Beeks line: John Rolfe, Immigrant 1634-1681

No, he wasn't that John Rolfe, not the one who was married to Pocahontas, not the one who figured large in the early days of Virginia.  But nevertheless, he is a John Rolfe who is an early immigrant, and who has a story to tell. 

The story starts in England, where John was born or baptized May 10, 1634 in Whiteparish, Wiltshire, England.  Whiteparish is a small town about seven and a half miles southeast of Salisbury, and at the time of John's birth was a sheep raising area, with textile manufacturing in Salisbury providing an outlet for the wool produced there.  His parents were Henry and Honor (Rolfe) Rolfe, and their family tree is quite convoluted.  There are Rolfes on both sides of the family going back to about 1515, but it's not know whether it was the 1515 Rolfes (one apparently unproven) or whether the connection goes further back.  Anyway, it's a lot of Rolfes, and more than one Honor, to keep straight-or not. 

Henry and Honor had at least four children.  They are believed to have been in Massachusetts Bay Colony by about 1638, although no documentation seems to exist for their trip.  John would have been a very young child at the time; Imagine being a three or four year old boy with a ship to explore, and imagine being a young mother, with other children, trying to prevent said boy from going overboard.  All were probably glad when they arrived at their destination. 

The family settled first in Newbury, where John grew to manhood and married Mary Scullard, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca Kent Scullard, on December 4, 1656.  Mary was very young, possibly as young as 14, when they married.  They had eleven children together, losing the first one in infancy.  Their first three children were born in Newbury, but they moved on to Nantucket about 1663.

This seems to have much to do with the situation described in "Good Wives" by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.  John was a fisherman, and had just left for a trip to Nantucket, leaving his young wife and children adequately protected and supported, as he supposed.  But by the time he returned from his trip, Mary and been involved in something of a scandal, involving a gentleman from England, a physician, who decided he wished to bed her, never mind that she was nursing her third child.  He was found out, by a neighbor who came in through a window since the door was locked, and rescued Mary, although they agreed to say nothing about it.  Mary told all to her mother and had a witness (who, hard as it is for us to imagine) shared the bed with Mary in order to keep her safe, although it wasn't a very effective protection as it turned out.

The man involved was found guilty and Mary was vindicated, but John decided this was a good time to move to Nantucket, where he would be closer to the fishing grounds.  They stayed in Nantucket for somewhere around ten years.  By this time, John was approaching 40 and may have been looking for an easier way to make a living than fishing.  The family moved to Cambridge, where John purchased and apparently operated a mill.

John died at Newbury on October 1, 1681, perhaps while visiting his brother Benjamin.  It seems to have been a sudden death and the will may have had an oral codicil, as there is no provision in the will for his wife but the additional testimony of women who were there makes clear that he wanted to have his wife cared for also.  Mary was pregnant with their last son when John died.  John's inventory was valued at somewhere around 500 pounds (it's not totaled on the two pages, but I added up to about 485 pounds in my head, plus all the shillings and pence; I'm definitely no expert on that!).  It seems like a pretty good estate for a fisherman or millwright, either one.  He was just 47 when he died and was just in his peak earning years.  He had tools and farm animals, copperware, earthenware, and pewter, and five spinning wheels, so this was not a poor family.  I didn't see any mention of books or of munitions. 

Mary lived about six more years and died in Cambridge.  Most of their children moved to the area of Woodbridge, N.J, and changed the spelling of their name to Rolph, except for their son John.  I didn't find anything that helped me understand John's religion but some of his children may have become Quakers, or at least lived in harmony with them in Woodbridge.  It would be nice to know more about John, but at least we know he was a hard-working man, and one of the few men in the family who fished for any length of time, for a living. 

The line of descent is:

John Rolfe-Mary Scullard
Mary Rolph-Benjamin Dunham
Jonathan Dunham-Mary Smith
Samuel Dunham-Hannah Ruble
Jacob Dunham-Catherine Goodnight
Samuel Dunham-Eliza Matilda Reese
Mary Catherine Dunham-Harvey Aldridge
Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks
Mary Margaret Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger
Their descendants