Anna Elwin

In 1659, Peter Elwin of Thurning (1623–1695) married Anne Rolfe, daughter of Anthony Rolfe and his wife Mary.

Family

From “The Royal Lineage of Our Noble and Gentle Families: Together with Their Paternal Ancestry,” Volume 1. Hazell, Watson, and Viney, 1883 - Families of royal descent - 88 pages. Page 83. “Elwin, of Booton, formerly of Thirning, Norfolk.” GoogleBooks

PETER ELWIN, of Thirning, married Anne, dau. and heir of Anthony Rolfe, of Tuttington, Norfolk, and died July,. 1695, aged 72, having had 2 sons and a dau.:

• [1] Fountain, of whom presently. Married Ann Hastings.
• [2]Peter, of Tuttington afsd., and of Booton, by purchase, 1713, high sheriff 1720; d. 5 Keb., 1721, aged 60, having m. Anne, only dau. and heir of Thomas Scambler, of Heveningham; shed.26Sept., 1697, aged 37, M.I. Tuttington, having had a son and dau. (1) Peter, of Booton, admitted to the Middle Temple 15 May, 1702 ; d. 15 Sept., 1731, aged 47, having m. Anne, dau. of Thomas Chute, of Pickenham, Norfolk ; she d.s.p. 6 Aug., 1756, aged 63. (2) Mary, married Christopher Layer.
• [3] Ann, m. to William Bulwer, of Dalling.

Disambiguation

• Not the same as Anna Barnett
• Not the same as Jane Bolling.
• Not the child of Lieut. Thomas Rolfe and Jane Rolfe
• Not the child of Thomas Rolfe, of Clerkenwell and Elizabeth Rolfe “From https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/thomas-rolfe.htm ”Often named as the son of John Rolfe the colonist was a different Thomas Rolfe, who married Elizabeth Washington in September 1632 at St James's Church in Clerkenwell, London. This couple had two children and lived in England until after 1642. Many people wrongly claim descent from Pocahontas and John Rolfe through this unrelated Thomas Rolfe.”

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Origins

From https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rolfe-4

From Gary Boyd Roberts (1986): [1]

"The Elwyn family of Thurning, Norfolk, England, claims that Anne Rolfe, “cousin and adopted” daughter of Anthony Rolfe of Tuttington, Norfolk, and wife of Peter Elwyn of Thurning (1623-1695/6) was also a daughter of Thomas Rolfe, Pocahontas’s son, by an early English wife. Brown, Myers, and Chappel accept this claim; Moore and Slatton do not, and I am skeptical also. Margaret Wake, a great-granddaughter of Peter and Anne, married William Tryon (1729-1788), colonial Governor of North Carolina and New York.

English sources for the Elwyn progeny include:

• R. T. and A. Gunther, Rolfe Family Records, Vol. 2 (1914): 289-91, and
• Patrick Palgrave-Moore and Michael J. Sayer, A Selection of Revised and Unpublished Norfolk Pedigrees (Norfolk Genealogy, Vol. 6, 1974, published by the Norfolk and Norwich Genealogical Society), 56-59 (Elwyn);
• and The Ancestor 2 (1902): 183-84 and 4 (1904): 256-57 (Wake, Tryon)."[1].

From William Thorndale (1990):[2]

"The parish register for Tuttington, co. Norfolk, gives the following entries for the children of Anthony Rolfe, gentleman, and his wife Mary...: [citing G.H. Holley, Norfolk parish extracts, surnames P-R, (unpublished notes), FHL film 094,821]

• Maria, born 29 March, baptized 7 April 1630; buried May 1630
• Maria, born 17 October, baptized 29 October 1632; died 31 May at Saxthorn, buried 1 June 1634.
• Anna, born 1 March, baptized 2 March 1633[/34] Anna filia Anthonij Rolfe et Maria illius vxor nata fuit primo die mensis Martij et baptizat fuit secundo die mensis eiusdem anno p[re]dict[o]
• Clemens and Anthonius, born 29 December, baptized 8 January 1635[/6]; Clemens buried 24 December 1637. [Anthony matriculated at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1653 but disappears from the records after that.]
• Hannah, baptized 23 January 1639[/40].

