John Rolfe^[1]

1585 - 1622  (36 years)

• Name	John Rolfe
  Birth	6 May 1585	Heacham, Norfolk, England
  Gender	Male
  Married	1614	Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA   [2]
  Death	22 Mar 1622	Varina, Henrico, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I10574	Master
  Last Modified	20 Aug 2020

  
  

  Father	Eustace Rolfe,   b. 6 May 1536, Heacham, Norfolk, England d. 28 Jun 1593, Heacham, Norfolk, England (Age 57 years)
  Mother	Joanna Jenner,   b. 1539, Heacham, Norfolk, England d. Jun 1593, Heacham, Norfolk, England (Age 54 years)
  Marriage	27 May 1560	Heacham, Norfolk, England
  Family ID	F8100	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Pocahontas Amonute Matoaka "Rebecca" Powhatan,   b. 15 Sep 1595, Matoaka, Gloucester, Virginia, USA d. 21 Mar 1617, Gravesend, Kent, England (Age 21 years)
  Marriage	5 Apr 1614	Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA
  Children	+ 1. Thomas Rolfe,   b. 30 Jan 1615, Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA d. 1675, Richmond, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA (Age 59 years)
  Family ID	F2307	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	25 Jun 2015

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 6 May 1585 - Heacham, Norfolk, England Married - 1614 - Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA Marriage - 5 Apr 1614 - Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA Death - 22 Mar 1622 - Varina, Henrico, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  John Rolfe was born in Heacham, Norfolk, England as the son of John Rolfe and Dorothea Mason, and was baptised on 6 May 1585. John Rolfe was one of a number of businessmen who saw the opportunity to undercut Spanish imports by growing tobacco in England's new colony in Virginia. Rolfe had somehow obtained seeds to take with him from a special popular strain then being grown in Trinidad and South America, even though Spain had declared a penalty of death to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia. Heading the Third Supply fleet was the new flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture, carrying Rolfe and his wife, Sarah Hacker. The Third Supply fleet left England in May 1609 destined for Jamestown with seven large ships, towing two smaller pinnaces. The colony at Bermuda dates its settlement from 1609. Among those left buried in Bermuda were Rolfe's wife and his infant daughter, Bermuda Rolfe. In May 1610, two newly constructed ships set sail from Bermuda, with 142 castaways on board, including Rolfe, Admiral Somers, Stephen Hopkins, and Sir Thomas Gates. On arrival at Jamestown, they found the Virginia Colony almost destroyed by famine and disease during what has become known as the Starving Time. Very few supplies from the Third Supply had arrived because the same hurricane that caught the Sea Venture badly affected the rest of the fleet. Only 60 settlers remained alive. It was only through the arrival of the two small ships from Bermuda, and the arrival of another relief fleet commanded by Lord De La Warr on 10 June 1610 that the abandonment of Jamestown was avoided and the colony survived. The land gifted by Powhatan (now known as Smith's Fort Plantation, located in Surry County) was willed to Rolfe's son Thomas, who in 1640 sold at least a portion of it to Thomas Warren. Smith's Fort was a secondary Fort to Jamestown, begun in 1609 by John Smith. John and Rebecca Rolfe travelled to England on the Treasurer, commanded by Samuel Argall, in 1616 with their young son. They arrived at the port of Plymouth on 12 June and Rebecca was widely received as visiting royalty, but settled in Brentford. However, as they were preparing to return to Virginia in March 1617, Rebecca became ill and died. Her body was interred in Gravesend's St George's Church. Their two-year-old son Thomas survived, but was adopted by Sir Lewis Stukley and later by John's brother, Henry Rolfe. John and Tomocomo returned to Virginia. In 1619, Rolfe married Jane Pierce, daughter of English colonist Captain William Pierce and Jane Eeles. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1620, who married John Milner of Nansemond, Virginia and died in 1635. Rolfe died in 1622 after his plantation was destroyed in a Native American attack. It remains unclear whether Rolfe died in the massacre or whether he died as a result of illness. His widow Jane married Englishman Captain Roger Smith three years later. He was the son of John Smith (no relation to Captain John Smith) and Thomasine Manning. Rolfe's son with Pocahontas, Thomas, who grew up in England, married Elizabeth Washington in September 1632 at St James's Church in Clerkenwell and they had a daughter Anne in 1633. Elizabeth died shortly after Anne's birth. Thomas returned to Virginia two years later, where he married Jane Poythress. Her English parents were Francis Poythress and Alice Payton. Thomas and his second wife had one child, Jane, who married Robert Bolling in 1675 and had a son, John, in 1676. She died later that same year.

  
  

• 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=84 [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Source number: 794.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: HJM.