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The "Sedgeford Hall Portrait" (location: King's Lynn Town Hall, Norfolk, UK), is an oil on canvas portrait in the American School [1] by an unknown artist circa 1837. It depicts Pe-o-ka, wife of the Seminole chief, Osceola, and their son. It was once mistakenly believed by many to be a portrait painted from life of Pocahontas and her son, Thomas Rolfe. [2]
Eustace Neville Rolfe of Heacham in Norfolk, a possible [3] distant relative of Thomas, acquired the painting, believing it to be of Pocahontas and Thomas. [4] At some point it was hung in a Rolfe family estate building called Sedgeford Hall in Sedgeford (Norfolk, England), from whence it acquired its name. Art experts later disputed the painting's origin, saying it could not have been painted during the lifetime of Pocahontas on the basis of style and the sitters' dress. [5] Additionally, the child in the portrait appears to be several years older than Thomas Rolfe would have been when his mother was still alive. Thomas Rolfe was born in January 1615, making him two years, two months old at the time of Pocahontas's death. [6]
In 2010, researcher Bill Ryan, while reviewing magazine archives on the Seminole Indians, found a black-and-white drawn version of the painting in the 1848 edition of Illustrated London News identifying the portrait as "the wife and child of Osceola, the last of the Seminole Indian chiefs." [7] Osceola himself was of mixed race (Creek Indian and English), which explains the European features of the child. The portrait is now generally accepted as being his wife and son, though some questions still remain. [8] [9] Many printed and Internet sources, however, still refer to this painting as a portrait of Pocahontas and Thomas Rolfe.
An article from Holden's Dollar Magazine in 1850 labels the engraving "The Wife and Child of Osceola" and bemoans the loss of the continent's native peoples. [10]
A plaque, [11] presumably composed by the Rolfe family, is attached to the frame stating:
PRINCESS POCAHONTAS
Dau. of PRINCE POWHATTAN & 2nd WIFE of
JOHN ROLFE of HEACHAM (1585-1630)
b. 1595 m.1614 d. AT GRAVESEND 1617
The plaque contains some questionable information besides the likely misidentification of the subjects. Pocahontas was said to be a "princess" by members of the Virginia Company who marketed her as such to investors and to the royal family during her trip to England in 1616-1617. [12] While she was the daughter of paramount chief, Powhatan, she was not in a matrilineal line to succeed him, and the Powhatan Indians are not known to have given her any special title corresponding to the English notion of princess, though she was likely treated with respect as the daughter of Powhatan. [13] Further, John Rolfe is often said to be John Rolfe of Heacham, but this has been questioned. [14] Finally, the stated birth year of 1595 is an estimate. Anthropologist and Powhatan Indian researcher Helen Rountree estimates her birth year to have been 1596 based on Pocahontas's statement of how old she was at the time of the Simon van de Passe engraving. [15]
A sign posted under the painting at King's Lynn Town Hall gives some brief biographical details of the life of Pocahontas as well as this paragraph explaining the mis-identification of the painting's subjects:
Additional details
Pocahontas was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan People, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of Virginia.
John Rolfe (1585–1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia in 1611.
The Powhatan people may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan may refer to one of the leaders of the people. This is most commonly the case in historical writings by the English. The Powhatans have also been known as Virginia Algonquians, as the Powhatan language is an eastern-Algonquian language, also known as Virginia Algonquian. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 Powhatan people in eastern Virginia, when the English colonized Jamestown in 1607.
Opechancanough or Opchanacanough (1554–1646) was a tribal chief within the Powhatan Confederacy of present-day Virginia in the United States, and its paramount chief from sometime after 1618 until his death in 1646. His name meant "He whose Soul is White" in the Algonquian Powhatan language. He was the younger brother of Chief Powhatan, who had organized and dominated the Powhatan Confederacy.
Thomas Rolfe was the only child of Pocahontas and her English husband, John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Chief Wahunsenacah, the leader of the Powhatan tribe in Virginia.
The New World is a 2005 historical romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, depicting the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement and inspired by the historical figures Captain John Smith, Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe, and Englishman John Rolfe. It is the fourth feature film written and directed by Malick.
Powhatan, whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh, was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking American Indians living in Tsenacommacah, in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607.
