Major John Bolling, Sr., was born in 1676 to Robert Bolling and Jane Rolfe, who was the granddaughter of John Rolfe and Pocahontas. He thus became the first Bolling born in the New World and a direct descendant of Pocahontas. The marriage between Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Indian confederacy, and Rolfe was a major event in the intertwining of the indigenous peoples of Virginia and the English settlers.
Major John Bolling, Sr., settled along the Appomattox River in what is now Petersburg, Virginia. This portrait is part of the Muscarelle’s collection of Bolling family portraits, which encompasses several generations. Dressed in a collarless coat with six ornamented buttons and a full gray wig, he represents a man of class and distinction.
