The Cecily Jordan v. Greville Pooley dispute was the first known prosecution for breach of promise in colonial America and the first in which the defendant was a woman.[1]: 29 June 1623 [2]: 107–108  This case was tried in the chambers of the Virginia Company, and never went to a civil court, for the plaintiff withdrew his complaint. The first successful case was Stretch v. Parker in 1639.[3]: 343 

Background

Reverend Greville Pooley proposed marriage to Cecily Jordan, a widow whose husband had died 3 or 4 days previously. He subsequently discovered that his bride-to-be had become engaged to another man. The resulting lawsuit for breach of promise was significant because, until then, such suits had only been filed by women against men.[1][4][5]

Historical context

Women - spinster or widow - could own property, and could transfer it in a will. However, they could not patent, purchase or sell land in their own name and own right: for that, a woman needed a male family member.[6][7][8]

A woman's marriage options, however, were limited to her social class, which produced limited choices if she was "of quality".[9]

There was such a shortage of suitable women for the upper class in colonial Virginia that upper class men would try to bring their unmarried sisters over.[10]

The Virginia Company set about procuring wives for the tenants of its plantation by offering to each woman who migrated to Virginia a dowry of clothing, linens, furnishings and a plot of land.[11][12] The younger women who were chosen were of a lower social order but selected for their good character.[6]: 228 [13][14][15]: 141  About 189 maids and one widow were selected and shipped to Virginia, at a cost of £12, each (about $5,000 in 2018 US dollars), the value of 150 pounds of Virginia tobacco. The prospective husband also had to pay the woman's transportation expense.[14]

Involved parties

Greville Pooley

Greville Pooley was an Anglican pastor who arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in August 1622 aboard the James, and took up residence at Fleur Dieu, a plantation belonging to Sir George Yeardley.[16]: 9 

Cecily Jordan

Cecily Jordan (known in some accounts as Cecilia, Cecily or Sisselye) was born in 1600 and came to the Jamestown colony as a child aboard the ship Swan in 1610.[17][18]: 97 

Living in the household of William Farrar and Cecily Jordan at the time of Jamestown Muster was a female age 7, name of Temperance Baley [sic].[19][20]

Her second marriage was to Samuel Jordan and she had two daughters with him, Margaret and Mary. Jordan died about April 1623, leaving Cecily a widow with three children.[21]: 102 [22][23]: 4 [24]: 566 [25][26]

William Farrar

William Farrar arrived in Jamestown aboard the Neptune in August 1618.[27] He had a 100-acre patent upon the Appomattox River.[28]: 554  He survived the Indian massacre of 1622, and is noted in the Jamestown muster as head of house in the fort of Samuel Jordan, a relatively safe fortified rallying place for the massacre survivors. quoted as follows:[29]

"It is recorded in The Generall Historiie of Virginia, New-England and the Summer Isles, by John Smith (1624) that during the Indian uprising by the Pamunkeys in 1622 when many settlers were killed that "Master Samuel Iordan gathered together but a few of the straglers about him at Beggers Bush which he fortified and lived in despight of the enemy".

After surviving the Indian massacre of 1622, he is found living with Mrs Jordan in 1624 at Jordans Journey.[30]

Controversy

Within a span of four months after Greville Pooley's arrival, his neighbor Samuel Jordan died, leaving Ciceley a widow with two daughters.[16]: 9 

According to one account, three or four days after the funeral, Pooley took hold of the hand of Mrs Jordan and pledged himself to her in marriage. She protested that it would not look right because it was too soon after the funeral. Pooley's version of the affair was that he approached Captain Isaac Madison to act as an intermediary for his marriage proposal.[16] Madison asserted that, while she would "as soon marry Mr Pooley as marry anyone else", she would not marry any man until she was delivered of her child.[24]: 219 

Pooley, encouraged by this and fearful that some other man would beat him to the "trough", rushed to visit her. During the visit he asked for a drink. She sent a servant to get it; Pooley asked that she get it herself, and afterwards, they drank a toast. He claimed that he then grabbed Mrs Jordan's hand and said: "I Grivell Pooley, take thee Sysley, to my wedded wife, to have, and to hold, till death us depart, and thereto I plight thee my troth." Then (holding her by the hand) she replied "I Sysley, take thee Grivell, to my wedded husband, to have, and to hold, till death us depart". Captain Madison stated that he did not hear Mrs Jordan say any of those words, nor did he remember Pooley asking her if she consented to those words.[9][31][32]: 225 

Mrs. Jordan, fearful of gossip, asked Pooley to keep the affair a secret, but Pooley began to brag of the proposal and upcoming marriage. This angered Mrs Jordan, and she said, as sworn to by Mrs Mary Madison, "that if he had not revealed it, he might have fared better". Captain Isaac Madison, as recorded in C. O. 1, Vol. II, No. 30 Document in Public Record Office, London List of Records No. 521, testified that he had not heard the words of a proposal, nor acceptance by Mrs. Jordan.[31]

Instead, Mrs Jordan accepted the proposal of William Farrar. Rev Pooley, upon learning that Mrs Jordan had contracted herself to Farrar, filed suit with the Virginia Company. The company could not decide if Rev Pooley's relationship to Mrs Jordan was a formal or legal contract, and deferred it to civil lawyers.[31]

Before the matter could be taken further, Rev Pooley met another widow and dropped the suit. Subsequently, Pooley was the defendant in another suit, brought by a Mr Pawlett, who accused Pooley of insulting him. He was summoned to court in March 1629 because of a dispute with Edward Auborne.[21]: 566 

Subsequently, Pooley and his family were all killed in 1629 in an Indian massacre.[33]: 316 

