Chief Opechancanough Mangopeesomon Powhatan

1560 - 1646  (86 years)

• Name	Chief Opechancanough Mangopeesomon Powhatan  [1]
  Birth	1560	Cinquoateck, King William, Virginia, USA   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	1646	Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA   [1]
  Person ID	I23770	Master
  Last Modified	27 Jun 2015

  
  

  Father	Running Stream,   b. 1500, , , Virginia, USA d. 1570, , , Virginia, USA (Age 70 years)
  Relationship	Stepchild
  Mother	Morning Flower,   b. 1528, , , Virginia, USA d. 1570, , , Virginia, USA (Age 42 years)
  Relationship	Stepchild
  Marriage	1545	, , Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F6233	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Matachanna "Cleopatra" Powhatan ("Royal blood line"),   b. 1590, Werowocomoco, Gloucester, Virginia, USA d. 1641, , Henrico, Virginia, USA (Age 51 years)
  Children	1. Cornstalk Powhatan,   b. , Augusta, Virginia, USA d. 11 Nov 1777, Point Pleasant, Mason, West Virginia, USA  [Father: Natural]  [Mother: Natural] + 2. Nicketti Powhatan,   b. 1625, Tsenacomoca, James City, Virginia, USA d. 1720, Hackers Creek, Lewis, West Virginia, USA (Age 95 years)  [Father: Natural]  [Mother: Natural]   3. Powhatan,   b. 1625, , , Virginia, USA d. 1700, , , Virginia, USA (Age 75 years)  [Father: Natural]  [Mother: Natural]   4. Princess Nicketti,   b. 1625, , , Virginia, USA d. 1700, , , Virginia, USA (Age 75 years)  [Father: Natural]  [Mother: Natural] + 5. Mary Nicketti Partree,   b. 1640, , , Virginia, USA d. 1721, , , Virginia, USA (Age 81 years)  [Father: Natural]  [Mother: Natural]   6. Pamunky Cockacoeskie,   b. 1640, , New Kent, Virginia, USA d. 1677, , New Kent, Virginia, USA (Age 37 years)  [Father: Natural]  [Mother: Natural]
  Family ID	F6229	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	23 Jun 2015

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1560 - Cinquoateck, King William, Virginia, USA Death - 1646 - Jamestown, James City, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos

  Pamunkey Indian Reservation

  
  

  Maps

  Powhatan Territorial Map approx. 19,000 sq. miles The Powhatan territory was within the boundaries of today's following states: (1) North Carolina [now, 53,818.51 square miles] (2) Virginia [now, 42,774.20 square miles] (3) Maryland [now, 12,406.68 square miles] (4) Washington, D.C. [now, 68.34 square miles] This is a Washington Post map by Gene Thorpe See http://www.powhatanmuseum.com/Powhatan_Map.html for detailed information

  
  

• Notes

  Chief of the Pamunkey Indians; he planned the massacres of 1622 and 1644. He was captured by Sir William Berkeley and was killed while a captive at Jamestown in 1646 by a soldier out of revenge. He was also known as Apachisco. He was able, resourceful and unforgiving. Opechancanough. A Powhatan chief, born about 1545, died in 1644. He captured Capt. John Smith shortly after the arrival of the latter in Virginia, and took him to his brother, the head-chief Powhatan (q. v.). Some time after his release, Smith, in order to change the temper of the Indians, who jeered at the starving Englishmen and refused to sell them food, went with a band of his men to Opechancanough's camp under pretense of buying corn, seized the chief by the hair, and at the point of a pistol marched him off a prisoner. The Pamunkey brought boat-loads of provisions to ransom their chief, who thereafter entertained more respect and deeper hatred for the English. While Powhatan lived Opechancanough was held in restraint, but after his brother's death in 1618 he became the dominant leader of the nation, although his other brother, Opitchapan, was the nominal head-chief. He plotted the destruction of the colony so secretly that only one Indian, the Christian Chanco, revealed the conspiracy, but too late to save the people of Jamestown, who at a sudden signal were massacred, Mar. 22, 1622, by the natives deemed to be entirely friendly. In the period of intermittent hostilities that followed, duplicity and treachery marked the actions of both whites and Indians. In the last year of his life, Opechancanough, taking advantage of the dissensions of the English, planned their extermination. The aged chief was borne into battle on a litter when the Powhatan, on Apr. 18, 1644, fell upon the settlements and massacred 300 persons, then as suddenly desisted and fled far from the colony, frightened perhaps by some omen. Opechancanough was taken prisoner to Jamestown, where one of his guards treacherously shot him, inflicting a wound of which he subsequently died.

  
  

• Sources

  [S705] Ancestry.com, Global, Find a Grave™ Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).