Elizabeth (Washington) Rolfe (abt. 1614 - abt. 1633)

Died about 1633 at about age 19 in London, London, Middlesex, England

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Biography

Married to Thomas Rolfe on September 13, 1632 in Clerkenwell, London, England) to Elizabeth Washington in England.^[1] Whether this is the famous Thomas Rolfe is the question.

Most early sources states ( See The Descendants of Pocahontas: An Unclosed Case"^[2] and Pocahontas' Descendants by Stuart Brown et al (1995) which is the most updated version of POCAHONTAS' DESCENDANTS: A Revision, Enlargement and Extension of the List as Set out by Wyndham Robertson in His Book Pocahontas and Her Descendants (1887) that he was only married once "to possibly the daughter of Francis Poytress, a Virginia colonist" . If there was a first marriage in England before he moved to Viriginia to claim his inheritance & land, the first wife was listed as " unknown".

Possibly married Thomas RolfeSeptember 13, 1632 in Clerkenwell, London, England^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V52S-PJK : 10 February 2018), Thomas Rolfe and Eliz. Washington, 13 Sep 1632; citing Saint James,Clerkenwell,London,England, reference , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 942 B4HA V. 13.
2. ↑ The Descendants of Pocahontas: An Unclosed Case", by Elizabeth Vann Moore and Richard Slatten, Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, XXIII, no.3, pp.3-16, cited by John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 4th ed., Vol. 3, p.26, 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.
3. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V52S-PJK : accessed 03 Jan 2014), Thomas Rolfe and Eliz. Washington, 13 Sep 1632.Saint James,Clerkenwell,London,England.NOTE : NO IMAGE