Pocahontas interesting facts

The pictured statue commemorates Princess Pocahontas who was buried in the chancel of the church on March 21st 1617. Although made more famous today by the Disney cartoon film she was in fact a real person, a native American Indian and a daughter of a great chief. As a very young teenager she fell in love with a 27 year old adventurer, Captain John Smith and undoubtably saved his life. This Captain Smith had left London in a tiny 100 ton ship with two other even smaller vessels on December 19, 1606 passing Gravesend just a few hours later. The weather was absolutely atrocious and for almost six weeks the ships had to shelter from wind and storm in "The Downs" the sheltered area just around the heel of Kent at North Foreland where even today the large cross channel ferries still shelter from bad weather (between the Goodwin Sands and the Kent coast). After crossing the Atlantic these vessels landed in the New World on My 13. 1607 and established the first English settlement in Virginia calling it Jamestown after King James. Pocahontas was later deceived by the settlers into believing that John Smith had died. She subsequently married John Rolfe and she came to England with him where she was fêted by London society. Intending later to return to Virginia, she took ill with pneumonia or possibly tuberculosis and unfortunately she died soon after boarding ship and was buried in the chancel of St George's church (the chancel was normally reserved for the clergy or very notable parishioners). She was only 21 or 22 years old when she died, still a very young woman. Gravesend was an important port at this time (it still is the home port for all the pilots in the Thames Estuary and is the site of the Port of London Authority). As Gravesend churches come within the diocese of Rochester cathedral the register of Pocahontas burial at St George's is available on Medway City Archives ( http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/). There is a very good account of the life of Pocahontas on www.apva.org/history/pocahont.html if you are interested. Another very interesting and informative account written by one of her descendants is on http://pocahontas.morenus.org/

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