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Silvester Jourdain

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Silvester Jourdain
Title page for a 1610 pamphlet
A Discovery of the Barmvdas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels (1610)
Bornfl. 1600
Diedspring 1650
St Sepulchre, London, England
Other namesSylvester Jordain, Silvestre Jourdain, Sylvester Jourdan
Occupation(s)Adventurer, chronicler
Notable workA Discovery of the Barmvdas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels (1610), A Plaine Description of the Barmvdas, now called Sommer Ilands, etc. (1613)

Silvester Jourdain (fl. 1600 - d. 1650), was an English traveler who became a colonist at the Jamestown, Virginia settlement. During the journey in 1609, a tropical storm caused the ship, the Sea Venture to be run aground on the uninhabited St. George's Island, Bermuda, with Jourdain, George Somers, Thomas Gates, William Strachey, and other settlers marooned for nine months.

Silvester Jourdain was old enough in 1603 to ship goods from Lyme Regis, Dorset.[1]

Silvester authored a pamphlet in 1610, A Discovery of the Barmvdas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels [sic] (later part of the 1613 publication, A Plaine Description of the Barmvdas, now called Sommer Ilands, etc.[note 1][2][3]), which scholars have attributed as inspiration for William Shakespeare's The Tempest.[4][5][6]

Silvester died unmarried in the parish of St Sepulchre, in the spring of 1650. He was the son of William Jourdain of Lyme Regis, a brother to merchant Ignatius Jourdain of Exeter, and a cousin of John Jourdain.[1]

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Notes

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Full title: A Plaine Description of the Barmvdas, now called Sommer Ilands. With the manner of their discouerie Anno 1609. by the shipwreck and admirable deliuerance of Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir George Somers, wherein are truly set forth the commodities and profits of that Rich, Pleasant, and Healthfull Covntrie. With An Addition, or ample relation of diuers other remarkeable matters concering those Ilands since then experienced, lately sent from thence by one of the Colonie now there resident.

References

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  1. ^ a b 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
  2. ^ Verrill, Addison Emery (1902). The Bermuda Islands: An Account of Their Scenery, Climate, Productions, Physiography, Natural History and Geology, with Sketches of Their Discovery and Early History, and the Changes in Their Flora and Fauna Due to Man. p. 441. ISBN 9781021850355.
  3. ^ Brown, Alexander (1898). The First Republic in America: An Account of the Origin of this Nation, Written from the Records Then (1624) Concealed by the Council, Rather Than from the Histories Then Licensed by the Crown. Houghton. p. 142. ISBN 9780722265451.
  4. ^ Malone, Edmond (1808). An Account of the Incidents, from which the Title and Part of the Story of Shakespeare's Tempest were derived, and its true date ascertained. London: C. and R. Baldwin, New Bridge-Street.
  5. ^ "Appendix A" . Tempest (1918) Yale – via Wikisource.
  6. ^ "A plaine description of the Barmudas, now called Sommer Ilands..." London : Printed by W. Stansby for W. Welby. March 19, 1613 – via Internet Archive.

Attribution

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