Aftermath of the controversy

The governor and council perceived the Jordan-Pooley-Farrar affair to be a dangerous precedent and issued a proclamation against a recurrence. But that didn't dissuade others: within a year, Eleanor Spragg had to stand before her congregation and confess to contracting to two men at the same time. The court, in an attempt to halt the spread of the practice decreed that each minister give warning in his church that offenders, male or female, will be whipped or fined according to their social status Like all prohibitions, this too was ineffective,.[34]: 151 

It was not until Stretch v. Parker in 1639 that a breach of promise suit in which the woman was the defendant was successfully pursued.[35]: 343 

References

  1. 1 2 Matthews, Dianne Neal (2005). The One Year on this Day. Tyndale House. ISBN 9781414304410.
  2. ↑ Criddlin, William Broaddus (1923). "A History of Colonial Virginia: The First Permanent Colony in America". Retrieved 20 Jan 2019.
  3. ↑ "Contracts To Marry-Columbia Law Review Vol 25, No.3 (Mar., 1925)". Columbia Law Review. 25 (3): 343–348. 1925. JSTOR 1113025.
  4. ↑ Spruill, Julia Cherry (1921). Women's Life and Work in the Southern Colonies. W.W. Norton and Company, London. ISBN 9780393317589.
  5. ↑ "Zugl, Marcia Al (2016). Buying a Bride an Engaging History of Mail Order Matches. NTY Press. ISBN 9780814771815.
  6. 1 2 Bruce, Philip Alexander (1907). Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry Into the Origin of the Higher Planting Class, Together with an Account of the Habits, Customs, and Diversions of the People. Richmond, VA: Whittet and Shepperson.
  7. ↑ Potter, Jennifer (Aug 2016). "Mail Order Brides of Jamestown". The Atlantic.
  8. ↑ Kemp, Amber. "Common Law Female Property Rights from Early Modern England to Colonial Virginia Common Law Female Property Rights from Early Modern England to Colonial Virginia". Digital Commons.
  9. 1 2 Bruce, Philip Alexander (1907). Social Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. Published by the author. p. 225. Retrieved 26 December 2018. tobacco.
  10. ↑ Collins, Gail (September 1, 2004). America's Women: Four Hundred Years ... – Google Books. ISBN 9780060959814. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  11. ↑ Voices of a People's History of the ... – Google Books. ISBN 9780825144608. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  12. ↑ Collins, Gail (September 1, 2004). America's Women: Four Hundred Years ... – Google Books. ISBN 9780060959814. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  13. ↑ Neill, Edward D. (1867). History of Education in Virginia /during the Seventeenth Century. Gov't print. off. p. 9. greville pooley 1622 james fleur dieu.
  14. 1 2 "Mail Order Brides of Jamestown, Virginia". The Atlantic. 2016-08-31.
  15. ↑ Mays, Dorothy A (2004). Women in Early America: Struggle, Survival, and Freedom in a New World. ISBN 9781851094295. Retrieved 20 Jan 2019.
  16. 1 2 3 Neill, Edward Duffield (1877). Notes on the Virginia Colonial Clergy. p. 9. greville pooley the james.
  17. ↑ Dorman, John Frederick, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., v1 pp926-929
  18. ↑ History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. Philadelphia J.B. Lippincott. 1860.
  19. ↑ "The Living and Dead in Virginia". 16 February 1623.
  20. ↑ "Jamestown 1624/5 Muster". www.virtualjamestown.org. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
  21. 1 2 McCartney, Martha W. (2007). Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing. ISBN 9780806317748.
  22. ↑ Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers, 226
  23. ↑ Morgan, Tim; Luccketti, Nicholas; Straube, Beverly; Bessey, S. Fiona; Loomis, Annette; Hodges, Charles (1995). "Archaeological Excavations at Jordan's Point: Sites 44PG151, 44PG300, 44PG302, 44PG303, 44PG315, 44PG333". Richmond, VA: Virginia Department of Historic Resources. doi:10.6067/XCV8H41QBZ. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  24. 1 2 Kingsbury, Susan M., ed. (1906). The Records of the Virginia Company of London. Vol. 4. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
  25. ↑ "Jamestown Muster 1624/25". Virtual Jamestown.
  26. ↑ "Jamestown Muster". Virtual Jamestown.
  27. ↑ "Jamestown Muster 1624/25". Virtual Jamestown.
  28. ↑ Kingsbury, Susan M., ed. (1906). The Records of the Virginia Company of London. Vol. 4. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
  29. ↑ Smith, John (1624). The Generall Historie of Virginia, the Fourth Booke (PDF). Madison, WI: Madison Historical Digital Library and Archives. p. 370. AJ-082.
  30. ↑ "Jamestown Muster". Virtual Jamestown.
  31. 1 2 3 "The Records of the Virginia Company of London records of the virginia company of london Documents, II The records of the Virginia Company of London records of the virginia company of london Documents, II". www.virtualjamestown.org.
  32. ↑ Bruce, Philip Alexander (1907). Social Life in Colonial Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. Published by the author. p. 225. jordan as soon marry him as anyone else pooley.
  33. ↑ "Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography". 1885.
  34. ↑ Spruill, Julia Cherry (1998). Women's Life and Work in the Colonies. ISBN 9780393317589.
  35. ↑ "Contracts To Marry-Columbia Law Review Vol 25, No.3 (Mar., 1925)". Columbia Law Review. 25 (3): 343–348. 1925. JSTOR 1113025.

Further reading

  • Potter, Jennifer (2019), The Jamestown brides : the story of England's "Maids for Virginia", Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-094263-2
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