Editing Thomas Rolfe (section)

==Family==
As Rolfe was a child of a white settler and a Native American woman, some aspects of his life were particularly controversial. He expressed interest in rekindling relations with his Native American relatives, despite societal ridicule and colonial laws that forbade such contact. In 1641, Rolfe petitioned the governor for permission to visit his "aunt and his kinsman [[Opchanacanough|Opecanaugh]]".<ref name=Boddie />

Rolfe married Jane Poythress, the daughter of Captain Francis Poythress, a prosperous landowner in Virginia.<ref name="Barbour" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Thomas Rolfe|url=http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/thomas-rolfe.htm|first=Megan|last=Snow|date=May 2003|work=Historic Jamestowne|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=August 31, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Some prominent Virginia families|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/someprominentvir04pecq#page/304/mode/2up|first=Louise|last=Pecquet du Bellet|year=1907|publisher=J.P. Bell Co.|location=Lynchburg, VA|page=304|chapter=Bolling Family|access-date=August 31, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Descendants of Matoaka: An Unclosed Case|author1=Elizabeth Vann Moore|author2=Richard Slatten|magazine=Magazine of Virginia Genealogy|volume=XXIII|number=3|pages=3–16}}, cited by {{cite book|author=John Frederick Dorman|title=Adventurers of Purse and Person|edition=4th|volume=3|page=26}}, fn23–24. Moore and Slatten traced the suggestion that his wife was a Poythress back to a comment by W. G. Stanard in "Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents", ''Virginia Historical Magazine''(I, 1894, 446–447): "His wife is said to have been a Miss Poythress (if so, doubtless a daughter of Francis Poythress."  According to Moore and Slatten, Stanard cited as evidence handwritten notes on the flyleaf of a copy of ''A Complete Collection of All the Laws of Virginia Now in Force Carefully Copied from the Assembled Records'' (London, 168[?], now in the Library of Virginia.  Moore and Slatten state: "Interestingly, Thomas Rolfe here is recorded as married to a 'Miss Payers'.  We recall that in John Rolfe's will the name of his third wife is spelt ''Pyers'' (Peirce) and that it was John who married a "Jane".  Here again a Bolling descendant confused the son with his father.  Not recognizing the name 'Payers' as another variant of ''Peirce'', someone searched the records for a name beginning with 'P' and having a 'y' in the first syllable.  Francis Poythress lived in adjacent Charles City County and his name ended in ''s''!  Stanard wrote, 'His wife is said to have been a Miss Poythress (if so, doubtless a daughter of Francis Poythress).' (VMHB I, 446)  Wyndham Robertson, a Bolling descendant, wrote in ''Pocahontas Alias Mataoke and Her Descendants'' (Richmond, 1887), 'I adopt "Jane Poythress" (not "Poyers") whom he is stated in the ''Bolling Memoirs'' to have married in England.'  He added in justification of his charming ''adoption'' of an ancestress, '...no such name as "Poyers" is anywhere known ... the family of Poythress was already settled in Virginia.' ... The result has been the acceptance of a non-existent personage, 'Jane Poythress', in the Bibles of Virginia genealogy, as the bona fide ancestress of many illustrious Virginians.  Who the wife (or wives) of Thomas Rolfe may have been remains an unanswered question."</ref> Their daughter, [[Jane Rolfe]], was born at [[Varina Farms|Varina Plantation]], [[Charles City County, Virginia]], on October 10, 1650.<ref name="Dorman">John Frederick Dorman, ''Adventurers of Purse and Person'', 4th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 23–36.</ref> There is no record of any other children, and no record of any other marriages for Thomas Rolfe.