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Thomas Rolfe (January 30, 1615 – ) was the only child of Pocahontas and her English husband, John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Chief Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan tribe in Virginia.
In March 1617, the Rolfe family had boarded ship, preparing to set sail back to Virginia, when Pocahontas was taken seriously ill and died. They disembarked at Gravesend in Kent, where Pocahontas was buried. Thomas was sick as well, and fearing he would not survive the sea journey home, John Rolfe appointed Sir Lewis Stukley as his guardian on 21 March 1617. Grieving for his wife and worried for the life of his son, John Rolfe was persuaded by Admiral Argall and other members of the party to continue the voyage. Father and son would never see each other again. John Rolfe, Tomocomo, the governor and other surviving Native Americans returned to Virginia. Print. Stuckley later transferred custody and care of Thomas Rolfe to his uncle, Henry Rolfe.
After returning to Virginia, John Rolfe married a third time, to Jane Pierce, and gave Thomas a younger half-sister, Elizabeth.
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In October 1622, Henry Rolfe petitioned the Council of Virginia, claiming entitlement to a portion of John Rolfe's land for maintenance of Thomas Rolfe. Thomas remained in his uncle's care until he reached roughly 21 years of age. Sometime before June 1635 Thomas returned to Virginia, his transportation paid for by his Virginia guardian and grandfather by marriage, William Pierce. This is known with certainty because Pierce patented land on June 22, 1635, claiming headright for the transportation of 40 individuals, including Thomas Rolfe.Cavaliers and pioneers; abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, 1623–1800 by Nugent, Nell Marion, p 29 There is no further mention of his whereabouts or doings until 1641.
Once established in Virginia again, Thomas Rolfe fostered both his reputation as a plantation owner and member of his mother's lineage.
Rolfe married Jane Poythress, the daughter of Captain Francis Poythress, a prosperous landowner in Virginia., cited by , 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." Their daughter, Jane Rolfe, was born at Varina Farms, Charles City County, Virginia, on October 10, 1650.John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 23–36. There is no record of any other children, and no record of any other marriages for Thomas Rolfe.
Thomas's step-grandfather, named Captain William Peirce, received a grant of 2000 acres of land on June 22, 1635, for the "transportation of 40 persons among whom was Thomas Rolfe". He then listed Thomas as heir to his father's land. Prior to March 1640, Thomas took possession of this land which was located on the lower side of the James River.McCartney, Martha W. "Thomas Rolfe". Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607–1635: A Biographical Dictionary. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2007. p. 608. Print.
Thomas also inherited a tract of some 150 acres on June 10, 1654, in Surry County, across from Jamestown; the land was described in a later deed as "Smith's Fort old field and the Devil's Woodyard swamp being due unto the said Rolfe by Gift from the Indian King".
The year after the 1644 Native American attack on the colony, four forts were established to defend the frontier: Fort Henry, Fort Royal, Fort James, and Fort Charles. Fort James was to be under the command of Thomas Rolfe as lieutenant as of October 5, 1646. He was given six men, and was instructed to fight against the Native Americans—his own people;
Then, on October 6, 1646, Thomas was put in charge of building a fort at Moysonec, for which he received of land. This fort was located on the west side of Diascund Creek.
Several years later, Rolfe patented 525 acres on August 8, 1653, "...lying upon the North side of Chickahominy river commonly called and known by the name of James fort...", apparently including the 400 acres he had received in 1646.Land Office Patent Bk 3, p. 13. This James Fort land was re patented by William Browne on April 23, 1681.Land Office Patent Bk 7, p. 96 The tract was described in the patent as "formerly belonging to Mr Thomas Rolfe, dec'd", thus establishing that Rolfe had died before that date.
The Sedgeford Hall Portrait, now in King's Lynn Town Hall, once believed to represent Pocahontas and her son Thomas Rolfe, has been re-identified as being Pe-o-ka, wife of the Seminole leader Osceola, and their son.Navab, Valorie. American Indian Summer 2013. Smithsonian Institution. http://content.yudu.com/A2702l/Summer2013/resources/40.htm
The birth of Thomas Rolfe, as he was both of European and Native American descent, reinstated peace between the Powhatans and the European settlements. Early in his career as deputy governor, Argall reported in a letter published within the Virginia Company Records that Powhatan "goes from place to place visiting his country taking his pleasure in good friendship with us laments his daughter's death but glad her child is living so doth Opchanacanough".
Thomas Rolfe is the eleventh-great-grandfather of actor, Edward Norton.
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