n England and Holland were the early bankers, they often
advised their customers, particularly those about to embark upon a
voyage to Virginia, to invest their profits in gems, easy to carry, not
likely to fluctuate and always desirable.

The unusual purposes, to which jewels might be put, is recounted in a
record of the sale of Mrs. Moseley's jewels to Colonel Francis Yeardley,
who desired them as a gift to his wife, Sarah (Offley), widow
successively of John Gookin and Adam Thoroughgood. William Moseley, his
wife Susan and two sons Arthur and William arrived in Virginia, 1649,
from Holland and settled in Lower Norfolk County. By reason of the
family's "great want of cattle," Mrs. Moseley, the following year, sold
some of her jewels: a gold hat band enameled and set with diamonds, a
jewel of gold (probably a pendant) enameled and set with diamonds, and a
diamond ring. In a letter to the purchaser, she stated that they were
genuine, having been examined by a goldsmith in The Hague, and were
worth L11 4_s._ In exchange, the Moseleys received five cows and four
oxen. Having still in her possession a ruby ring, a sapphire and an
emerald ring, Mrs. Moseley could be gracious in parting with her gems
and wrote Colonel Yeardley, she had rather his wife wear them than any
gentlewoman she yet knew in the country, and wished her "health and
prosperity" in her display of them.

At the same time, Mrs. Sarah Yeardley, the daughter of a well-to-do
English merchant, and the spouse successively of three prosperous
husbands, possessed other jewels. Her will dated, 1657, directed that
her "_best_ diamond necklace and jewell" should be sent to England to
purchase six diamond rings and two black tombstones, the latter to be
placed over her grave and that of her second husband, at the churchyard
at Lynnhaven. Since all things ornamental were under a ban during the
Commonwealth in England, it is not surprising that Mrs. Yeardley's
necklace did not bring even the price of the two tombstones, which cost
L19 7_s._, while the diamond ornament brought only L15. Yet, the
tombstones, the inscriptions on which are extant, have left to posterity
a permanent record of Mrs. Yeardley and her three husbands. After all,
values are relative, and could Mrs. Sarah (Offley-Thoroughgood-Gookin)
Yeardley view today the position she enjoys in the romance of Virginia's
seventeenth century, she likely would not regret having traded diamonds
for tombstones.

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