The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-05-12
Descendants of POcahOntas.

From an article in the Baltimore SIN
on the aristocratic families OF Virginia
we COPY the following: "The most con-
spicuous founders of the planter fami-
lies came over during the second half OF
the seventeenth century. One, a very
liberal and energetic man, married the
granddaughter of Pocahontas, and his
son, devoting himself to planting and
trading on James river, found the bulk
of his profits in an immense traffic
with his relatives, the Indians, who
flocked as one man to his support.
From this marriage many existing Vir-
ginia families are directly descended,
and they are proud of their Indian
blood. Eccentric John Randolph was
descendant and was boastful of his re-
lationship with the imperial house of
Powhatan, whose grave, by the way,
is preserved a few miles below Rich
mond, and affords pleasant Sunday
afternoon stroll for the citizens. Jeffer-
son also was related to the Indians, but
he was careful not to allude in any
triumphant spirit to the redness of his
blood, being the father Of the Declare
ton of Independence. John Rolfe, the
princess's husband, was of Norman de-
bCCAl, Will w lllC StuuuClOl III
England, and graduate of Oxford.
The specimens of his writings handed
down attest both his scholarship and
benevolence. He was the first Ameri-
can historian, and as such deserves
mention, though his history was short
and confined to brief description of the
petty colony dedicated to the king; but
his fame rests on larger basis, viz: that
of having been the first tobacco planter;
of demonstrating its importance as a
vast source of wealth to future planters.
In one of his letters he declared that
his main motive in marrying the prin-
cess was her religious instruction: what
ever his motive, certainly his marriage
was success. His wife's descendants
are either so numerous or held in such
high honor as to have given rise to the
saying outside of the borders of the
state: " Every family in Virginia is de-
descended from PocahOnas." A Vir-
ginia antiquarian, who, was throughout
his life ambitious of getting up a COM
plete rdde naec,cna of the genealogy of
Virginia families" announced shortly
after the war his purpose of publishing
work on the descendants of Poca-
hontas, in which L will, so far as shall
be possible, include all of whom l can
obtain any account" His premature
death alone prevented the issue of the
bulky mass of material he had collected
According to his figuring, the genuine
descendants were few, the claimants
many. 1t was early made point to
call persons and places in honor of the
princess, and hence her name, as that
of her father, Powhatan, from whom
we happily have the Powhatan pipe, are
to-day very common in the state. "Po-
cahontas," an outskirt of Petersburg
was terribly shelled during the war.
From this first alliance between red
and white races sprang the Randolphs,
Bollings, Blands, Blairs. The ances-
tor of the Randolphs came over to En-
gland with the conqueror, and his name
was included in the roll of Battle Abbey.
William Randolph of " Turkey Island"
as he was distinctively spoken of, emil
grated to the colony in 1915, and from
him all the Randolphs of Virginia de-
scended. Peyton Randolph, first presi-
dent of congress, Edmund Randolph,
Washington's attorney-general, and
John Randolph of Roanoke were direct
descendants, and by marriage Jefferson
and Marshall were related to him. The
Blands and Bollings were prominent as
planters, colonial officers and revolu-
tionists. The head of the Blairs, Rev.
Hugh, or, as he was habitually termed,
" the commissary," having been sent
to Virginia as such by the bishop OF
London, formed the first college in the
colony, William and Mary" still to-
day doing as well as could be expected
after the havoc of the war The com.
missary's nephew, John, signed the
Constitution along with Madison and
Washington.