[4] Emigrating to Virginia when perhaps 20 years old, Jenings settled in York County near the colonial capital (which moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg during his service as discussed below).

Appointed the colony's attorney general in 1680 (accounts differ as to whether Jenings arrived with a commission from England or a simple letter of introduction),[2] he continued to serve until at least 1691 and possibly until 1700, with interruptions, as discussed below.

Appointed to the Virginia Governor's Council in 1681, Jenings may have continued to serve until shortly before his death, although some scholars believe he was deposed during trips to England, and he was clearly involved in controversies during his final years.

About the same time, the House of Burgesses decided to move the colony's capital from Jamestown (notoriously unhealthy in summers) to Williamsburg, and Jenings clearly supervised much of the transition in 1699-1700, though the capacity in which he did so is unclear.

Moreover, one of his legal jobs was to compile the colony's laws for transmission to the Board of Trade, and the Speaker of the House of Burgesses found the result inadequate in 1699, and so did not appoint Jenings to that committee until one of the original committeemen (Edward Hill) died.

Thus when Col. Edward Nott died in office and his successor Col. Robert Hunter was captured at sea by the French, Jenings became the acting governor from August 1706 to June 1710, but declined a second term at the end of his life citing feeble health.

Francis Nicholson and part of a faction including Ralph Wormeley Jr. and Richard Lee II, and opposed by several powerful councilors, particularly Robert Carter, Rev.

John Carter his son then persuaded Jenings to mortgage his lands to raise the money due to Lord Fairfax, as he informed the proprietor in 1722.

[2] When Robert Carter died, his will (dated in 1728, after this man's death) mentioned a judgment against Jenings by the General Court in chancery.

Jenings speculated in land in the Virginia colony, and also grew and shipped tobacco, using enslaved labor by at least his final years, although many records have been lost.

Jenings also grew and shipped large quantities of tobacco and was collector of customs for the James River's Upper District (which included Henrico County).

Edmund Jenings Jr. (d. 1756) married the twice-widowed Adriana Vanderheyden Frisby Bordley (1690-1741), became a noted Maryland lawyer and politician who served in both houses of the Maryland legislature and had a primary residence in the state capital and properties in diverse areas including Baltimore and Prince George's and Charles counties (also serving as clerk of the latter).

Edmund Jenings III also traveled back to the colonies and presented a portrait of the Earl of Chatham to the Gentlemen of Westmoreland County, Virginia in 1769.

In early June 1726, John Randolph visited Jenings and found him suffering from a palsy, likely a stroke or Parkinson's disease, barely able to write, and composing his thoughts only with difficulty.

He was buried at Bruton Parish Church, which he had helped build, and modern excavation of the worn tombstone indicates a date of "Ju-- 1727".