History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of VirginiaCampbell, Charles
History
History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia
Campbell, Charles
Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Virginia -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
Of the brothers of Pocahontas, Nantaquaus, or Nantaquoud, is especially
distinguished for having shown Captain Smith "exceeding great courtesy,"
interceding with his father, Powhatan, in behalf of the captive, and he
was the "manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit," Smith ever saw in a
savage.
Of the sisters of Pocahontas two are particularly mentioned, Cleopatre
and Matachanna. Strachey has recorded the names of the numerous wives
and children of Powhatan, the greater part of which are harsh and
guttural, and apparently almost incapable of being pronounced by the
vocal organs of civilized man.
Smith says that Pocahontas, "with her wild train, visited Jamestown as
freely as her father's habitation." In these visits she had to cross
the York River, some two miles wide, in a canoe, ("quintan" in the
Powhatan language,) and then walk some ten or twelve miles across to
Jamestown. She is described as "being of a great spirit, however her
stature;" from which it may be inferred that she was below the middle
height.[122:A] She died at the age of twenty-two, having been born about
the year 1595. Her infant son, Thomas Rolfe, was left for a time at
Plymouth, under the care of Sir Lewis Stukely, Vice-Admiral of Devon,
who afterwards, by his base treachery toward Sir Walter Raleigh, covered
himself with infamy, and by dishonest and criminal practices reduced
himself to beggary. The son of Pocahontas was subsequently removed to
London, where he was educated under the care of his uncle, Henry Rolfe,
a merchant.[122:B]
Thomas Rolfe came to Virginia and became a person of fortune and note in
the colony. It has been said that he married in England a Miss Poyers;
however that may have been, he left an only daughter, Jane Rolfe, who
married Colonel Robert Bolling. He lies buried at Farmingdale, in the
County of Prince George.[122:C] This Colonel Robert Bolling was the son
of John and Mary Bolling, of Alhallows, Barkin Parish, Tower Street,
London. He was born in December, 1646, and came to Virginia in October,
1660, and died in July, 1709, aged sixty-two years. Colonel Robert
Bolling, and Jane Rolfe, his wife, left an only son, Major John Bolling,
father of Colonel John Bolling and several daughters, who married
respectively, Col. Richard Randolph, Colonel John Fleming, Doctor
William Gay, Mr. Thomas Eldridge, and Mr. James Murray.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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