Robert Bolling
Encyclopedia
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
settler planter and merchant.
Ancestry and Early Life
Robert Bolling was the son of John and Mary (Clarke) Bolling. He was born at Tower Street, All Hallows Barking Parish, in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on December 26, 1646. His father John, was one of the Bollings of Bolling Hall
Bolling Hall, Bradford
Bolling Hall is one of the oldest buildings in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is currently used as a museum and education centre. The building is about a mile from the centre of Bradford. Its surroundings are suburban in character....
, near Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
, England. Robert's ancestry could be traced to Robert Bolling, Esquire, who died in 1485 and was buried in the family vault in the church of Bradford.
On October 2, 1660, at the age of fourteen, Bolling arrived in the colony of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. In 1674, he married Jane Rolfe
Jane Rolfe
Jane Rolfe was the granddaughter of Pocahontas and the English colonist John Rolfe, ....
, the daughter of Thomas Rolfe
Thomas Rolfe
Thomas Rolfe was the only child of Pocahontas by her English husband, John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Wahunsunacock, the chief of Powhatan tribe in Virginia.-Early Life:Thomas Rolfe was born in Virginia...
and the granddaughter of John Rolfe
John Rolfe
John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.In 1961, the Jamestown...
and Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...
. Their son John Bolling
John Bolling
Major John Fairfax Bolling was a colonist, farmer, and politician in the Virginia Colony. He was the son of Colonel Robert Bolling and Jane Bolling...
was born January 26, 1676. Jane is said to have died shortly after the birth.
John Bolling
John Bolling
Major John Fairfax Bolling was a colonist, farmer, and politician in the Virginia Colony. He was the son of Colonel Robert Bolling and Jane Bolling...
(January 26, 1676 – April 20, 1729) married Richard Kennon and Elizabeth Worsham's daughter, Mary Kennon, and left six children.
Second Marriage and Death
In 1681, after his first wife died, Col. Bolling married his second wife Anne Stith, daughter of John Drury and Jane (Gregory) Stith. They had the following nine children together.- Jane Bolling (b. 1682), died young.
- Robert Bolling Jr. (1682–1749), married Anne Mary Cocke. Robert was the grandfather of Beverley RandolphBeverley RandolphBeverley Randolph was an American politician from Virginia. He served as the eighth Governor of Virginia from 1788 to 1791....
, the eighth Governor of VirginiaGovernor of VirginiaThe governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Republican Bob McDonnell, who was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, as the 71st governor of Virginia....
. - Stith Bolling (1686–1727), married Elizabeth Hartwell.
- Edward Bolling (1687–1720), married Ms. Slaughter.
- Anne Bolling (1690–1750), married Robert Wynne.
- Drury Bolling (1695–1726), married Elizabeth Meriwether.
- Thomas Bolling (1697–1734).
- Agnes Bolling (1700–1762), married Richard Kennon.
- Molly Mary Bolling (b. 1702), married Andrew Baker.
The descendants of Robert Bolling's first marriage are sometimes referred to in family history forums as "Red Bollings" and the descendants of his second marriage as "White Bollings". His grandson Robert Bolling was one of the most prolific poets in colonial Virginia.
As a merchant and planter, Bolling acquired a large estate. He was colonel of the militia and was a member of the House of Burgesses from Charles City County in 1702.
Robert Bolling died on July 17, 1709, and was buried on his plantation Kippax
Kippax Plantation
Kippax Plantation was located on the south bank of the Appomattox River in what is today the City of Hopewell in southeast Virginia. Kippax Plantation was the home of Colonel Robert Bolling . Bolling married Jane Rolfe, who was the granddaughter of Pocahontas and John Rolfe...
, in Prince George Co.
Prince George County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 33,047 people, 10,159 households, and 8,096 families residing in the county. The population density was 124 people per square mile . There were 10,726 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, where his tomb still stands. However, in 1858, his remains were removed from Kippax to the Bolling mausoleum at Blandford Cemetery
Blandford Cemetery
Blandford Cemetery is located in Petersburg, Virginia, USA. The oldest stone, marking the grave of Richard Yarbrough, reads 1702. Veterans of six wars are buried there, including 30,000 Confederates killed in the Siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War.In 1866, Blandford Cemetery was the...
in Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
erected by his great grandson.
Archaeological record
Archaeologist Donald W. LinebaughDonald W. Linebaugh
Donald W. Linebaugh is an American archaeologist and author.Linebaugh, was director of the University of Kentucky Program for Archaeological Research in the College of Arts and Sciences and was assistant professor of anthropology...
, of the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
, located the remains of Col. Bolling's house in Hopewell, Virginia
Hopewell, Virginia
Hopewell is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 22,591 at the 2010 Census . It is in Tri-Cities area of the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area...
in 2002.
The Archaeological Conservancy
The Archaeological Conservancy
The Archaeological Conservancy is a 5013 non-profit organization that acquires and preserves archaeological sites in the United States. Whereas nearly every other nation protects all archaeological sites within its borders as part of its national patrimony, in the United States archaeological...
is currently trying to buy the site of Kippax Plantation to protect it from development. Thomas Rolfe
Thomas Rolfe
Thomas Rolfe was the only child of Pocahontas by her English husband, John Rolfe. His maternal grandfather was Wahunsunacock, the chief of Powhatan tribe in Virginia.-Early Life:Thomas Rolfe was born in Virginia...
, the son of Pocahontas and Robert Bolling's father-in-law, is buried there. The Archaeological Conservancy is in the process of raising the $205,000 needed for the purchase.
External links
- Find A Grave Memorial
- UK Archaeologist Locates 17th Century Merchant's House, Plans Excavation with Students, Dan Adkins, March 8, 2002
- Kippax Plantation Contributions
Sources
- American Presidential Families, Hugh Brogan and Charles Mosley, MacMillan Publishing Company, New York, 1993.
- Pocahontas, alias Matoaka, and her descendants : at Jamestown, Virginia, in April, 1614, with John Rolfe, gentleman : including the names of Alfriend, Archer, Bentley, Bernard, Bland, Bolling, Branch, Cabell, Catlett, Cary, Dandridge, Dixon, Douglas, Duval, Eldridge, Ellett, Ferguson, Field, Fleming, Gay, Gordon, Griffin, Grayson, Harrison, Hubard, Lewis, Logan, Markham, Meade, McRae, Murray, Page, Poythress, Randolph, Robertson, Skipwith, Stanard, Tazewell, Walke, West, Whittle, and others : with biographical sketches, Wyndham RobertsonWyndham RobertsonWyndham Robertson was the Acting Governor of the U.S. state of Virginia from 1836 to 1837. He also served twice in the Virginia House of Delegates, the second time during the American Civil War....
, J. W. Randolph & English, 1887.