John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers that arrived in Jamestown. He was the first to successfully cultivate tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia.
Despite Rolfe's financial success and agriculture innovation that changed the landscape of Colonial America forever, he is remembered more for his relationship and marriage to Pocahontas.
Early Life and Tobacco
John Rolfe was born in Heacham, Norfolk, England, as the son of John Rolfe and Dorothea Mason and was baptized on May 6, 1585. During this time, England's presence in the New World was minuscule, and Spain dominated the globe.
Spain had begun to colonize the area around the Caribbean and Mexico. Since their colonies were in warm climates, the tobacco crop became their primary crop, along with sugar cane.
With the production of tobacco increasing and the demand growing, the balance of trade between England and Spain began to be seriously affected.
John Rolfe had acquired tobacco seeds from Trinidad, South America. This special strand would be the strand he wanted to plan in the English colony of Jamestown.
He believed that if he could grow this strand, he could possibly undercut the Spanish tobacco trade.
How he received these seeds is unknown. Spain had declared a penalty of death to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard.
Voyage to Jamestown
Jamestown was established in 1607 with settlers under the command of Captain John Smith. They endured many hard times but managed to survive.
The Virginia Company of London sent multiple returnships to the colony to help sustain it. The first arrived in 1608 with supplies, and another large fleet arrived in 1609 with hundreds of new settlers.
In this last fleet was John Rolfe and his wife, Sarah Hacker. The two boarded the Sea Venture and headed to the New World.
The Third Supply fleet left England in May 1609, destined for Bermuda with two small ships to continue the voyage to Jamestown. A number of passengers and crew, however, did not complete this journey.
Some had died or been killed, lost at sea (the Sea Venture's longboat had been fitted with a sail, and several men sent to take word to Jamestown, and they were never heard from again), or left behind to maintain England's claim to Bermuda.
Because of this, although the Virginia Company's charter was not extended to Bermuda until 1612, the Colony at Bermuda dates its settlement from 1609. Among those left buried in Bermuda were Rolfe's wife and his infant daughter, Bermuda Rolfe.
In May 1610, the two newly constructed ships set sail from Bermuda with 142 castaways on board, including Rolfe, Admiral Somers, Stephen Hopkins, and Sir Thomas Gates.
On arrival at Jamestown, they found the Virginia Colony almost destroyed by famine and disease during what has become known as the Starving Time.
Very few supplies from the Third Supply had arrived because the same hurricane that caught the Sea Venture badly affected the rest of the fleet. Only 60 settlers remained alive.
It was only through the arrival of the two small ships from Bermuda and the arrival of another relief fleet commanded by Lord De La Warr on June 10, 1610, that the abandonment of Jamestown was avoided, and the colony survived.
After finally settling in, although his first wife, the English-born Sarah Hacker, and their child had died prior to his journey to Virginia–Rolfe began his long-delayed work with tobacco.
Brown Gold
In competing with Spain for European markets, there was another problem besides the warmer climates the Spanish settlements enjoyed. The native tobacco from Virginia was not liked by the English settlers, nor did it appeal to the market in England.
However, Rolfe wanted to introduce sweeter strains from Trinidad, using the hard-to-obtain Spanish seeds he brought with him.
In 1611, Rolfe was the first to commercially cultivate Nicotiana tabacum tobacco plants in North America; export of this sweeter tobacco in 1612 helped make the Virginia Colony profitable and paved the way for more English settlers and settlements.
In 1612, Rolfe established Varina Farms, a plantation along the James River about 30 miles upstream from Jamestown and across the river from Sir Thomas Dale's progressive development at Henricus.
In 1614, the first of Rolfe's tobacco crops were harvested and exported to England. This sweeter strand of tobacco proved to be popular in the mother country, and soon he and others began exporting large quantities of tobacco.
New plantations began growing along the James River, where export shipments could use wharves along the river.
Pocahontas
John Rolfe met and married Pocahontas, daughter of the local Native American leader Powhatan, on April 5, 1614. A year prior, Alexander Whitaker had converted Pocahontas to Christianity and given her the name "Rebecca" when she had her baptism.
Richard Buck officiated their wedding, and Powhatan gave the newlyweds property just across the James River from Jamestown.
The two never lived on the land, but their marriage helped create peace among the natives and the English settlers for many years.
The two had a son, Thomas Rolfe, who was born in January 1615.
John took his native wife to England on the Treasurer, commanded by Samuel Argall, in 1615 with their son Thomas. They arrived on June 12.
The two were greeted by much fanfare when they arrived in England, and Pocahontas was received like visiting royalty. She gave a face to the natives that the English had met in the New World.
As John and Rebecca were preparing for their trip back to Virginia in 1617, Rebecca became very sick and died. Thomas survived and was adopted by Sir Lewis Stukley and later by John's brother Henry.
After burying another wife, John returned to Virginia.
Final Years
In 1619, John Rolfe married a third time to Jane Pierce. She was the daughter of the English colonist Captain William Pierce.
The two had a daughter, Elizabeth, who would survive until adulthood. She would marry John Milner of Virginia.
John Rolfe died in 1622.
The land that was given by Powhatan was willed to his son Thomas. In 1640, he sold a portion of it to Thomas Warren.
Thomas Rolfe left England as an adult and returned to Virginia. He married Jane Poythress and had one child, Jane Rolfe.
Jane married Robert Bolling and had a son, John Bolling. Bolling married Mary Kennon and had six children who survived. Through this family line, there are many surviving relatives of John Rolfe.