Description
Amonute, or Matoaka, best known as Pocahontas and also named Lady Rebecca after her Christian conversion and marriage to John Rolfe, was brought to England by her husband in 1616. Matoaka could have a map to herself: they arrived in Plymouth, lived primarily in Brentford, Middlesex and spent much time in London. She is remembered, also, in North Norfolk, where the Rolfe family estate, Heacham Hall, is. We will add more locations to the map in time, but this one is particularly significant as her final resting place””nearly. In March 1617, the Rolfes set sail from London back to Virginia. Having only reached Gravesend, Matoaka fell ill and was taken ashore where she subsequently died. She was 21. Her funeral took place at St. George’s on March 21, 1617, and was buried under the chancel. That church was destroyed by fire in 1727, so her exact whereabouts are no unknown. As Vaughan notes, she was one of very few female visitors to England in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the only visitor to arrive already baptised. She was also the only one to receive sustained attention from both Crown and Church. While a mythologised version of her story is well known, for present-day Mattaponi commentators it is a story of violence, kidnap, and even rape.
Bibliographic sources
Linwood Custalow, The True Story of Pocahontas; Alden T. Vaughan, Transatlantic Encounters, 77-96.