USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 9
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" All this while, Sir Thomas Dale, Mr. Whittaker, minister of Ber- muda Hundred, and Mr. Rolph, her husband, were very careful and assiduous in instructing Pocahontas in the Christian religion ; and she, on her part, expressed an eager desire and showed great capacity for learning. After she had been tutored for some time, she openly renounced the idolatry of her country, confessed the faith of Christ, and
BAPTISM OF POCAHONTAS.
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was baptized by the name of Rebecca. But her real name, it seems, was originally Matoax, which the Indians carefully concealed from the English, and changed it to Pocahontas, out of a superstitious fear, lest they, by a knowledge of her true name, should be enabled to do her some hurt. She was the first Christian Indian in these parts, and perhaps the sincerest and most worthy that has ever been since. And now she has no manner of desire to return to her father; neither could she well endure the brutish manners or society of her own nation. Her affection for her husband was extremely constant and true; and he, on the other hand, underwent great torment and pain, out of his violent passion and tender solicitude for her."
From the foregoing, we would infer that her marriage preceded her baptism. On what authority Mr. Stith (who wrote his work in 1746) relied, I know not, but the following testimony from Sir Thomas Dale, in 1614, is certainly to be preferred. In a letter to the Bishop of London, dated June 18, 1614, he thus writes :-
"Powhatan's daughter I caused to be carefully instructed in the Chris- tian religion, who, after she had made some good progress therein, renounced publicly her country's idolatry, openly confessed her Christian faith, was, as she desired, baptized, and is since married to an English gentleman of good understanding, (as by his letter unto me, containing the reasons of his marriage of her, you may perceive,) another knot to bind this peace the stronger. Her father and friends gave approbation to it, and her uncle gave her to him in the Church. She lives civilly and lovingly with him, and I trust will increase in goodness, as the knowledge of God increaseth in her. She will go into England with me; and, were it but the gaining of this one soul, I will think my time, toil, and present stay well spent."
According to this communication to the Bishop of London, Sir Thomas Dale, whose return to England was delayed beyond his wishes or expectation, did, in the year 1616, carry with him Mr. Rolph and his wife. Her son, Thomas Rolph, was born while she was in England. On her return, she suddenly died, at Gravesend. The husband returned to this country, being made Recorder and Secretary to the Colony. The son, after being educated in England by his uncle, Henry Rolph, returned to America, and lived at Hen- rico, where his parents had formerly lived, and afterward became a person of fortune and distinction in the Colony .*
* " He left behind him an only daughter, who was married to Colonel Robert Bolling, by whom she left an only son, Major John Bolling, who was the father of Colonel John Bolling, and of several daughters, one of whom married Colonel Richard Randolph, another Colonel Fleming, a third Dr. William Gay, a fourth Mr. Thomas Eldridge, and the last Mr. James Murray." To this statement of Stith, one of the family has furnished me with the following addition :- " The son
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Concerning the reception and behaviour of Pocahontas in London, I shall only give the account which Purchas, the cele- brated compiler of the many treatises called "Purchas's Pil- grims," has handed down to us :-
"She did not only accustom herself to civilitie, but still carried her- self as the daughter of a King, and was accordingly respected, not only by the company, (London Company,) which allowed provision for herself and son; but of divers particular persons of honour, in their hopeful zeal · by her to advance Christianity. I was present when my honourable and reverend patron, the Lord-Bishop of London, Dr. King, entertained her with festival, and state, and pomp, beyond what I have seen in his great hospitalitie afforded to other ladies. At her return towards Virginia, she came to Gravesend, to her end and grave, having given great demon- stration of her Christian sincerity, as the first fruits of Virginian con- versions, leaving here a godly memory and the hopes of her resurrection, her soul aspiring to see and enjoy presently in Heaven what here she had joyed to hear and believe of her beloved Saviour."
of Pocahontas, Thomas Rolph, married a Miss Poythress. Their grandson, John Bolling, married a Miss Kennon, whose son John married a Miss Blair, of Wil- liamsburg, while Richard Randolph, of Curls, fourth in descent from Pocahontas, married Miss Ann Mcade, sister of Colonel R. K. Meade. Their daughter married Mr. William Bolling, of Bolling Hall, Goochland county, each of them being fifth in descent from Pocahontas."
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ARTICLE V.
