Silvester Jourdain
Silvester Jourdain | |
|---|---|
A Discovery of the Barmvdas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels (1610) | |
| Born | fl. 1600 |
| Died | spring 1650 St Sepulchre, London, England |
| Other names | Sylvester Jordain, Silvestre Jourdain, Sylvester Jourdan |
| Occupation(s) | Adventurer, chronicler |
| Notable work | A 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.
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.), which scholars have attributed as inspiration for William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
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.