Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/164

 England, where she and her native attendants were handsomely received by the London company and others, the queen and courtiers (who had at first looked askance at Rolfe's union) paying her marked attention. She renewed her acquaintance with her old friend Captain Smith, and attended the Twelfth Night masque of 1617 (Jonson's Christmas), in company with the queen.

During her stay in town Simon de Passe engraved the well-known portrait of her, the features of which are agreeable, modest, and not undignified. She is described in an inscription upon the plate as ‘Matoaka, alias Rebecka, wife of the worshipful Mr. Thos. Rolff. Ætatis suæ 21 A° 1616.’ Another portrait in oils was painted by an Italian artist, and belonged to the Rev. Whitwell Elwin of Booton Rectory, Norfolk, whose family intermarried with the Rolfes; an excellent engraving from it appeared in the ‘Art Journal’ (1885, p. 299).

Pocahontas, although reluctant to return to America, pined under an English sky, and in March 1617, after all arrangements had been made for her departure, she died at Gravesend. In the parish register of St. George's Church, Gravesend, is the crude entry: ‘1616, May 2j, Rebecca Wrothe, wyff of Thomas Wroth, gent., a Virginia lady borne, here was buried in ye chauncell’ (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. v. 123; cf. Court of James I, under date 29 March 1617). Several of her attendants proved consumptive, and gave trouble to the company after their mistress's death. Rolfe subsequently married Jane, daughter of William Pierce, and died in Virginia in 1623, leaving a widow with children. By the princess Rolfe left a son Thomas (born in 1615), who after his mother's death was brought up by his uncle, Henry Rolfe of London. He returned to Virginia in 1640, and married there Jane, daughter of Francis Poythress, leaving a daughter Jane, who married Robert Bolling, and had many descendants. Ben Jonson introduced Pocahontas into his ‘Staple of News’ (1625), and since his day she has formed the title character of many works of prose fiction, by Sigourney, Seba Smith, Samuel Hopkins, John Davis, and others. The romantic incident of the rescue is depicted in stone as a relief upon the Capitol, Washington.



ROLFE, ROBERT MONSEY, (1790–1868), lord chancellor, born at Cranworth in Norfolk on 18 Dec. 1790, was elder son of Edmund Rolfe, curate of Cranworth and rector of Cockley-Clay, by his wife Jemima, fifth daughter of William Alexander, and granddaughter of Messenger Monsey [q. v.], physician to Chelsea Hospital. His father was first cousin of Admiral Lord Nelson, while his mother was a niece of James, first earl of Caledon. He received his early education at the grammar school of Bury St. Edmunds, where he was the junior of Charles James Blomfield [q. v.], afterwards bishop of London. He was then sent to Winchester, where he obtained the silver medal for a Latin speech in 1807. Proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, he became