Jane Rolfe^{[1, 2]}

1650 - 1676  (25 years)

• Name	Jane Rolfe
  Birth	10 Oct 1650	Varina, Henrico, Virginia, USA   [3]
  Gender	Female
  Death	26 Jan 1676	Hopewell, Prince George, Virginia, USA   [3]
  Burial	Hopewell, Prince George, Virginia, USA   [3]
  Person ID	I33252	Master
  Last Modified	8 Sep 2019

  
  

  Father	Thomas Rolfe,   b. 30 Jan 1615, Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA d. 1675, Richmond, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA (Age 59 years)
  Mother	Jane Poythress,   b. 1625, Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA d. 1676, , Charles City, Virginia, USA (Age 51 years)
  Marriage	1645	Richmond, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F8097	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Robert Bolling,   b. 26 Dec 1646, All Hallows, Barking, London, England d. 17 Jul 1709, Kippax, Charles City, Virginia, USA (Age 62 years)
  Marriage	1674	Petersburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA   [4]
  Children	+ 1. Rebecca Jane Bolling,   b. 1675, Kippax, Charles City, Virginia, USA d. 24 Aug 1714, , Gloucester, Virginia, USA (Age 39 years) + 2. John Fairfax Bolling,   b. 26 Jan 1676, Kippax, Charles City, Virginia, USA d. 20 Apr 1729, Cobbs Plantation, Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 53 years)
  Family ID	F8099	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	22 Jul 2020

