Pocahontas, b.

Pocahontas (b. Matoaka)

(?1595–1617) Powhatan historical figure; born in present-day Virginia. She reportedly interceded with her father, Chief Powhatan, to spare the life of John Smith of Jamestown colony (1608). After adopting Christianity, she married John Rolfe (1614) and traveled to England in 1616. She died (possibly of smallpox) on the trip back. Through her son, Thomas Rolfe, she is an ancestor of the Randolph family of Virginia.