The Parish of James City .- No. 3.
THE history of Rolph and Pocahontas is so identified with that of Virginia, and with the Church of Virginia, that it deserves more than a passing notice. The account usually given of it is too often considered as an interesting and highly-exaggerated romance, though founded on the fact of the first marriage of an Englishman with an Indian. From an accurate examination of all the early statements concerning the two persons, and the circumstances of their marriage, we are persuaded that there is as little of romance or exaggeration about it as can well be. On the part of Poca- hontas, she was the daughter of the noblest and most powerful of the native kings of North America, who by his superior wisdom and talents had established his authority over all the tribes from James River to the Potomac, from Kiquotan or Hampton to the falls of James River, or what is now Richmond, with the exception of that on the Chickohomini. We read of two of his sons, and another of his daughters, who also rose superior to the rest of their race. Of one of the sons, Nantaquaus, Captain Smith says that he was "the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a savage," and of his sister, Pocahontas, that she had "a compas- sionate pitiful heart." The other daughter Sir Thomas Dale en- deavoured without success to obtain, with a view to another alliance with some English gentleman. But Pocahontas was acknowledged by all to be cast in one of the first of nature's moulds, both as to person and character. She was declared to be the "nonpareil" of Captain Smith and his associates. Nor is it wonderful. At the age of twelve or thirteen, after using all her powers of persua- sion to obtain the release of Captain Smith, and to save him from the sentence of death, but in vain,-when his head was laid upon the stone, and her father's huge club was uplifted by his arm, and ready to fall on the head of the prisoner, she threw herself upon him, laying her head on his, and folding her arms around him, thus moving the heart of her father, and, as Smith himself declared to the Queen, "hazarding the beating out of her own brains in- stead of mine." After this, her interest in Smith and the Colony
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was displayed in frequent visits to it. "Jamestown with her wild train (of attendants) she as frequently visited as her father's habi- tation," says Smith, in a letter to the Queen, and often, by her timely warnings, saved the Colony from destruction. On one occa- sion, when Smith and a number with him were in most imminent dan- ger, she came along through the woods some miles, outstripping those who were seeking their destruction : "the dark night (he says in the same letter) could not affright her, but, coming through the irk- some woods, with watered eyes gave me intelligence." "She was," he adds, "the first Christian of that nation; the first who ever spake English, or had a child in marriage." Her meeting with Smith also, in London, was very characteristic. It was unexpected by her, for she had been told that he was dead some years before. She was in the circle of the great when Smith came into her pre- sence, and he thought it prudent and right to address her with more ceremony and state than formerly in America, out of respect to those around. This distressed her much, and she resented it, and upbraided him with not calling her his child, as he did in America, and allowing her to call him father, as she used to do; nor could he convince her to the contrary, she declaring that she would call him father. In relation to Mr. Rolph, there can be no doubt that he had conceived a strong affection for her, on account of her person, and deeply-interesting qualities, which affection was fully returned. There is extant a long and most affecting letter from Mr. Rolph to Sir Thomas Dale, declaring his wish and deter- mination to marry her, assigning his reasons, describing his feel- ings, and asking the Governor's approbation. He seems to have been much concerned and troubled in mind on the subject, and calls God to witness the purity of his motives, and how deeply his conscience had been engaged in the decision, and that not until much suffering had been endured was the determination made .*
* The Rev. Peter Fontaine, in a letter to his brother in England, in which he advocates intermarriage with the Indians as a means of their civilization and Chris- tianization, says, "But this, our wise politicians at home put an effectual stop to at the beginning of our settlement here, for when they heard that Rolph had married Pocahontas, it was deliberated in Council whether he had not committed high trea- son by so doing, that is, marrying an Indian princess ; and had not some troubles intervened, which put a stop to the enquiry, the poor man might have been hanged up for doing the most just, the most natural, the most generous and politic action, that ever was done on this side of the water. This put an effectual stop to all intermarriages afterwards." From whence Mr. Fontaine got this tradition I know not. Col. Byrd, in his Westover Manuscripts, advocates the same mode of convert- ing and civilizing the natives as did his minister, Mr. Fontaine.