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 10 Oct 1650 - Varina, Henrico, Virginia, USA Marriage - 1674 - Petersburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA Death - 26 Jan 1676 - Hopewell, Prince George, Virginia, USA Burial - - Hopewell, Prince George, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Jane Rolfe (October 10, 1650 – 1676) was the granddaughter of Pocahontas and English colonist John Rolfe, (credited with introducing a strain of tobacco for export by the struggling Virginia Colony). Her husband was Colonel Robert Bolling who lived from 1646 to 1709. Robert and Jane had one son John Fairfax Bolling (1676–1729). Pocahontas, who adopted the Christian name of Rebecca, [1] [2] married John Rolfe on April 5, 1614 in Jamestown. Rolfe's longtime friend, Reverend Richard Buck presided the wedding. [3] They had one child, Thomas Rolfe, who was born in Virginia on January 30, 1615. Jane Rolfe was born in Varina, Henrico County, Virginia on October 10, 1650 [4] to Thomas Rolfe and his wife, Jane Poythress, whose parents were Francis Poythress and Alice Payton of England. [5] [6] [7] In about 1675, Jane married Robert Bolling of Prince George County, Virginia. Their son John was born on January 27, 1676. Jane is said to have died shortly afterward. [4] John Bolling married Mary Kennon, daughter of Richard Kennon and Elizabeth Worsham of Conjurer's Neck.[4] The couple had six surviving children, each of whom married and had surviving children. [8] As a result, many Americans are today able to claim descent from Pocahontas through her great-grandson, John Bolling. Rolfe's interment was near her father in the Kippax Plantation, but her birth year was never engraved on her headstone. References The conversion of Pocahontas to Christianity was undertaken by Alexander Whitaker. "Pocahontas Biography: also called Matoaka and Amonute, Christian name Rebecca (1595–1617)". Travels and Works of Captain John Smith (Edinburgh 1910), p. 514 John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 23–36. Snow, Megan (May 2003). "Thomas Rolfe". Historic Jamestowne. National Park Service. Pecquet du Bellet, Louise (1907). "Bolling Family". Some prominent Virginia families. Lynchburg, VA: J.P. Bell Co. p. 304. Retrieved August 31, 2011. "The Descendants of Pocahontas: An Unclosed Case", by Elizabeth Vann Moore and Richard Slatten, Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, XXIII, no.3, pp. 3–16, cited by John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., Vol. 3, p. 26, fn23–24. Moore and Slatten traced the suggestion that his wife was a Poythress back to a comment by W. G. Stanard in "Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents", Virginia Historical Magazine(I, 1894, 446–447): "His wife is said to have been a Miss Poythress (if so, doubtless a daughter of Francis Poythress." According to Moore and Slatten, Stanard cited as evidence handwritten notes on the flyleaf of a copy of A Complete Collection of All the Laws of Virginia Now in Force Carefully Copied from the Assembled Records (London, 168[?], now in the Library of Virginia. Moore and Slatten state: "Interestingly, Thomas Rolfe here is recorded as married to a 'Miss Payers'. We recall that in John Rolfe's will the name of his third wife is spelt Pyers (Peirce) and that it was John who married a "Jane". Here again a Bolling descendant confused the son with his father. Not recognizing the name 'Payers' as another variant of Peirce, someone searched the records for a name beginning with 'P' and having a 'y' in the first syllable. Francis Poythress lived in adjacent Charles City County and his name ended in s! Stanard wrote, 'His wife is said to have been a Miss Poythress (if so, doubtless a daughter of Francis Poythress).' (VMHB I, 446) Wyndham Robertson, a Bolling descendant, wrote in Pocahontas Alias Mataoke and Her Descendants (Richmond, 1887), 'I adopt "Jane Poythress" (not "Poyers") whom he is stated in the Bolling Memoirs to have married in England.' He added in justification of his charming adoption of an ancestress, '...no such name as "Poyers" is anywhere known ... the family of Poythress was already settled in Virginia.' ... The result has been the acceptance of a non-existent personage, 'Jane Poythress', in the Bibles of Virginia genealogy, as the bona fide ancestress of many illustrious Virginians. Who the wife (or wives) of Thomas Rolfe may have been remains an unanswered question." Henrico County Deeds & Wills 1697–1704, p. 96 VA PROMINENT FAMILIES VOL 4 Chapt XII BOLLING FAMILY For over a year Pocahontas was held as a hostage by Gov. Dale and lived in his family. During these months she proved a willing and apt scholar in many things. An old chronicle says quaintly, "When instructed in the Christian religion she made good progress and was baptized." While staying with Gov. Dale, she met a young Englishman, one Capt. John Rolfe, Gent., of the old family of Beacham Hall, County Suffolk, England. They were married at Jamestown, and, a year or so later, Capt. Rolfe took her to England, where she became the guest of the Virginia Company, was introduced at court and received marked attention from the Queen and her ladies. She was also "entertained with special and extraordinary state festival and pomp by the Lord Bishop of London." Imagine what the contrast must have been to her, taken from the wigwam of an Indian chief, to the palace of England's queen. Some one has said, "It was small wonder this wild flower of the wilderness drooped and died when transported to the hot bed of civilization." The health of Pocahontas became affected by the excitement and strain of court life, and she pined for her baby boy. In 1617 Capt. Rolfe determined to return to America, and took passage on a vessel belonging to the Virginia Company, which was specially fitted up for the comfort of his wife; but on the eve of her embarkation, she died at Gravesend, and was buried under the chancel of St. George's Church, where the tablet erected to her memory and record of her death and burial may still be seen. On the tablet is inscribed, "Pocahontas Rebecca Rolfe, b. 1595; d. 1617, wyff of John Rolfe, Gent." At "Beacham Hall," Norfolk, England, there is a handsome portrait of her, painted in 1616, by de Passe. The name of Rolfe is Danish and first occurs in history when Rolfe Kroke was King of Denmark. This special branch of the Rolfes are recorded as owners of Beacham Hall, County Norfolk, where they were living as far back as 1560. The first entry in the record is the marriage of Eustace Rolfe to Jener (Joanna). These were the grandparents of John Rolfe. The record further states that John Rolfe, son of John Rolfe and Dorothea Mason, was b. May 6, 1585. John Rolfe, Jr., was one of the prominent characters of his time, being the first Secretary of State and Recorder General of Virginia, also a member of the Royal Council for the colony. Thomas Rolfe, the only child of John Rolfe, Jr., and Pocahontas Rebecca, b. 1615 in the colony, after the melancholy death of his young mother was taken in charge by his uncle, Henry Rolfe, of London, by whom he was reared to manhood. In 1640, when he was twenty-five years old, he came to Virginia and took possession of his property, called "Varina," located some sixteen miles below Richmond. The Rev. William Stith, President of William and Mary College, speaks of him in his "History of Virginia" as "a man of distinction and fortune" in the colony. In Hening's Statutes we find the following entry, "And be it further enacted and granted that Left. Thomas Rolfe shall have and enjoy for himself and his heirs forever ffort James, ole Chickahominy ffort, with four hundred acres of land adjoining the same, with all the houses and edifices belonging to the said ffort, provided the said Left. Rolfe doe keepe and maintaine sixe men upon the place during the term and tyme of three years, for which tyme he, said Left. Rolfe, for himself and sixe men, are exempted from publique tax." That Thomas Rolfe should have been entrusted by the government with so important a position shows him to have been a man of high standing, possessing the confidence of the leading men of the time. Lieut. Thomas Rolfe, b. 1651, son of Capt. John Rolfe and Pocahontas, married Jane Poythress, daughter of Lieut. William Poythress, of Jamestown, Va. They had one child, a daughter, called Jane Rolfe, who married (1675) Col. Robert Bolling.

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=154094295&pid=77 [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=163440645&pid=16 [S751] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S887] Ancestry.com, Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.) (Reliability: 3). Name: Robert Bolling Birth Date: 26 Dec 1646 Birth Place: London Marriage Date: 1675 Death Date: 17 Jul 1789 Death Place: Kippax, Prince George's Co., VA Spouse: Jane Rolph https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=61175&h=32778&tid=167141933&pid=172171889588&hid=1035308793958&usePUB=true&_phsrc=PFA1922&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true