I am researching the place-name Beggars Bush, and have come across many
references to Samuel Jordan and his plantation and house in Virginia.

Many of these attribute the name to the play by Beaumont & Fletcher.
Although I think that was influential in the distribution of the name in
England I don't think that it can be the source for Jordan's house as from
the reports I have seen the plantation was founded in 1619, and the house
added later. The earliest record of the house name I have seen is when is
was fortified against the Indian uprising by the Pamunkeys in 1622. Jordan
was reputed shipwrecked on Bermuda en route in the "Sea Venture” between
1609/10, although his name does not appear on the (incomplete) passenger
list, and there is no evidence he was related to Sylvester Jourdain, whose
account of the shipwreck was published and included in Hakluyt, and a
reputed source for The Tempest.

Fletcher only began collaborating with Beaumont in 1607, and the first
recorded performance of The Beggars Bush was not until 1622. Fredson
Bowers posits an earlier performance c. 1613/14 but even that seem too
late, as the play wasn't published until 1647, and would not be likely to
have circulated in ms. It seem impossible that the house could have be
named after a play he could not have seen or heard of it, unless closely
connected with the players at the Court, and he departed well after the
traditional date for his voyage.

I think it far more likely the name comes from a common usage in
Elizabethan writing, both literary and letters. One of the earliest usages
of the phrase is in "Her Protection for Women", a pamphlet published in
London in 1589. This purports to be written by “Jane Anger, Gentlewoman at
London”, almost certainly a pseudonym chosen to suit the content of the
work. This was an erudite response to His Surfeit in Love (1588) by Thomas
Orwin, which accused women of being lustful and untrustworthy.  It is a
well-written and erudite work, mixing classical myths with street polemic.
Jane Anger adopts a common theme:-“The great Patrimonies that wealthy men
leave their children after their death, make them rich: but vice and other
marthriftes happening into their companies, never leave them until they be
at the beggars bush, where I can assure they become poor.” There are many
other uses of the phrase in the period 1580-1680, meaning to be brought
dwon to poverty, often through your own folly.

I would very much like to know more about Jordan, his plantation and
house. I understand there was an archaeological investigation. I would be
grateful for any information, leads or contacts.

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