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The letter can only be understood by considering the character and position of Mr. Rolph. Here was a young Englishman, of family, education, and reputation, about to engage himself to an Indian girl, of a different and despised colour, of different manners, un- educated, of a hated nation, not one of whom had ever yet been married to one of the meanest of the Colonists; his children, and children's children, to be regarded as an inferior race, his own pros- pects in life as to preferment all blasted, himself, perhaps, to be a byword and proverb. Such, doubtless, were his feelings when penning this letter.
"For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh, Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn."
Principle, religious principle, as well as pure love of female excel- lence, prevailed and was rewarded. Not only did Sir Thomas Dale approve and encourage the alliance, but, after writing home most favourably of it, carried them with him to England, where they were most honourably received. It is said that King James was even a little jealous of them, lest, on returning to America, they might think, by right of inheritance from Powhatan, (a far nobler monarch than himself,) to establish themselves in rule over his Virginia territory. This was only one of the vain thoughts which found a seat in that weak and conceited monarch's mind. Nothing but good resulted from the union, and much more than is seen or acknowledged may have resulted. Instead of a race of despised semi-savages being the issue of this union, Mr. Burk, the historian of Virginia, after giving the names of some of his de- scendants, which have been already recorded, adds :- "so that this remnant of the imperial family of Virginia, which long ran in a single person, is now increased and branched out into a very nume- rous progeny. The virtues of mildness and humanity, so eminently distinguished in Pocahontas, remain in the nature of an inheritance to her posterity. There is scarcely a scion from this stock which has not been in the highest degree amiable and respectable." He also adds, "that he is acquainted with several members of this family, who are intelligent and even eloquent, and, if fortune keep pace with their merits, should not despair of attaining a conspi- cuous and even exalted station in the Commonwealth." This was written in the year 1804, when Mr. Randolph of Roanoke, one of the descendants of Pocahontas, was just entering upon public life.
We are now approaching a deeply-interesting, eventful, and de-
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cisive period in the history of the Colony. Until about the year 1616, when Sir Thomas Dale returned to England, Jamestown, Henrico, and Bermuda Hundred formed nearly all of the Colony; and at that time it is probable that Mr. Bucke, at Jamestown, and Mr. Whittaker, with his curate, Wickham, were the only ministers of the Colony. During the three following years, infant settle- ments, planted by Sir Thomas Dale on James River, and others, by his successors, Argal and Yeardley, began to increase, and as- sume the forms of villages, called Hundreds, and several new mi- nisters came over. We ascertain the names of Stockam, Meare, Hargrave, and Scale. In the year 1619, Yeardley, having visited Europe, returned with new instructions and enlarged authority. He was directed to convene the first legislative body ever held in Virginia. Eleven boroughs sent delegates, called Burgesses, to it. Mr. Bucke was still the minister at Jamestown, and opened the meeting with solemn prayers in the choir of the church, the Go- vernor sitting in his accustomed place, the Councillors on each side of him, and the Burgesses around; after which they all went into the body of the church, and proceeded with the work of legis- lation. The laws, martial, moral, and divine, were now superseded by some of a different character. The Church of England was more formally established than it ever had been before. * Now all things began to assume a more regular and promising aspect. More especially was the attention of the Company in London and of pious friends in England directed to the cause of education in the Colony. Many years before this, King James had, through the Archbishop of Canterbury, called upon the Bishops and clergy of England to take up collections for a University in Virginia, for the benefit of both natives and Colonists, and the sum of £1500 had been raised for the purpose. Now an influx of charity poured in upon Virginia, especially for this object. I have before me a paper, copied from an English record, containing a list of the fol- lowing donations, during the years 1619-20-21 :- " Mrs. Mary Robinson, for a church in Virginia, £200. An unknown person, £20 for communion-service, and other things for the same. A person unknown, £30, for the College communion-service, &c. A
* Mr. Henning, in his Statutes at Large, and all other writers on the early history of Virginia, have declared that no account of the acts of this first Assembly has been preserved; but Mr. Conway Robinson, in his researches among the public offices in England, during his late visit to that country, has discovered an old manu- script, of thirty or forty pages, being a journal or report of its proceedings.
