References:
(1) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, page 77.
References:
(1) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, Janet Barker Hager, page 77.
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John Rolfe
Born: 1585
Birthplace: Norfolk, England
Died: 22-Mar-1622
Location of death: Varina Farms, VA
Cause of death: War
Remains: MissingGender: Male
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: AgriculturalistNationality: England
Executive summary: First Virginia tobacco baron, husband of PocahontasJohn Rolfe was an earlier American settler. His date of birth is unknown, but he was baptized on 6 May 1585 and came to the Colonies in 1610. He was one of many settlers sent by the Virginia Company of London, charged with finding ways to make the New World profitable, and in this assignment Rolfe was wildly successful: The native Virginia variety of tobacco, Nicotiana rustica, had been deemed too bitter for English customers' tastes, but in about 1612 Rolfe imported and began cultivating Caribbean tobacco, Nicotiana Tabacum. Ever since, tobacco has been the region's dominant crop.
His first wife died en route to the colonies, and Rolfe later married the Native Princess Pocahontas, who had been kidnapped and converted to Christianity. He returned to England with her, where they met with King James I and Sir Walter Raleigh and were greeted across England as celebrity-curiosities. Tragically, she contracted a disease for which she had no genetic immunity -- smallpox, some say, or pneumonia -- and died within months. Rolfe, now twice widowed, returned to Virginia where he served in several colonial administrative posts and married a third time. During a 1622 battle with Natives, his home was destroyed, and Rolfe is presumed to have perished, though his body was never found.
Through Thomas Rolfe, his son with Pocahontas, Rolfe's progeny extends through many generations of Virginia's most prominent families, including the Bollings, Randolphs, and First Lady Edith Wilson. The social stature of these families necessitated the insertion of a specific clause in Virginia's later laws against miscegeny, defining fourth- and subsequent generation descendants of Native Americans as legally White.
Father: John Rolfe (b. 1562, d. 1594)
Mother: Dorothea Mason Rolfe (b. 1559, m. 1582)
Sister: Eustace Rolfe (b. 1585, d. 1593)
Brother: Henry Rolfe (b. 1587)
Brother: Edward Rolfe (b. 1591)
Sister: Dorothy Rolfe (b. 1595)
Wife: Sarah Hacker Rolfe (m. 1608, d. 1612, one daughter)
Daughter: Bermuda Rolfe (d. infancy)
Wife: Pocahontas (Native princess, b. 1595, m. 5-Apr-1614, one son)
Son: Thomas Rolfe (colonist, b. 1615)
Wife: Jane Pierce (m. 1620, one daughter)
Daughter: Elizabeth Rolfe (b. 1620, d. 1635)
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Born: 1585 Birthplace: Norfolk, England Died: 22-Mar -1622 Location of death: Varina Farms, VA Cause of death: War Remains: Missing
Gender: Male Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: AgriculturalistJohn Rolfe (1585-1622)
John Rolfe is best remembered for having introduced tobacco as a commercial crop to Virginia colonists. The production of this valuable commodity shaped the future development of the colony and provided an economic incentive for further expansion and settlement of the New World. Rolfe is also well-known because of his marriage to Pocahontas. This marriage brought a much-needed period of peace between the Indians and the colonists. The couple toured England in 1616 - 1617 and promoted the colony at Jamestown.
John Rolfe was the son of John Rolfe and Dorothea Mason. He was born in Norfolk, England and baptized on May 6, 1585. Little is known of John Rolfe's early life in England. He was married (possibly in 1608) and in 1609 he and his wife set sail for Virginia on board the Sea Adventure. Their ship was wrecked during a hurricane in the Bermudas and the couple remained stranded for several months along with over a hundred other settlers bound for Jamestown. While in Bermuda, Rolfe's wife delivered a daughter (February, 1610) who died shortly thereafter. Eventually the settlers constructed two small ships (the Patience and the Deliverance) and continued their journey to Virginia. In May, 1610 Rolfe and his wife finally reached Virginia but his wife died soon after their arrival.
John Rolfe began his experiments with planting tobacco in 1612. The native tobacco of Virginia was of little commercial interest to the Virginia Company as the tobacco was too harsh for European taste. Rolfe planted seeds from the West Indies and produced a crop which was more fragrant and sweet than native tobacco, yet was also well-suited to the growing conditions of the new colony. By 1617, the colonists produced enough tobacco to send their first shipment to England. Although the Virginia tobacco was deemed inferior to fine Spanish tobacco, it was plentiful and cheap. Sir Walter Raleigh promoted the use of tobacco (both as a medicine and as a recreational drug). Early tobacco prices ranged from one to three shillings, prompting a tobacco boom which lasted through the 1620's. John Rolfe's role in the introduction of tobacco as a cash crop insured his standing within the colony.