"Consequent to their brothers' early deaths, Hannah and Anna became co-heiresses of their father Anthony.

In other words, Anna was the documented child (not adopted) of Anthony Rolfe. Thorndale goes on to point out no evidence in the Heacham records that Anthony had any connection to Thomas Rolfe, son of Pocahontas.

Thorndale's article goes on to say that this Anne Rolfe married Peter Elwin, esquire. Her sister Hannah married Sir Thomas Leigh.

Descent

From https://web.archive.org/web/20080820001009/http://www.threlkeld.org...

Note: this site misidentified this Anne’s father.

Thomas ROLFE’s first daughter Anne married Peter ELWIN (1623-1695) of Thurning, Norfolk, England in 1659.

• They begat Fountain (1661-1696) who married 1698 Ann HASTINGS (c1675-1767).
• They begat Peter (1701-1782) a barrister who married 1729 Philippa MARSAM (c1703-1784).
• They begat Peter (1729-1798) who married secondly 1768 Susanna BELL (c1748-1830).
• They begat Marsham (1784-1831) who married 1809 Emma Louisa WHITWELL (1781-1870). (She was the divorced wife of Sir George Berney BROGRAVE who had cited Marsham as the “other man”)
• They begat Mary Ellen (1820-1893) who married 1845 Rev George Edward SYMONDS (1820-1892).
• They begat Dr Edmund (1853-1907) who married 1882 Fanny Turton ARCHBELL (1862-1918).
• They begat Mary Ellen (1892-1947) who married 1910 Sir Arthur James Croft HUDDLESTON (1880-1948)
• They begat Ethel Mary (1912-2002) who married 1935 Dr Pearson Edward CRESSWELL (1906-1972)
• They begat Pearson Stuart Arthur (1936-) who married Marion Lindsay McCREADIE (1937-)

Pocohantas portrait

From “Collections of the Virginia Historical Society: New Series, Volume 7.” By Virginia Historical Society. (1888). Page xxxi - xxxii. GoogleBooks

There is an engraving of Pocahontas by Simon De Passe ... which perhaps belongs to but seldom found in Smith's Generall Historie. The original painting is said to have belonged to Henry Rolfe, of Narford, a brother of John, the husband of Pocahontas. It is now the property of Mr. Hastings Elwin, of Gorleston, by Great Yarmouth, England, who thus derived it:

"The last Mr. Peter Elwin who lived at the family seat, Booton Hall, near Aylsham, in Norfolk, and who was born in 1730, and died in 1798, was a descendant of the daughter and heiress of Anthony Rolfe, of Tuttington. She had married an Elwin, and had brought the Tuttington estate into the Elwin family. It was in consequence of this connection between the Rolfes and Elwins that a portrait of Pocahontas was presented to the said Mr. Peter Elwin, of Booton Hall, by a lady, Madame Zuchelli. This is mentioned in his note-book, the entry (undated) being in his own handwriting: 'Pocahontas, given to me by Madame Zuchelli.'
As Mr. Elwin habitually added the name of the painter in his memoranda of the many pictures in his possession, and omitted to do so in this instance, it is probable that the lady was ignorant of it. No memorandum was left by Mr. Elwin of the previous owners of the portrait, but he possessed the knowledge (as is remembered by his grandson from the testimony of Mrs. Peter Elwin, who survived her husband thirty-two years, dying April, 1830, aged eighty-five years,) that the picture was what it professed to be, namely, a painting of the time of James I, and an authentic representation from life of Pocahontas. The picture .itself, which is finely painted, bears every token of genuineness, commencing in the year 1613, the date of his earliest work. He was not a painter, but engraved the portraits, chiefly from Nicholas Milliard, of many distinguished persons; among them James I, Henry, Prince of Wales, the Earl of Somerset, and the Duke of Buckingham.

From “Pocahontas Portrait” Smithsonian - National Portrait Gallery

Provenance: Peter Elwin [1718-1798], Booton Hall, Norfolk, England; by descent to Fountain Peter Elwin in 1900; purchased by Francis Burton Harrison 1926; bought by Andrew W. Mellon 1932; transferred to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust; gift to NGA 1942; transferred 1965 to NPG.

