Edmund Jenings (governor)

Edmund Jenings (1659-1727) was a British politician and lawyer who held important posts in the Colony of Virginia including as the attorney general, on the Governor's Council and as acting governor, but encountered controversy and experienced financial problems in his final years. Early life and education His father Sir Edmund Jenings was a barrister and Member of Parliament from Ripon in Yorkshire, England. In the 16th century, Jenings had traditionally worked as stewards for the Barons Clifford and Earl of Cumberland. His mother Margaret was the daughter of Sir Edward Barkham, a merchant who became the lord mayor of London in 1621-1622. Edmund was their third son. His elder brother Jonathan became M.P. for Ripon, and this Edmund named his Virginia plantation "Ripon Hall". His great-grandfather Peter Jenings who died in 1651 in Silsden, Yorkshire, England was the brother of William Jenings of Silsden, whose son Capt. Peter Jenings (1630-1672) was the second attorney general for the Virginia colony (in 1631). The Silsden Peter Jenings had three sons but both elder sons (Peter and Edmund) died unmarried and without children, in 1623 and 1624. This Edmund was descended from the third son, Jonathan, who was a barrister and who died in 1649, shortly before his father. Career