He twice represented Gloucester County in the House of Burgesses, as well as served on the Virginia Governor's Council probably for less than two years before his death.
[1][2] Born in Silsden in western Yorkshire, England, where his ancestors served as stewards for the Barons Clifford and Earl of Cumberland.
In October 1660 Jenings patented 650 acres inland near the head of the Potomac River, based on people for whose immigration he had paid.
[2] In 1660, Gloucester County voters elected Jenings as one of the men representing them in the House of Burgesses, but he may not have stood for re-election, having accepted a position in April 1662 as the colony's deputy treasurer.
[5] Within a week, Governor Berkeley also nominated him as the colony's attorney general, and Jenings received his commission on September 15, 1670.