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person with the signature of Dust and Ashes sent £550, in gold, to Sir Edward Sandys, for the instruction of the natives in religion and civility. Nicholas Ferrar, £330 for the same, and £24 an- nually. An unknown person, £10 for the Colony. For a free school in Virginia, by persons returning from the East Indies, to be called the East India School, £70. Ditto for the same, by an unknown person, £30. Ditto by a person unknown, £25. Ditto a Bible, Prayer Book, and other books worth £10." The Rev. Mr. Hargrave also gave his library. The place selected for the College was Henrico City, before mentioned as settled by Sir Tho- mas Dale and Mr. Whittaker, on the north side of James River, about fifteen miles below Richmond. Not less than 15,000 acres of land were given as College lands, and for purposes connected with the Church and College, between the settlement and Rich- mond, by the Company in England. The East India School was to be established at Charles City,-a place somewhere in what is now the county of Charles City, and probably not far from Hen- rico City. The Rev. Mr. Copland, chaplain of the East India Company, who had proposed the East India School in Virginia and contributed liberally to it, was appointed by the Company to be President of the College, and general manager of all its pro- perty. The East India School, in Charles City, was to be a pre- paratory one to the College. On the 13th of April, 1622, the Rev. Mr. Copland was requested by the Company to deliver a thanksgiving sermon, in London, for all the late mercies of God to the Colony, and for the bright prospects before them ; but in about one month before that time, on the 22d of March, those prospects had been blasted by one of the most unexpected and direful cala- mities which had ever befallen the Colony. Since the marriage of Pocahontas all had been peace with the natives. The Colonists had settled themselves in various places along James River, from Kiquotan (Hampton) to Henrico, fearing no evil, although the dreadful massacre which then ensued had been secretly resolved upon for some years. On one and the same day the attack was made on every place. Jamestown, and some few points near to it, alone escaped, having received warning of the intended attack just in time to prepare for defence. Besides the destruction of houses by fire, between three and four hundred persons were put to death in the most cruel manner. Such was the effect of this assault, both in Virginia and in England, that a commission was sent over to the Governor, Sir George Yeardley, to seek for a set- Jement on the Eastern Shore of Virginia for those who remained.
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That plan, however, was never put in execution, though steps were taken toward it. The hopes of the best friends of the Colony, and of the natives, were now overwhelmed. This, added to all preceding conflicts with the natives, and the continual defence re- quired before the marriage of Pocahontas, produced a change in the feelings and language of many toward the natives, which we should scarce credit if the records of the same were not too well authenticated. In unison with the feelings of the English, Cap- tain Smith, who was still alive and in England, offered himself as the commander of a company of young and valiant soldiers, to be a standing army in Virginia, going in among the tribes, inflicting vengeance for the past, and driving them out of their possessions to some place so distant from our people as to render them harm- less. The Company itself, hitherto so strong in its injunction of mild measures and the use of means for the conversion of the In- dians, now says, " We condemn their bodies, the saving of whose souls we have so zealously affected. Root them out from being any longer a people,-so cursed a nation, ungrateful for all bene- fits and incapable of all goodness,-or remove them so far as to be out of danger or fear. War perpetually, without peace or truce. Yet spare the young for servants. Starve them by destroying their corn, or reaping it for your own use. Pluck up their weirs, (fishing-traps.) Obstruct their hunting. Employ foreign enemies against them at so much a head. Keep a band of your own men continually upon them, to be paid by the Colony, which is to have half of their captives and plunder. He that takes any of their chiefs to be doubly rewarded. He that takes Opochancono (the chief and brother of old Powhatan, who was now dead) shall have a great and singular reward." At a somewhat later period, either an order in council or a law was passed, that "the Indians being irreconcilable enemies, every commander, on the least molesta- tion, to fall upon them."
