How was Edith Wilson related to Pocahontas and John Rolfe?
Edith Bolling Wilson, First Lady during President Woodrow Wilson's incapacitation, was a direct descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe through an unbroken nine or ten generation line running through Virginia's Bolling family.
Answer from Mary's digital twin. Checkmark turns Green once she confirms it.
spio.comThe connection goes back to the very beginning of English colonial America. In 1614, Pocahontas married English tobacco planter John Rolfe, and bore him a son, Thomas Rolfe. Their marriage was the first recorded interracial marriage in American history.
The chain, step by step
The descent from that union to Edith runs through 1 family line, 10 generations long. Tap anyone to learn more.
- Generation 1
Pocahontasc. 1596 to 1617
John Rolfe
Married in 1614 in Jamestown, Virginia.
- Generation 2
Thomas Rolfe1615 to c. 1680
Jane Poythress
- Generation 3
Jane Rolfe
Robert Bolling
- Generation 4
John Bolling
Mary Kennon
- Generation 5
John Bolling Jr.
Elizabeth Blair
- Generation 6
John Bolling III
Mary Jefferson
Mary was the sister of President Thomas Jefferson, so Edith is also related to a Founding Father.
- Generation 7
Archibald Bolling
Catherine Payne
- Generation 8
Archibald Bolling Jr.
Anne Wiggington
- Generation 9
William Holcombe Bolling
Sallie White Logwood
Edith's parents.
- Generation 10
Edith Bolling Wilson1872 to 1961
First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921.
How distant the connection was
Edith Wilson was a direct descendant of Pocahontas through the Bolling family lineage, placing her roughly ten generations removed and therefore less than 1% Native American by ancestry. The line came through her father, who was descended from Pocahontas's granddaughter Jane Rolfe, who married Robert Bolling, a wealthy planter and merchant.
According to genealogist Gary B. Roberts, those who claim this Pocahontas lineage do so through the Bolling family line, which is the only descent traced clearly beyond the early 18th century. It was estimated that Pocahontas's descendants probably numbered around 250,000 by the time the count was made, so Edith was far from alone in this heritage, but she was the only one ever to live in the White House.
When Edith married Woodrow Wilson, newspapers emphasized her connection to Pocahontas, the "Good Indian Princess," as the Richmond Times-Dispatch put it. She was also related, either by blood or through marriage, to Thomas Jefferson, Martha Washington, Letitia Tyler, and the Harrison family of Virginia.
Follow-ups
How did Pocahontas and John Rolfe meet?
Pocahontas, the daughter of the paramount Powhatan chief Wahunsenacah, and John Rolfe, an English tobacco planter at Jamestown, met while she was held captive by the English colonists in 1613.
The circumstances were anything but romantic. Pocahontas was kidnapped by Captain Samuel Argall in 1613 and held for ransom at the colony of Henricus, north of Jamestown. She had been visiting friends among the Patawomeck people on the Potomac River when Argall, seeing an opportunity, sought out Iopassus, the chief of the Indian town of Passapatanzy. Iopassus had one of his wives insist that Pocahontas accompany her on a tour of Argall's ship. Once aboard, Pocahontas was detained and the ship departed.
Argall informed Chief Powhatan that he wouldn't return Pocahontas unless he released English prisoners, returned stolen weapons and sent the colonists food. Much to Pocahontas's dismay, her father only sent half the ransom and left her imprisoned.
Where Rolfe entered the picture
While in captivity, Pocahontas lived in the settlement of Henricus under the care of a minister named Alexander Whitaker, where she learned about Christianity, English culture and how to speak English. There she met John Rolfe, a widower who had arrived in Virginia in 1610 and who had introduced tobacco as a cash crop in the colony.
Rolfe fell in love with her and wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Dale justifying his feelings for her. Rolfe was a religious man who agonized for weeks over the proposition of marrying a "strange wife," a non-Christian. After Pocahontas converted to Christianity, Rolfe married her "for the good of the plantation, the honor of our country, for the glory of God, for mine own salvation."
She was baptized and took the English name Rebecca. Powhatan gave his consent to this peace-making marriage and sent Pocahontas's maternal uncle and two of his sons to witness the ceremony held in Jamestown's church on April 5, 1614.
What the marriage meant
The marriage helped bring an end to the First Anglo-Powhatan War, which had been grinding on since 1609. When they wed, Rolfe was approximately 29, and Pocahontas was approximately 18. Their son Thomas, the direct ancestor of Edith Bolling Wilson, was born the following year.
In 1616 the Rolfe family traveled to England with Sir Thomas Dale, who hoped to encourage financial support for the colony. While there, Pocahontas fell ill and died in 1617. She was buried at Gravesend, England, and never returned to Virginia.
Wilson was aware he was ill, but the public, the cabinet and Congress were kept in the dark about how severely so, largely by Edith Wilson herself.
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