The Paspahegh tribe were tributaries to the Powhatan paramount chiefdom, incorporated into the chiefdom around 1596 or 1597. The Paspahegh Indian tribe lived in present-day Charles City and James City counties, Virginia. The Powhatan tribes were a group of Native Americans who spoke a branch of Algonquian language.
Weroance is an Algonquian word meaning leader or commander among the Powhatan confederacy of the Virginia coast and Chesapeake Bay region. Weroances were under a paramount chief called Powhatan. The Powhatan Confederacy, encountered by the colonists of Jamestown and adjacent area of the Virginia Colony beginning in 1607, spoke an Algonquian language. Each tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy was led by its own weroance. Most foreign writers who have come across a weroance only did so on a special occasion. This is the case because a foreigners presence was special. John Smith noted that there are few differences between weroances and their subjects.
The Indian massacre of 1622, popularly known as the Jamestown massacre, took place in the English Colony of Virginia, in what is now the United States, on 22 March 1622. John Smith, though he had not been in Virginia since 1609 and was not an eyewitness, related in his History of Virginia that warriors of the Powhatan "came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us". The Powhatan then grabbed any tools or weapons available and killed all the English settlers they found, including men, women, and children of all ages. Chief Opechancanough led the Powhatan Confederacy in a coordinated series of surprise attacks; they killed a total of 347 people, a quarter of the population of the Virginia colony.
Heacham is a large village in West Norfolk, England overlooking The Wash, between King's Lynn, 14 miles (23 km) to the south, and Hunstanton, about 3 miles (4.8 km) to the north. It has been a seaside resort for over a century and a half.
The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is one of 11 Virginia Indian tribes recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the state's first federally recognized tribe, receiving its status in January 2016. Six other Virginia tribes, the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan, and the Nansemond, were similarly recognized through the passage of the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017 on January 12, 2018. The historical tribe was part of the Powhatan paramountcy, made up of Algonquian-speaking tribes. The Powhatan paramount chiefdom was made up of over 30 tribes, estimated to total about 10,000–15,000 people at the time the English arrived in 1607. The Pamunkey tribe made up about one-tenth to one-fifteenth of the total, as they numbered about 1,000 persons in 1607.
Tsenacommacah is the name given by the Powhatan people to their native homeland, the area encompassing all of Tidewater Virginia and parts of the Eastern Shore. More precisely, its boundaries spanned 100 miles (160
Uttamatomakkin, known as Tomocomo for short, was a Powhatan holy man who accompanied Pocahontas when he was taken to London in 1616.
The Anglo–Powhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy in the early seventeenth century. The first war started in 1610 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The second war lasted from 1622 to 1626. The third war lasted from 1644 until 1646 and ended when Opechancanough was captured and killed. That war resulted in a defined boundary between the Indians and colonial lands that could only be crossed for official business with a special pass. This situation lasted until 1677 and the Treaty of Middle Plantation which established Indian reservations following Bacon's Rebellion.
Heacham River is a small river in the King's Lynn and West Norfolk district of the English County of Norfolk. Its source is near the village of Bircham Newton grid reference TF762 339, 25 metres above sea level. The river is 16.4 kilometres (10.2 mi) long from the source to the outfall on Heacham beach, which discharges into The Wash at low tide.
Necotowance was Werowance (chief) of the Pamunkey tribe and Paramount Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy after Opechancanough, from 1646 until his death sometime before 1655. Necotowance signed a treaty with the Colony of Virginia in 1646, at which time he was addressed by the English as "King of the Indians."
Holcombe Ingleby was an English solicitor and Conservative Party politician. He was mayor of the borough of King's Lynn in Norfolk, and for eight years a Member of Parliament (MP) for King's Lynn.
Jamestown was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. This article covers the history of the fort and town at Jamestown proper, as well as colony-wide trends resulting from and affecting the town during the time period in which it was the colonial capital of Virginia.
The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History is a 2007 book written by Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star" who claim they are revealing for the first time the oral history of the Mattaponi tribe and its contents regarding the story of Pocahontas and John Smith. The authors claim the book is a collection of four hundred years of Mattaponi oral tradition passed down through the tribe's quiakros.