Earrings

At Pocohantas Descendants, David Morenus comments:

”There are proponents of a second daughter, Anne Rolfe, by what would have been Thomas' first wife in England, who married an Elwyn and had numerous descendants. Some items said to have belonged to Pocahontas, such as her earrings, were passed down in the family for years. That claim has been accepted by the Pocahontas Foundation.”

However, “Pocohantas in England New English Review, (Oct. 2007) shows:

”A pair of earrings were passed down in the Rolfe family at Heacham for many years, being given to each new bride for her wedding day. They are now in the possession of the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, although they were lent to the Museum in Docklands in London for an exhibition but I didn’t get to see them then. The photo above is taken from the APVA website. The shells are rare white mussel from the Bering Strait, thousands of miles from the east coast; the fittings of silver and steel are English workmanship. The handiwork of the Wizard Earl? We may never know.”

References

1. copied from Notable Kin: Some Descendants and Kinsmen of Descendants of Pocahontas: An Excursion into Southern GenealogybyGary Boyd Roberts.Published Date : April 1986 at www.americanancestors.com. link
2. William Thorndale, "Two Rolfe Negatives," in The Virginia Genealogist, 34(1990):211
3. From https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/pocahontas/621/ “There was a THOMAS ROLFE/RELFE in NC whom many think to be the same person as Thomas Rolfe of VA (dob 1615) son of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Compelling evidence for this viewpoint is given in Elizabeth Vann Moore and Richard Slatton, “The Descendants of Pocahontas: An Unclosed Case” in Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 23 (1985): 3-16. [Available at AmericanAncestors]. This Thomas had sons Thomas, William, and possibly a John.Descendancy from these sons would fit some of those families who have the tradition of being from Pocahontas, yet can't show a Bolling ancestor. This article systematically goes thru early records containing the Rolfe name, or variants thereof, mostly in Pasquotank County (one of the small counties in northeast NC). The spelling variants I found mentioned in the article are: Relfe, Rolfe, Rofe, Rolph, Roalfe, Roelfe, Relph, Relf.”
4. ”Biographical History of Gonville & Caius College, 1349-1713. University Press, 1897. Page 245. GoogleBooks Rolfe, Anthony: of Tuttington, Norfolk: son of Clement Rolfe, gent. (formerly of the college; p. 148). Admitted, July 7, 1619, pensioner to the bachelors' table. Surety, Mr Michell. Of Tuttington, Esq. Left two daughters, one of whom married Mr Elwin, of Booton Hall, and the other Sir Thomas Leigh, of Addington, Surrey.
5. Anna Rolfe in the Norfolk, England, Transcripts of Church of England Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers, 1600-1935 Name: Anna Rolfe Gender: Female Record Type: Baptism Birth Date: 1 Mar Baptism Date: 2 Mar 1633 Baptism Place: Tuttington, Norfolk, England Father: Anthonij Rolfe Mother: Maria Rolfe Parish as it Appears: Tuttington Source Citation Norfolk Record Office; Norwich, Norfolk, England; Norfolk Church of England Registers; Reference: nro_register_bills\at\tuttington Source Information Norfolk, England, Transcripts of Church of England Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers, 1600-1935 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018. AncestryImage
6. ”The Royal Lineage of Our Noble and Gentle Families: Together with Their Paternal Ancestry,” Volume 1. Hazell, Watson, and Viney, 1883 - Families of royal descent - 88 pages. Page 83. “Elwin, of Booton, formerly of Thirning, Norfolk.” GoogleBooks
7. “The Pocahontas Portrait.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 35, no. 4, 1927, pp. 431–436. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4244174.
8. https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/bolling/3614/
9. “Pocahontas, Alias Matoaka, and Her Descendants Through Her Marriage at Jamestown, Virginia, in April, 1614, With John Rolfe, Gentleman” by Wyndham Robertson (1887) Page 29 Archive.Org “First in Descent: Thomas Rolfe b 1615; d 16 - . M. “Jane Poythress”; left issue one child only, a daughter.”
10. http://www.robertoharder.com/pocahontas.html “New research over the last few decades [Slatten and Moore, John Brayton, and others] ... has also unearthed tantalizing fresh evidence linking Thomas Rolfe to other females beside “Jane Poythress” (whoever she was) ...”