***What did Pocahontas look like at 21 years old?

Matoaka & Son

This Sedgeford portrait of Pocahontas and her 2 year old son named Thomas Rolfe. THis painting is said to be carefully preserved through the centuries, although its travels and whereabouts have been been shrouded in mystery. Presently it is reported to be at  Kings Lynn Museum.

 

It is believed by some that  John Rolfe brought this portrait of his wife and child with him from England to his home in Virginia. The picture may have hung on the wall of one of Virginia’s stately Colonial mansions. When reaching adulthood, Pocahontas’s son Thomas Rolfe came to Virginia and assumed his fathers lands and possessions. He may have shipped the painting back to England, possibly to the Heacham Hall estate, which had been in the Rolfe family hundreds of years before John was born. It is known that this  painting was sold at about the turn of the present century, the canvas was removed to Sedgeford, another Rolfe property. That the painting was carefully preserved proves, however, that its value to the Rolfe ancestors.

The earrings worn by Pocahontas in the picture are believed by some to be in existence today and are believed the only personal belongings of Powhatan’s daughter known to have survived the long intervening centuries. They have been handed down carefully in the Rolfe family from father to son for generations and are owned now byteh Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) having been purchased from the estate of   Robert Girdlestone Meggy of Brooklyn, New York. They are described as fresh water mussel shell earrings set in precious metal bezels. Though this  pair of earrings has been reported to have belonged to Pocahontas, according to the APVA, further research  into the origination of the materials and provenience have not been completed.

 

I am interested in getting feedback about Pocahontas, so  please leave  me your comments and suggestions.

Thanks, John

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