It may perhaps seem to some, that in giving such details of mas- sacre and revenge I am departing from that line of ecclesiastical notices hitherto pursued. A few words will, I hope, suffice for my justification, and show that I have a sufficient reason for it. In the first fifteen years of the Colony, it must be admitted that, so far as the few ministers who belonged to it, and a good proportion of the laity taking part in it, are concerned, there is as large a share of the true missionary spirit in its conduct as is anywhere to be found, not excepting any missionary movements since apostolic days and men. But this massacre, following others which had taken place,
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and the little success attending the conversion of the natives in this country, or in England, whither some had been sent for Chris- tian instruction, produced a sad revolution in public feeling. The missionary effort was considered as a failure; the conversion, or even civilization, of the Indian, was regarded as hopeless. The Company began, and probably continued, to appropriate £500 an- nually to the support of such men as Hunt, Bucke, Clover, Whit- taker, and other religious purposes; but that Company was, in the year 1624, dissolved by the covetous and tyrannical act of James. Where now are to be found the considerations sufficient to move other such devoted missionaries to fill up the ranks made vacant by their death ? The Indians were now objects of dread, of hate, of persecution. A sentiment and declaration is ascribed to one of the last of the ministers who came over, "that the only way to convert the Indians was to cut the throats of their chief men and priests.". It must also be acknowledged that the experience of two hundred and fifty years has proved that the North American Indian is the most unlikely subject for conversion to our religion of all the savage tribes on whom the missionary has bestowed his labour. Cowper may have poured out his soul of piety and poetry over some instance of conversion among them :-
"The wretch that once sang wildly, laugh'd and danced, Has wept a silent flood; reversed his ways ; Is sober, meek, benevolent, and prays; Feeds sparingly, communicates his store ; And he that stole has learn'd to steal no more."
But how many of such have there been ? Pocahontas, at the end of seven or eight years, was perhaps the only trophy of the mis- sionary labours of the Virginia Colony. In forming a judgment, therefore, of our Mother-Church, in regard to the ministers sent forth by, or issuing from her, from the time of this great failure, we must inquire into the arguments by which her clergy could hence- forth be urged to come over to this Macedonia. The only persons who could be brought under their pastoral care in Virginia were now the same kind of rich and poor who abounded so much more in the country they would leave, and these were placed under the greatest imaginable difficulties of access,-scattered at great dis- tances from each other, and along the margins of wide rivers, with scarce a village, or village church, to be seen. To the present day, how great the impediment this to the full trial of the Gospel ministry ! As to the salaries and residences of ministers, we shall
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hereafter show that the former were most scanty and precarious, and the latter uncomfortable. For a long time, all things were most unfavourable for usefulness as well as comfort. Let us sup- pose that the present missionaries to China and Africa were sent merely to minister to the English and Americans scattered through those lands, no opening whatever being had to the natives, and, moreover, that, besides much and painful travelling through dark forests, they were most meagrely supplied with the means of sub- sistence, with clothing, and homes, so that scarce any of them could venture to assume the relation of husbands and fathers; can we suppose that such men as those we now send out as missionaries would be ready to engage in the work, when there are so many stations at home furnishing larger opportunities of usefulness ? Let us not, therefore, be surprised, if, in subsequent notices, we should find an inferior order of men supplying the churches of Virginia. Nor let any denomination of Christians boast itself over the Church of Virginia, since, under similar circumstances, it might not have done better.
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ARTICLE VI.
The Parish of James City .- No. 4.
HAVING brought the history of James City parish, in its con- nection with the few others then in existence, to the time of the great massacre, with some thoughts on its effects, I briefly allude to two events, occurring soon after, and calculated to concur with it in having an injurious influence over the future welfare of the Colony. While the Company and the Governors were endeavour- ing to improve the condition of the Colony, by selecting a hundred young females, of good character, to be wives to the labourers on the farms in Virginia, King James had determined to make of the Colony a Botany Bay for the wretched convicts in England, and ordered one hundred to be sent over. The Company remonstrated, but in vain. A large portion, if not all of them, were actually sent. The influence of this must have been pernicious. Whether it was continued by his successors, and how long, and to what ex- tent, I know not. Shortly after this, a Dutch vessel brought into Jamestown the first cargo of negro slaves which was ever cast on the shores of America. While we must acknowledge that "the earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is;" that he has a right, and will exercise it, to pull down one kingdom and raise up an- other, to dispossess the Indians of their territories and give them to the white men and the negroes for their possession ; while we must acknowledge that the advantage of the African trade, notwith- standing the cruelties accompanying it, has been on the side of that people, both temporally and spiritually ; yet can we never be brought to believe that the introduction into and the multiplication of slaves in Virginia have advanced either her religious, political, or agricultural interests. On the contrary, we are confident that it has injured all. But if our loss has redounded to the benefit of Africa, by affording religious advantages to numbers of her be- nighted sons, who, in the providence of God, have come hither, · and especially if it should be the means, by colonization and mis- sionary enterprise, of establishing Christianity in that dark habi- tation of cruelty, we must bow submissively to the will of Heaven, and allow many of our sister States, with far less advantages of
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