In 1613, the Indian princess Pocahontas (daughter of Powhatan, leader of the Powhatan federation) was kidnapped by the Jamestown settlers. The colonists wished to trade Pocahontas for Englishmen and weapons captured by the Indians. The exchange never occurred. Pocahontas learned English and converted to Christianity, taking the name of Rebecca.
John Rolfe presumably met Pocahontas after her conversion; he fell in love with the young Indian woman and decided to marry her. Rolfe's decision to marry Pocahontas was not made lightly. He asked permission of the governor (Sir Thomas Dale) in a letter which carefully outlined his desire for marriage. [See Rolfe letter] Rolfe also asked Powhatan for permission to marry his daughter, the Indian leader granted his permission and agreed to maintain a peace with the settlers. The couple married on April 5, 1614. The relationship between the colonists and the Indians remained peaceful for the next eight years (until Powhatan's death). During this period the colony expanded and Pocahontas gave birth to a son, Thomas.
In 1616, Rolfe and his family traveled to England to encourage support of the Virginia Company and the colony. While in England Rolfe sent King James a description of the colony at Jamestown (published as the True Relation of the State of Virginia). Rolfe also introduced his wife to the King. In March 1617, the couple boarded a ship to return to Virginia. Pocahontas, ill with pneumonia (or perhaps tuberculosis) had to be taken ashore at Gravesend. She died there on March 21, 1617 and was buried in a local churchyard. Rolfe returned home to Virginia, leaving his son in England to receive an education.
Upon his return to Virginia, Rolfe became more involved in the government of the colony. He served as secretary and recorder of the colony from 1614-1619 and in 1621 he was appointed to the Council of State. He also married again, this time to Jane Pierce, the daughter of colonist William Pierce. The couple had at least one child, a daughter Elizabeth born in 1618. Rolfe continued farming tobacco on his plantation Bermuda Hundred. Tobacco production increased dramatically during the 1620's, fostering a wave of migration to the colony.
John Rolfe died in 1622 after his plantation was destroyed in an Indian attack. It remains unclear whether Rolfe died in the Indian massacre or whether he died as a result of illness. He was survived by his wife and daughter and by one son, Thomas Rolfe.Bibliography
Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1975.
Tyler, Lyon G. The Cradle of the Republic. Richmond: Hermitage Press, Inc., 1907.Letter of John Rolfe, 1614
The marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe.The coppie of the Gentle-mans letters to Sir Thomas Dale, that after married Powhatans daughter, containing the reasons moving him thereunto.
Honourable Sir, and most worthy Governor:
When your leasure shall best serve you to peruse these lines, I trust in God, the beginning will not strike you into a greater admiration, then the end will give you good content. It is a matter of no small moment, concerning my own particular, which here I impart unto you, and which toucheth mee so neerely, as the tendernesse of my salvation. Howbeit I freely subject my selfe to your grave and mature judgement, deliberation, approbation, and determination; assuring my selfe of your zealous admonitions, and godly comforts, either perswading me to desist, or incouraging me to persist therin, with a religious and godly care, for which (from the very instant, that this began to roote it selfe within the secret bosome of my brest) my daily and earnest praiers have bin, still are, and ever shall be produced forth with as sincere a godly zeale as I possibly may to be directed, aided and governed in all my thoughts, words, and deedes, to the glory of God, and for my eternal consolation. To persevere wherein I never had more neede, nor (till now) could ever imagine to have bin moved with the like occasion.
But (my case standing as it doth) what better worldly refuge can I here seeke, then to shelter my selfe under the safety of your favourable protection? And did not my ease proceede from an unspotted conscience, I should not dare to offer to your view and approved judgement, these passions of my troubled soule, so full of feare and trembling in hypocrisie and dissimulation. But knowing my owne innocency and godly fervor, in the whole prosecution hereof, I doubt not of your benigne acceptance, and clement construction. As for malicious depravers, and turbulent spirits, to whom nothing is tastful7 but what pleaseth their unsavory paalat, I passe not for them being well assured in my perswasion (by the often trial and proving of my selfe, in my holiest meditations and praiers) that I am called hereunto by the spirit of God; and it shall be sufficient for me to be protected by your selfe in all vertuous and pious indevours. And for my more happie proceeding herein, my daily oblations shall ever be addressed to bring to passe so good effects, that your selfe, and all the world may truely say: This is the worke of God, and it is marvelous in our eies.
But to avoid tedious preambles, and to come neerer the matter: first suffer me with your patence, to sweepe and make cleane the way wherein I walke, from all suspicions and doubts, which may be covered therein, and faithfully to reveale unto you, what should move me hereunto.
Let therefore this my well advised protestation, which here I make betweene God and my own conscience, be a sufficient witnesse, at the dreadfull day of judgement (when the secret of all mens harts shall be opened) to condemne me herein, if my chiefest intent and purpose be not, to strive with all my power of body and minde, in the undertaking of so mightie a matter, no way led (so farre forth as mans weakenesse may permit) with the unbridled desire of carnall affection: but for the good of this plantation, for the honour of our countrie, for the glory of God, for my owne salvation, and for the converting to the true knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, an unbeleeving creature, namely Pokahuntas. To whom my hartie and best thoughts are, and have a long time bin so intagled, and inthralled in so intricate a laborinth, that I was even awearied to unwinde my selfe thereout. But almighty God, who never faileth his, that truly invocate his holy name hath opened the gate, and led me by the hand that I might plainely see and discerne the safe paths wherein to treade.
To you therefore (most noble Sir) the patron and Father of us in this countrey doe I utter the effects of this setled and long continued affection (which hath made a mightie warre in my mediations) and here I doe truely relate, to what issue this dangerous combate is come unto, wherein I have not onely examined, but throughly tried and pared my thoughts even to the quick, before I could Snde and fit wholesome and apt applications to cure so daungerous an ulcer. I never failed to offer my daily and faithfull praiers to God, for his sacred and holy assistance. I forgot not to set before mine eies the frailty of mankinde, his prones to evill, his indulgencie of wicked thoughts, with many other imperfections wherein man is daily insnared, and oftentimes overthrowne, and them compared to my present estate. Nor was I ignorant of the heavie displeasure which almightie God conceived against the sonnes of Levie and Israel for marrying strange wives, nor of the inconveniences which may thereby arise, with other the like good motions which made me looke about warily and with good circumspection, into the grounds and principall agitations, which thus should provoke me to be in love with one whose education hath bin rude, her manners barbarous, her generation accursed, and so discrepant in all nurtriture frome my selfe, that oftentimes with feare and trembling, I have ended my private controversie with this: surely these are wicked instigations, hatched by him who seeketh and delighteth in mans destruction; and so with fervent praiers to be ever preserved from such diabolical assaults (as I tooke those to be) I have taken some rest.
Thus-when I had thought I had obtained my peace and quitnesse, beholde another, but more gracious tentation hath made breaches into my holiest and strongest meditations; with which I have bin put to a new traill, in a straighter manner then the former: for besides the many passions and sufferings which I have daily, hourely, yea and in my sleepe indured, even awaking mee to astonishment, taxing mee with remisnesse, and carlesnesse, refusing and neglecting to performe the duetie of a good Christian, pulling me by the eare, and crying: why dost not thou indevour to make her a Christian? And these have happened to my greater wonder, ven when she hath bin furthest seperated from me, which in common reason (were it not an undoubted worke of God) might breede forgetfulnesse of a farre more worthie creature. Besides, I say the holy spirit of God often demaunded of me, why I was created?
If not for transitory pleasures and worldly vanities, but to labour in the Lords vineyard, there to sow and plant, to nourish and increase the fruites thereof, daily adding witt the good husband in the Gospell, somewhat to the tallent, that in the end the fruites may be reaped, to the comfort of the laborer in this life, and his salvation in the world to come? And if this be, as undoubtedly this is, the service Jesus Christ requireth of his best servant: wo unto him that hath these instruments of pietie put into his hands and wilfillly despiseth to worke with them. Likewise, adding hereunto her great apparance of love to me, her desire to be taught and instructed in the knowledge of God, her capablenesse of understanding, her aptnesse and willingnesse to receive anie good impression, and also the spirituall, besides her owne incitements stirring me up hereunto.
What should I doe? Shall I be of so untoward a disposition, as to refuse to leade the blind into the right way? Shall I be so unnaturall, as not to give bread to the hungrie? or uncharitable, as not to cover the naked? Shall I despise to actuatethese pious dueties of a Christian? Shall the base feare of displeasing the world, overpower and with holde mee from revealing unto man these spirituall workes of the Lord, which in my meditations and praiers, I have daily made knowne unto him? God forbid. I assuredly trust hee hath thus delt with me for my eternall felicitie, and for his glorie: and I hope so to be guided by his heavenly graice, that in the end by my faithfilll paines, and christianlike labour, I shall attaine to that blessed promise, Pronounced by that holy Prophet Daniell unto the righteous that bring many unto the knowledge of God. Namely, that they shall shine like the starres forever and ever. A sweeter comfort cannot be to a true Christian, nor a greater incouragement for him to labour all the daies of his life, in the performance thereof, nor a greater gaine of consolation, to be desired at the hower of death, and in the day of judgement.
Againe by my reading, and conference with honest and religious persons, have I received no small encouragement, besides serena mea conscientia, the cleerenesse of my conscience, clean from the filth of impurity, quoe est instar muri ahenei, which is unto me, as a brasen wall. If I should set down at large, the perhioations and godly motions, which have striven within mee, I should but make a tedious and unnecessary volume. But I doubt not these shall be sufficient both to certifie you of my tru intents, in discharging of my dutie to God, and to your selfe, to whose gracious providence I humbly submit my selfe, for his glory, your honour, our Countreys good, the benefit of this Plantation, and for the converting of one unregenerate, to regeneration; which I beseech God to graunt, for his deere Sonne Christ Jesus his sake.
Now if the vulgar sort, who square all mens actions by the base rule of their owne filthinesse, shall taxe or taunt me in this my godly labour: let them know, it is not any hungry appetite, to gorge my selfe with incontinency; sure (if I would, and were so sensually inclined) I might satisfie such desire, though not without a seared conscience, yet with Christians more pleasing to the eie, and lesse fearefull in the offence unlawfully committed. Nor am I in so desperate an estate, that I regard not what becommeth of mee; nor am I out of hope but one day to see my Country, nor so void of friends, nor mean in birth, but there to obtain a mach to my great content: nor have I ignorantly passed over my hopes there, or regardlesly seek to loose the love of my- friends, by taking this course: I know them all, and have not rashly overslipped any.
But shal it please God thus to dispose of me (which I earnestly desire to fulfill my ends before sette down) I will heartely accept of it as a godly taxe appointed me, and I will never cease, (God assisting me) untill I have accomplished, and brought to perfection so holy a worke, in which I will daily pray God to blesse me, to mine, and her eternall happines. And thus desiring no longer to live, to enjoy the blessings of God, then this my resolution doth tend to such godly ends, as are by me before declared: not doubting of your favourable acceptance, I take my leave, beseeching Almighty God to raine downe upon you, such plenitude of his heavenly graces, as your heart can wish and desire, and so I rest,
At your command most willing to be disposed off
John Rolfe
Source: Jameson, J, Franldin. Narratives of Early Virginia. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907. (237-244)
John Rolfe
Nationality: England Executive summary: First Virginia tobacco baron, husband of Pocahontas
John Rolfe was an earlier American settler. His date of birth is unknown, but he was baptized on 6 May 1585 and came to the Colonies in 1610. He was one of many settlers sent by the Virginia Company of London, charged with finding ways to make the New World profitable, and in this assignment Rolfe was wildly successful: The native Virginia variety of tobacco, Nicotiana rustica, had been deemed too bitter for English customers' tastes, but in about 1612 Rolfe imported and began cultivating Caribbean tobacco, Nicotiana Tabacum. Ever since, tobacco has been the region's dominant crop.
His first wife died en route to the colonies, and Rolfe later married the Native Princess Pocahontas , who had been kidnapped and converted to Christianity. He returned to England with her, where they met with King James I and Sir Walter Raleigh and were greeted across England as celebrity-curiosities. Tragically, she contracted a disease for which she had no genetic immunity -- smallpox, some say, or pneumonia -- and died within months. Rolfe, now twice widowed, returned to Virginia where he served in several colonial administrative posts and married a third time. During a 1622 battle with Natives, his home was destroyed, and Rolfe is presumed to have perished, though his body was never found.
