Edmund Rossingham was the nephew of and factor for Sir George Yeardley, who was Governor of the Colony of Virginia and his wife Temperance Flowerdew. Rossingham was a member of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619, representing Flowerdew Hundred Plantation. After Yeardley's death, he sued the estate for unpaid wages, but Ralph Yeardley refused him on multiple requests.