Pocahontas Had Descendants Named Whittle??

 

(Printed in THE MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM-SENTINEL in the column, 'WINDOW TO THE PAST', Sept. 14, '12)

​

Pocahontas was an Indian princess whose father was the Chief of the Powhatans. His name was also Powhatan. They lived in the Tidewater area of Virginia in 1607 when the English first landed to settle in the New World. 

 

In this area, they established the first permanent English settlement and called it Jamestown. The famous early American, Captain John Smith, was a special friend to Pocahontas and because of their friendship she saved his life from the hands of her father, Chief Powhatan, who had planned to have him slain. 

 

How much of this is truth and how much is fiction is in the mind of the beholder! Any child who has been taught his American History knows this famous story of Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas.

 

Pocahontas was born circa 1596 and the age of 18 years, on April 5, 1614, she married an Englishman of noble birth named John Rolfe. He was living in the new settlement of Jamestown in the Tidewater region of eastern Virginia. John was 28 years old and was a widower when he first met Pocahontas. He was the grandson of Eustace Rolfe, who in 1587, contributed money to help build the ships that defeated the Spanish Armada.

 

John Rolfe was a native of Norfolk County, England and a descendant of a family that had come to England from the Scandinavian countries long before William the Conqueror. His ancestral home was called Heacham Hall near King's Lynn in England. John Rolfe was an important early Virginia planter, establishing a tobacco industry in Colonial America in the Jamestown area. He became very successful as a planter.

John Rolfe was a survivor of a shipwreck in Bermuda. He and his first wife, name unknown, had a child that was born while they lived in Bermuda and consequently, was given the name Bermuda. The child and its mother had both died before John Rolfe arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1610.

John had two younger brothers, Edward and Henry Rolfe, both whom remained in England. Edward settled in King's Lynn at the ancestral home. Henry lived in London where he was a prosperous merchant and a member of the Virginia Company. After the death of John's father, his mother married Robert Redmayne, Chancellor of the Diocese of Heachem. This information was found in the Rolfe family records compiled by A. E. Gunther.

 

After their marriage in 1614, Pocahontas and John Rolfe lived in a house on the shore of the James River between Henrico and Bermuda Hundred, about 40 miles northwest of Jamestown. ​​Her father, Powhatan, gave the couple this land as a wedding gift and they named their new home "Varina" after a variety of tobacco that Rolfe had imported from Spain. In 1615, Pocahontas gave birth to a son named Thomas, her only child.​​

 

In the spring of her 20th year, Pocahontas was called from her peaceful and contented life at her home on the James River to give her final and more colorful performance in American history---she was whisked off to England to be presented to the Courts to meet many important and influential people of royalty, the clergy, and the wealthy merchants.

 

In the spring of her 20th year, Pocahontas was called from her peaceful and contented life at her home on the James River to give her final and more colorful performance in American history... she was whisked off to England to be presented to the Courts to meet many important and influential people of royalty, the clergy, and the wealthy merchants. Pocahontas, her husband John, and son Thomas spent 9 months in England where she was once again united with her old friend, Captain John Smith. In March 1617, the Rolfe's were booked to return to her native homeland on the ship GEORGE, to set sail from Gravesend which was just outside London. While waiting to sail, Pocahontas became gravely ill with pneumonia (some authorities say she died of either smallpox or tuberculosis).

Before the ship set sail, Pocahontas had died in her 20th year far from her native soil and in an alien land. She was buried in Gravesend at a medieval churchyard called St. George's parish church, standing near the Thames River. Her Christian name was Rebecca Rolfe and her burial was registered in the church's records as:

"1616 March 21, Rebecca Wrolfe, Wyffe of Thomas (John) Wrolfe, Gentleman, a Virginia Lady Borne, was buried in ye Chancell."

Captain John Smith, in his writings, helped to make Pocahontas a true American heroine, famous beyond her time, and marked the beginning of her immortality. John Rolfe returned to Virginia shortly after her death. He had entrusted the care of his young son, Thomas, into the hands of a physician, Dr. Manuouri, in England. He wanted to take young Thomas back to America, but was advised not to at that particular time.

