How did John Rolfe die?

E. Boyd Smith illustration

As with Pocahontas, John Rolfe’s cause of death is unknown. He is said to have died in 1622. His death roughly coincides with the Powhatan Indian attack (March 22, 1622) on the colonists, in which Rolfe's plantation at Bermuda Hundred was destroyed. Some people have assumed that Rolfe was killed in the attack. However, there is no actual evidence that he died in the attack, and there are some reasons to believe that his death was due to other causes.

Consider:

John Rolfe’s name did not appear on the list of victims of the attack.
Rolfe’s name did not appear in any contemporary accounts of the attack. Considering our lack of information re. many aspects of Jamestown, this in itself does not prove much, However, details re. the deaths of several prominent colonists, such as George Thorpe and Nathaniel Powell, were described, which served to incite feelings of revenge among investors and potential settlers in England.
Rolfe’s wife (Jane Pierce) and daughter (Elizabeth) survived the attack and were not among those captured by the Powhatans.
Rolfe, being ill in 1621, had made a will (drawn up March 10, 1621) specifying how his estate should be divided upon his death.

While it cannot be said with certainty whether John Rolfe died prior to, during, or shortly after the attack, we can say that his death occurred near in time to the 1622 attack.

Excerpt from John Rolfe's will below;

(from) The Will of John Rolfe

"In the Name of God Amen; The Tenth day of March Anno dni 1621 And in the yeare of the Raigne of or Soveraigne Lorde James by the grace of god Kinge of England Scotland France and Ireland defender of the Faith &c That is to say of England France and Ireland the Nyneteenth And of Scotland the Ivth I John Rolfe of James Citty in Virginia Esquire beinge sicke in body, but of perfecte minde and memory [(}laude and prayse be given to Almightie god therefore) doe make and ordaine this my laste and finall will and testament in forme followeinge that is to say: Firste and principally I doe Comend my soule into the hands of Almightye god my maker and Redeemer, assuredly trusteinge in the meritts of Jesus Christe my Lorde and onely Savior, to have full and ample remission of all my sinnes, and to inheritte wth him a porcon of the glorious kingdome of god, with all the holy Angells and Archaungells and blessed Sts and electe of that Eternall kingdome: And my body I Comitte to the Earth [(] in hope of a Joyfull resurrection) to be buryed att the discretion of my Executor hereafter named in such decent and Comely or I sic manner as vnto my said Executor shalbe thoughte fitte: ...."

Transcribed from "The Will of John Rolfe", by Jane Carson, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1950), pp. 58-65 [the blue highlights are mine]

Benjamin Woolley - Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America (2007)

"John Rolfe also died around this time, though whether at the hands of the Indians, or of disease, is unclear." p. 382

Karen Ordahl Kupperman - Pocahontas and the English Boys (2019)

"In fact, the colonists were suffering, and life was very hard following the great assault. There was a 'general sickness,' which was said to have killed more people than the attack, and John Rolfe was one of those who died in the epidemic." p. 164

My comment:
Behold the creation of historical fact. Kupperman doesn't cite any source for this tidbit of new information, but she reports it with confidence as established fact. She may very well be correct, but we'll never know with the certainty that Kupperman implies.

A reminder that the majority of colonists survived, allowing them to live (and very likely die) another day.

Alfred A. Cave - Lethal Encounters: Englishmen and Indians in Colonial Virginia (2011)

"Although contemporary English commentators and later historians have claimed that Opechancanough's objective was to kill every Englishman in Virginia, several key English settlements -- Jamestown, Elizabeth City, Newport News, and the plantations along the Eastern shore -- were left untouched. The survival of the majority of English settlers they attributed variously to God's intervention, to the Indians' reluctance to attack fortified areas, or to their cowardice in fleeing whenever they encountered opposition. Those explanations are not persuasive. The Indians had the manpower to continue the assault, and after the success of the morning's surprise attack on March 22, they had the tactical advantage. They could well have taken more lives. A majority of settlers, as noted previously, survived the attacks. Some, in areas not hit, were not even aware they were occurring. Despite the carnage, as English observers conceded, some who might well have been killed survived. The colonists and their English sponsors attributed that good fortune to divine intervention, but there is another possible explanation. Although we cannot, in the absence of documentation about his thoughts and proclamations, say with certainty that Opechancanough did not intend to commit genocide through the total extermination of the English in Virginia, it is more likely that his intention was to revive Powhatan's old policy of confining the English within fixed boundaries." p. 119

Contemporary Accounts:

Two Tragical Events: 1. The Seafight of Capt. Anthony Chester, 1621 2. The Indian Massacre, 1622 at Virtual Jamestown

Fun fact:
Assuming a statistically normal day, about 4 or 5 people likely died of natural causes in Honolulu County on Dec. 7, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor.