By Áine Cain
Don’t forget to save the date and RSVP to the wedding of early America’s ultimate power couple — John Rolfe and Pocahontas.
On April 5, 400 years after the original nuptials, you can witness the marriage of kidnapped Powhatan princess Pocahontas — also called Matoaka or Rebecca — and pioneering Virginia tobacco planter John Rolfe. Ceremonies will run from 10:30-11:30 a.m., 1-2 p.m., and 3:30-4:30 p.m. at Historic Jamestowne.
Can’t think of a suitable wedding gift for this momentous occasion? Before you grab a toaster at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, we’ve collected advice from the experts.
Jamestown curator Kate Gruber, who reminded us that bridal registry is a modern and Euro-centric concept, noted that King James I and Queen Anne apparently went for an elegant but utilitarian gift — bestowing the Rolfes with a stoneware jug in 1617.
David Price, author of “Love and Hate in Jamestown,” also noted the importance of not messing with history too much.
“We all know that tinkering with the past can lead to unforeseen and probably disastrous results,” Price said. “But still, I’d give John Rolfe and Pocahontas a book about Jamestown history so they would know not to travel to London (thus sparing Pocahontas an early death). Also, since everyone lived near the water in those days, I’d give them a pair of his-and-hers jet skis with full tanks of gas.”
Bly Straube, senior archaeological curator at Jamestown Rediscovery, has worked at Jamestown for twenty years. She would give the couple an excavated artifact as a wedding gift — one with a range of important uses, including scraping teeth, cleaning fingernails, digging out earwax, and preventing deafness.
“There are so many things to choose from, but I would present the happy couple with a pair of matching silver ear picks in the form of a dolphin,” Strabue said. “Although this sounds rather pedestrian and inappropriate for a wedding present, these tools for personal hygiene were status symbols and were worn very proudly around the neck or hanging from a belt.”
Additionally, dolphins may have occupied a special place in the hearts — and perhaps even the wedding menu — of the new couple.
“Dolphins swim up our rivers from the Chesapeake Bay, so Pocahontas would have been familiar with them,” Straube said. “John Rolfe may have even eaten one as we have found bottlenose dolphin bones amongst the early colonists’ food remains at James Fort.”
Elisa Carbone’s novel, “Blood on the Water,” is set in the Jamestown colony. She is currently writing a sequel — which includes a depiction of the Rolfe-Pocahontas wedding. Her young protagonist, Virginia Laydon, witnesses the ceremony, well aware that Pocahontas has been kidnapped away from her first husband and child.
“Virginia feels both happy and sad on the day of the wedding, but she hopes very much for future happiness for Pocahontas,” Carbone said. “Since the wedding takes place in April, when the first wild flowers appear in the forest near James Town, I believe Virginia would bring a bouquet of wild flowers to wish the couple well.”
And Mark Summers, the Historic Jamestowne public and educational programs manager, would send the couple on a trip to Disney World “…so that they can set the record straight.”
What are your gift ideas for the Rolfe wedding? Tell us in the comments below, and we’ll add them to the gift registry.
Áine Cain, a student at The College of William and Mary, is an intern with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Learn more about the marriage about Pocahontas to John Rolfe:
