Henry Rolfe, IV, of Wiltshire

The father of this Richard Rolfe is Henry Rolfe, ca. 1515-1558, whose will is one of the helpful documents in sorting out the tangled Rolfe relationships. The will specifically leaves Richard a great brass pot, a cupboard, and, upon reaching his fifteenth birthday, three cows and half the "instuff of household." Cattle seem to be the chief means of establishing one's adult livelihood among the Rolfes, and sheep and bees are also among the chattels routinely bequeathed--all suggesting a pattern of farming or "husbandry" that runs through several generations. Both Richard and his sister Margaret were minors (i.e., under 15) when their father died, and their mother was already dead. That the household stuff remained to be divided, and they had two separate "overseers" for their keeping (and no "guardians") suggests that they remained in the same house, probably under the care of the servant Alice Whytehere, the person named first in the will. Richard himself had a very short life, and left his children in infancy when he died (A record of the administration of his estate confirms the death date; there was no will). All the males in this line, at least up to the time of the emigration, were short-lived.