John Rolfe of Heacham

No longer thought to be the father of Captain John Rolfe, Ancient Planter

John Rolfe of Heacham

Citizen of England

• Born: 10/17/1562 Heacham, Norfolk, England
• Married: 9/24/1582 Heacham, Norfolk, England
• Died: 11/29/1594 Heacham, Norfolk, England

John Rolfe SENIOR married Dorothy (or Dorothea) Mason on 24 September 1582. They were the parents of three sons - twins Eustace and John, born 1585 and Edward, born 1591.

John Rolfe and Dorothy Mason had no daughters. Henry is listed as an additional son in the book Old Sandringham," by Mrs. Herbert Jones, however, there is no Dorothy or Henry recorded in the Parish records. Wilson Miles Cary of Baltimore, the distinguished genealogist, proposes that that John Rolfe, of Virginia, was not a son of John and Dorothea Rolfe, but belonged to another branch of the same family.

GEDCOM Note

FROM THE FIND A GRAVE

Birth: Oct. 17, 1562, England Death: Nov. 29, 1594, England

The family of Rolfe was resident from an early date in the County of Norfolk, England. The immediate ancestors of John Rolfe lived at Hecahm near King's Lynn in that County, and the earliest record of the direct line is of two brothers, Robert and Eustace Rolfe, who were born at Heacham about 1539. Robert married Margaret Crowe and was ancestor of a prominent family at Lynn, and Eustace Rolfe married at Heacham, May 27, 1560, Joanna Jenner. Eustace and Joanna had a son John Rolfe, of Heacham, who was born October 17, 1562, married Dorothea Mason, Sept. 24, 1582, died in 1594, and was buried at Heacham Church, December 1st of that year.

In the Church is a brass with a Latin inscription to this John Rolfe. The following is a translation which has been furnished us: "John Rolfe, gentleman, of Hitcham died on the twenty-nineth day of November, in the year of our Lord, 1594, in the thirty-second year of his age. While he lived he was of much service to his fellows; his wish to enrich all his neighbors and kinsfolk by assisting the poor with his wealth; nothing could be kinder than he was; he bore the insults of many men quietly without offence; by exporting and importing such things as England abounded in or needed, he was of the greatest service, inasmuch as he spent both pains and labor upon it. Thus he seemed to die as the force of fire is quenched by excess of water. For his strength was unimpaired, nor had he completed many years when he died. His death brought grief to many, but he had done nobly upon the consciousness of a well spent life, and the record of many benefits not allowed to die utterly:" John Rolfe had, no doubt, been a successful merchant at Lynn. Rolfe had, with other issue, 1. Eustace, and 2. John (twins) baptized May 6, 1585; 3. Edward, baptized Feb, 22, 1591. There was another son, Henry, afterwards a merchant in London and a member of the Virginia Company, who is included in a manuscript pedigree mentioned by Mrs. Jones in her Old Sandringham.

Family links: Spouse: Dorthea Mason Rolfe (1559 - 1645)

• Calculated relationship

Burial: St Mary the Virgin Churchyard Heacham Norfolk, England

Created by: Debra"Polly"~♫+... Record added: Oct 24, 2012 Find A Grave Memorial# 99531154

References

• https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/rolfe-john-d-1622/ cites
  • William Thorndale, "Two Rolfe Negatives," in The Virginia Genealogist, 34(1990):209-210. AmericanAncestors
• “The Ancestors and Descendants of John Rolfe with Notices of Some Connected Families (Continued).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 21, no. 2 (1913): 208–11. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4243266. [Mr. Wilson Miles Cary, Jr. of Baltimore, the distinguished genealogist, thinks that he has discovered that John Rolfe, of Virginia, was not a son of John and Dorothea Rolfe, but belonged to another branch of the same family. The proof is not yet positive, but Mr. Cary is still having the matter investigated, and has promised to give this Magazine the results of his researches.]
• Rolfe Family Records: Volume II. Robert Theodore Gunther, Amy Neville Rolfe Günther (1914) GoogleBooks
  • page 10 https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/5/56/Rolfe-3-1.png
  • page 11 https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/d/d4/Rolfe-3-2.png (claims Henry of London and John of Virginia as children)
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99531154/john-rolfe