The Mattaponi Reservation people are descendants of the Powhatans, and their oral tradition claims that Pocahontas's mother was the first wife of Powhatan, and that Pocahontas was named after her. However, little is known about Pocahontas's mother, and it has been theorized that she died in childbirth. Henry Spelman of Jamestown had lived among the Powhatan as an interpreter, and he noted that, when one of the paramount chief's many wives gave birth, she was returned to her place of origin and supported there by the paramount chief until she found another husband. Her mother's name and origin are unknown, but she was probably of lowly status. Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, paramount chief of Tsenacommacah, an alliance of about 30 Algonquian-speaking groups and petty chiefdoms in Tidewater, Virginia. In A True Relation of Virginia (1608), Smith described meeting Pocahontas in the spring of 1608 when she was "a child of ten years old." In a 1616 letter, he again described her as she was in 1608, but this time as "a child of twelve or thirteen years of age." Pocahontas's birth year is unknown, but some historians estimate it to have been around 1596.
She is a subject of art, literature, and film, and many famous people have claimed to be among her descendants through her son, including members of the First Families of Virginia, First Lady Edith Wilson, American Western actor Glenn Strange, and astronomer Percival Lowell. Many of the stories told about her by John Smith have been contested by her documented descendants. Her story has been romanticized over the years, with some aspects which are probably fictional. Numerous places, landmarks, and products in the United States have been named after Pocahontas. She was buried in St George's Church, Gravesend, in England her grave's exact location is unknown because the church was rebuilt after a fire destroyed it. In 1617, the Rolfes set sail for Virginia Pocahontas died at Gravesend of unknown causes, aged 20 or 21. She became something of a celebrity, was elegantly fêted, and attended a masque at Whitehall Palace. On this trip she may have met Squanto, a Patuxet Indian from New England. In 1616, the Rolfes travelled to London where Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the "civilized savage" in hopes of stimulating investment in the Jamestown settlement. She married tobacco planter John Rolfe in April 1614 at the age of about 17 or 18, and she bore their son Thomas Rolfe in January 1615. During her captivity, she was encouraged to convert to Christianity and was baptized under the name Rebecca. Pocahontas was captured and held for ransom by the Colonists during hostilities in 1613. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of Virginia. 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
Pocahontas ( US: / ˌ p oʊ k ə ˈ h ɒ n t ə s/, UK: / ˌ p ɒ k-/ born Amonute, known as Matoaka, c.