​​Later, Thomas was entrusted into the care of John's youngest brother, Henry Rolfe, in London. John Rolfe never saw his only child again... Upon returning to Virginia, he again began raising tobacco and worked it into a very profitable industry. He also served as a member of America's first legislative assembly before his death in 1622 at the age of 37 years. That year he was killed, along with 300 other Colonists, in an Indian uprising led by one of Pocahontas' uncles named Opechancanough.

 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​In 1635, Thomas Rolfe, son of Pocahontas and John, returned to his native land. He was 20 years old and when he got to the Tidewater region of Virginia, he found the plantation "Varina" waiting for him, plus thousands of acres of land previously inherited by his grandfather, Chief Powhatan. He remained in Virginia for the rest of his life becoming a tobacco planter, as his father before him.

Thomas Rolfe married an English lady, Jane Polythress (later spelled Pierce). They produced only one child, a daughter named Jane. She was born circa 1635-40. I do not know what year Thomas Rolfe died nor the date of the death of his wife, Jane. In 1675, their daughter, Jane Rolfe, married Colonel Robert Bolling, the son of John and Mary Bolling of All Hollows, Barkin Parish, Tower Street, London.

 

Robert Bolling came to America in 1660 when he was 16 years old and at an early age, acquired wealth and prominence. At the age of 29 years, in 1675, Robert married Jane Rolfe who was a few years older than Robert. They produced only one child, a son John Bolling. Jane Rolfe Bolling died a year later leaving Robert with a young son of one year. After Jane's death, he married Anne Stith of nearby Petersburg, Virginia.

From the union of Pocahontas and John Rolfe descended seven successive generations of statesmen, educators, ministers, and lawmakers including the American names of Randolph, Blair, Lewis, and Bolling. One of the most famous descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe was John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, who served in Congress in the House of Representatives and the Senate alike. So, through her one son, Thomas Rolfe, and all his descendants, Pocahontas has lived on in our great American history.

Pocahontas had three different names during her lifetime. The first was known only among her own tribesmen and she was called "Matoax" which in the Powhatan language was translated to mean "Little Snow Feather". Her name Pocahontas was given by her father and was translated to mean "Bright Stream Between Two Hills". Her third name, Rebecca, was given to her when she converted to Christianity.

FOOTNOTE:
I have prepared this short history because it is a known fact that a family named Whittle were descendants of Pocahontas. There is no definite proof that the Whittle family of Miller County were part of her ancestry. The Whittle connection is recorded in the following manner:

"Mary Ann Davies, a great-great-great granddaughter of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, married Fortescue Whittle, a native of County Antrim, Ireland. He came to the United States in the late 1700s. He and Mary Ann had nine sons: William Conway WHITTLE, Fortescue WHITTLE Jr., James M. WHITTLE, Conway D. WHITTLE, John S. WHITTLE, Lewis Neale WHITTLE, Stephen Decatur WHITTLE, Francis McNeece WHITTLE, and Powhatan Bolling WHITTLE."

This family of nine sons carried the name Whittle forward into new generations. I have not been successful in tying together the Miller County Whittle family with any of these nine sons but will continue to search for clues. Many times, a small clue will bring forth a great deal of new information. Most of the information about the Whittle family, descendants of Pocahontas, was found in a book written in 1887 entitled POCAHONTAS ALIAS MATOAKA AND HER DESCENDANTS."

 

The Whittle family of Miller County are descendants of Joseph Whittle and Susannah (Kinser), natives of Virginia. It is believed Joseph, born circa 1795 in Virginia, was a son of Robert Whittle who was born about 1770. His place of birth is not known. He may have been the immigrant ancestor of the Whittle family and may have been born in the British Isles. No one, to my knowledge, has been successful in connecting a direct lineage of the Whittle clan to their European background.