Pocahontas Monument at Gravesend
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Pocahontas Monument at Gravesend by Dave Napier as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Pocahontas Monument at Gravesend
Image: © Dave Napier Taken: 18 Feb 2010
Pocahontas (or Mrs Rebecca Rolfe as she became when she married her husband) came to England with him and their son in 1616. When they set out to return in March 1617, she and her son were ill (possibly smallpox or tuberculosis .. or pneumonia) and the ship put her off at Gravesend. It is not clear whether she was already dead but her son Thomas survived. She was buried, possibly in the chancel of the church which previously stood on this ground, now St George's church. Rolfe left his son in the care of friends (it is said, in Plymouth) and never saw him again; he returned to America and remarried. Pocahontas's son Thomas sailed for America when he was 20 to inherit his father's estates. He lived and was accepted as an Englishman and even helped to put down an Indian uprising in 1644 – effectively destroying the world in which his mother had been raised. Many Americans now proudly claim descent from Pocahontas.
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Image Location
Latitude
51.443775
Longitude
0.3671