Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-10-26
1hs Grave Of Pooahontas. =

Walking up High street, Richmond
Virginia, recently, says writer, We
presently turned through two or three
by-ways leading to st. Georges, the
parish church. We found it closed, but
being directed to the sections house, We
found a genial and gentlemanly old man
with white hair and side whiskers. He
was shoemaker by trade, and had laid
down his hammer and knife and leathern
apron to solace the inner man. He very
quickly donned his coat and walked with
us to the church, into which we all
entered. Mr.. Robertson was under the
impression that the Virginian princess
was buried in the chancel. He had
reached this conclusion from reading q
letter inserted in Campbel's "Eistory
of Virginia." copy of which he had
brought with him. This letter was
written by c. W. Martin, of Leeds Cas-
tie, England, to Conway Robinson, of
Virginia, and runs as follows:
"The parish register Of burials at
Gravesend, in the county of Kent, con-
tains the following extract: "1616,
March 21-Rebecca Wrothe, wyffe of
Thomas Wrothe, gent; aVirginian lady
borne, was buried in the chancel. The
date, 1916, corresponds with the histori-
cal year 1917. 1t appears that there
was formerly a family of the name of
Wrothe resident near Gravesend. This
name might, therefore, easily be con-
founded with that of Rolfe, the sound
being similar. Nor is the name Thomas
for John at all improbable. Gravesend
church, in which Pocahontas was buried,
was destroyed by fire in 1927, and no
monument to her memory remains, if
any one existed" SO far, Mr.. Martin.
But while Pocahontas, think, was bap-
tized Rebecca q am not sure, and as
You have books of history at hand, cor
rect me If 1 am wrong), yet to turn John
Rolfe into Thomas Wrothe isvery much
like deriving Pekin from Napkin" Nap
kin, Nipkin, Pipkin, Pekin." Now,
against Mr.. Martins explanation, is the
tradition which has been
Reported suocessively from age to age"
in Gravesend that Pocahontas was bur-
led in the northwest corner of the church
yard, at a spot to which the sexton led
us. 1t was just next to tombstone on
which We deciphered: ''Wife of John
Weed, July-,1329," or 1929 possibly.
The day of the month is illegible, al
though we could make out 49," which
would make it the 18th or 23d of the
month, since the space required two
figures. This certainly establishes the
antiquity of burials in that part of the
yard, whether the date of the above be
of the fourteenth or sixteenth century.
This sexton, John Turner, has been in
Office nine years. He received the ira
dition of the spot from his predecessor,
William Netteingham, who was sexton
for about twenty years, while William
received it from his father, John Net
teingham, who was clerk of the parish |
for fifty-two years. This carries back
the account more than eighty years, for
John Netteingham told his son William |
that all his life. from his boyhood, that
spot had been pointed out as the one
near which cor about at which" Poca- |
hontas was buried. In the absence, |
then, Of all proof "upon record" this
tradition comes to us as nearly an estab-
lished fact as possible without an exhu- |
nation and a recovery of the remains of
some relic identifying them. At all |
events We accepted it, and 1 gathered
some buttercups that grew on the grave
and plucked a few ivy leaves from the
vine that clambered nearby on a wall.
"Feasting where no life is seen"
1 felt that 1 had trodden near the last
resting place of the noble princess, who,
to save a human life, had boldly risked
her own, and who had only lived to feel
her heart break in a strange land.