Through Thomas Rolfe, his son with Pocahontas, Rolfe's progeny extends through many generations of Virginia's most prominent families, including the Bollings, Randolphs, and First Lady Edith Wilson . The social stature of these families necessitated the insertion of a specific clause in Virginia's later laws against miscegeny, defining fourth- and subsequent generation descendants of Native Americans as legally White.Father: John Rolfe (b. 1562, d. 1594) Mother: Dorothea Mason Rolfe (b. 1559, m. 1582) Sister: Eustace Rolfe (b. 1585, d. 1593) Brother: Henry Rolfe (b. 1587) Brother: Edward Rolfe (b. 1591) Sister: Dorothy Rolfe (b. 1595) Wife: Sarah Hacker Rolfe (m. 1608, d. 1612, one daughter) Daughter: Bermuda Rolfe (d. infancy) Wife: Pocahontas (Native princess, b. 1595, m. 5-Apr-1614, one son) Son: Thomas Rolfe (colonist, b. 1615) Wife: Jane Pierce (m. 1620, one daughter) Daughter: Elizabeth Rolfe (b. 1620, d. 1635)
Slaveowners English AncestryRelated Topics
Agriculture
Tobacco
The child was named Bermuda Rolfe, lived only a few weeks. Born and died in Bermuda.
From the book, The True Tale of THE CASTAWAYS WHO RESCUED JAMESTOWN
AND INSPIRED SHAKESPERE'S
THE TEMPEST
A
BRAVE VESSEL by Hobson Woodward, 2009page 81 - 83
After the first mutiny trial, the attention of the castaways was turned in a new directgion with the impending birth of the first native Burmudian. The wife of voyager John Rolfe was nine months pregnant and expected to deliver a child soon. A palmetto tent was prepared for Goodwife Rolfe by the other married women of the camp, including Mistress Horton, the just married Elizabeth Parsons Powell, and the wife of Edward Eason, who was herself seven months pregnant. A mattress was laid on a Bermuda built bed for Goody Rolfe's benefit. At the base of the bed a stool was set for the woman who would act as midwife. Just outside the entrance a fire was kept.
At first pangs of lavor, Goody Rolfe sent for her attendants. A s a seventeenth century childbirth manuyal advised, "the time of delivery being at hand, they must prepare themselves as followeth, which is forthwith to send for their midwife and keeper, being far better to have them too soon than too late." As early labor progressed, Rolfe was encouraged to walk slowly around the clearing to hasten the process. The traditional labor time nourishments of separate cups of broth and egg yolk (in this case perhaps from one of the first cahow eggs of the season) were offered to her.
As labor progressed and Rolfe was put to bed, one of the attendants may have follwed the traditional method of assisting the birth: "Sometimes the midewife, etc., may gently press the upper parts of the belly, and by degrees stroke the child downward with discesion will hasten and facilitate the delivery." In the wilds of Bermuda not all traditional remedies of a well socked midwife's cabinet were available. The women attending Rolfe likelyu had no oils or lilies, violets, or roses to use as balms. Surely they did not have ingredients for one traditional mix often prescribed to hasten labor: White wine, misletoe, and mummy (the dried flesh of mummies --- purported to be Egytian but often domestic and of a more recent vintage - ground fine and sold as medicine).
page 90
---- "a second child was born (in Burmuda while stranded) just as Gates (Gov. appt to go to Jamestown) negotiated the end of the mutiney. The baby boy began life just before the Annunciation Day thunderstorm and receivd the tirds of the church just after i. :The five and twentieth of March, "Strachey said, "the wife of one Edward Eason, being delivered the week before of a boy, had him then christented, to whjich Captain Newport and myself and Master james Swift were godfathers, and wenamed it Bermuda."
The Godfaththers' choice of name was a tribute to the first child born on the island who had lived only a few weeks. Bermuda Rolfe had not survived an infancy marroned on a mid Atlantic isle. The saqualling cries of another child were both a comfort and a burden to the grieving parents. Strachey was a godfather to both children and joined in comforting John Rolfe while the womenh of the camp ministerd to his wife in the seclusion of a palmetto hut. The birth of the second child reqauired the attnetion of the women, but Goody Rolfe was not left alone. Reverend Richard buck offered what consolation he could. The chcild was laid to rest in a small grave in the growing island cemetery.
He also married Jane Pierce in 1620. After the death of Pocahontas in 1617, John returned to America
References:
(1) Pioneers of the Virginias; page 78, 163.
(2) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, Janet Barker Hager, page 77.
References:
(1) Pioneers of the Virginias; page 78, 163.
(2) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, Janet Barker Hager, page 78.
References:
(1) Pioneers of the Virginias; page 78, 163.
(2) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, Janet Barker Hager, page 78.
References:
(1) Pioneers of the Virginias; page 78, 163.
(2) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, Janet Barker Hager, page 78.
References:
(1) Pioneers of the Virginias; page 78, 163.
(2) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, Janet Barker Hager, page 78.
References:
(1) Pioneers of the Virginias; page 78, 163.
(2) The Barker Family of Southern West Virginia, Janet Barker Hager, page 78.