John West (abt. 1657 - aft. 1687)

Born about 1657 in York County, Colony of Virginia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Died after 1687 after about age 30 in Colony of Virginia

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Biography

The Pamunkey man known as "John West" was the son of Cockacoeske, referred to as the "Queen of the Pamunkey," He was born after the death of her husband, Totopotamoi, and is widely believed to be the son of Colonel John West The child became known as John West (of this profile), but it's unclear whether he was named after his father or was called that because his father was an admired person.

A previous version of this profile claimed, without source, that John's father left Unity Croshaw for Cockacoeske. But John's age suggests he was born prior to his father's marriage to Unity.

“John West” was reported to be twenty years old when he and his mother met with the Governor’s Council in June, 1676. A man named Thomas Matthews wrote down his recollection of the event in 1705, saying "Our committee being sat, the Queen of Pamunkey … was introduced... bringing on her right hand an Englishman Interpreter and on the left her Son a Stripling twenty years of age.… [The interpreter] told us she bid him ask her Son to whom the English tongue was familiar, and who was reputed the son of an English Colonel, yet neither woud he speak or seem to understand.... " ^[1]

Along with his mother he signed his mark to the 1677 Virginia/Indian Treaty of Middle Plantation, recorded as "The Signe of Cap't John West, sonne to the Queen of Pomunkey." ^[2]

John was married to a Pamunkey woman. In 1678 Cockacoeske and her son filed a list of grievances with the colonial authorities. Among the grievances was a complaint that John West’s wife had run away and was being harbored by the Chickahominy, since she “had been bred and born at Chickahominy although her parents were Pamunkeys.” ^[3]

"On July 1, 1686, the Pamunkeys’ interpreter, George Smith, informed the governor that the Pamunkey queen “was lately dead and that ye Pamunkey Indians did desire that ye late Queen’s niece . . . upon [whom] ye right of Government of that Indian nation doe devolve, might succeed.”^[4] John West was apparently still alive when his mother died, but leadership of the Pamunkey was matrilineal. He appears in no further records.

Sources

1. ↑ Andrews, Charles M., ed. Narratives of the Insurrections. C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1915. pp. 25-26. Images at Matthews.
2. ↑ Treaty transcript at treaty
3. ↑ The Agrievances of the Queen of Poemunkey and her Sonn Captain John West, June 5, 1678
4. ↑ H. R.McIlwaine, compiler. Executive Journals of the Councils of Colonial Virginia, Vol. 1, p.79. available at archive.org

See also:

• McCartney, M., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Cockacoeske (d. by July 1, 1686). (2014, May 30). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Cockacoeske_d_by_July_1_1686.