henrico County, Virginia. He never married, was a Lt. Col. of the Militia and Justice and High Sheriff.

Information:

William was a barrister, educated at one of the Inns of Court.

March 25, 1612:
William became a stockholder in the Virginia Company, he was just 18 on March 25, 1612, when he signed his name to the company's Third Charter as "William Ferrers." He came to Jamestown six years later, possibly under the encouragement of Nicholas Ferrar who may have been his cousin. [mccarter]

Departed March 16, 1618 arrived August 1618:
William invested in the Virginia Company of London under its third charter and departed for America with Lord Delaware aboard the ill-fated ship "Neptune", where some 30 people died in route due to the bad weather and resulting sickness. "Neptune" arrived in the colony in August of 1618 when the malaria epidemic was at its peak. [mccarter]

1622:
William survived that first summer in Jamestown and was granted a patent of 100 acres on the Appomattox River in Charles Citty county. In 1622 two indentured servants were brought to Virginia "at the charges of William Farrar, Esquire" by William Andrews, who was also a planter in Appomattox. [mccarter]

March 22, 1622:
During the Indian massacre of Virginia settlers which began on Good Friday about ten men were killed at William's house. During the massacre William rowed over to Samual Jordan's fortified plantation, Jordan's Journey. He stayed on at Jordan's Journey (one of the four fortified plantations not abandoned after the massacre) for the next 6 years. After the death of her husband, Cecily requested that he act as overseer and as executor of her husband's estate. [pathway]

June 14, 1623:
When Reverend Greville Pooley sued, William, trained for the law in England and now the attorney who administered her husband's estate, successfully defended Mrs. Jordan in what was the first breach of promise suit in America, winning not only the suit but his client in matrimony. The Wealthy Widow's Story

March 14, 1625:
Governor Sir George Yeardley appointed William to the governor's Council, a position he occupied until 1632. He also served as Justice of the Peace, which entitled him to preside over cases in the County Court.

Summer 1631:
William returned to London after his fathers death and sold his inheritance to his brother, Henry Farrar of Berkshire, for 200 pounds in document dated September 6, 1631.

1637:
After William's death, King Charles I granted the patent for the 2000 acres (known as Farrar's Island) to William and Cecily's son William Farrar II (farrar11). The grant was for the transportation of forty settlers.

Cecily's Information:

I am turning my back on other's efforts to make Cecily a "Reynolds" and therefore a young lady of quality to make claims to various lines back in England and France. I'm going to take an obvious and more inspiring line. She came as a girl of ten indentured to the Captain William Pierce family. At the end of her 7 year indenture she married her Captain of the Guards. It is extremely unlikley that in a place so short of available females that even an unattrative eligible (especially with good connections in England) would have remained single until 17. She must not have been unattractve, though, since at the untimely death of her Captain she managed to pull off a marriage to Samuel Jordan who having remained a weathly widower for the last 9 years had no doubt many caps cast his way. And this of course propelled her into her most famous roll - that of weathly widow.

Late August 1610:
Cecily arrived at the Jamestown colony aboard the "Swan", one of a fleet of three ships, plus the Tryall and the Noah, belonging to Sir Thomas Gates. There is no record of Cecily coming with any family although she would only have been about 10. [Campbel]

Around 1616:
It is thought that Cecily met her first husband, Thomas Bailey while she lived with Captain William Pierce and his wife Joan. Thomas was a member of the Governor's Guard stationed at Jamestown. Young Bailey became the victim of malaria and left his widow and a young daughter, Temperance, who was born in 1617. [pathway]

December 1, 1620:
Cecily and Samuel Jordan were married.Samuel was in his mid forties and had been a widower before he came to Virginia and had three grown sons. Cecily and Samuel had two girls. Mary Jordan born 1620 and Margaret Jordan born 1622-23 after Samuel had died. Samuel had an eventful voyage to Virginia.

Pat. 1620:
"George Yardley, Knight, Governor and Captain General of Virginia with the consent of the Council gave to Samuel Jordan of Charles City in Virginia, ancient planter who hath abode here in the Colony for 10 years... 450 acres and to Cecily his wife an ancient planter also of nine years continuance ... 100 acres more ..."

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