Jane (Pierce) Smith (abt. 1600 - aft. 1625)

Born about 1600 in Heacham, Norfolk, England

Ancestors

Wife of John Rolfe — married after 1619 (to 1622) in Colony of Virginia

Wife of Roger Smith — married before 1624 in Colony of Virginia

Descendants

Died after 1625 after about age 25 in Jamestown, James City County, Colony of Virginia

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Jane (Pierce) Smith resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

Jane (Pierce) Smith is a Qualifying Ancestor of the Jamestowne Society

Joan Peirce^[1]

aka Jane Pierce^[2]

Jane was the daughter of William Pierce, Ancient Planter,^[2] Lt. Gov. of James Cittie, and member of Council.^[3] Capt. William Pierce is listed in the Muster of 23 January 1624[/5] at James Citty with his wife, Jone, and other members of the household.^[4][5]

Jane Pierce, daughter of William Pierce of Virginia, married John Rolfe (as his 3rd wife). They had a daughter, Elizabeth,^[6] born about 1620.^[7]

John died in 1622,^[6] and she was married to Roger Smith by the time of the 1624/5 Jamestown Muster.^[8]

Research Notes

Estimated Birth: c1600 based on other known (or estimated) dates.

Son John: Roger and Jane (Pierce) Smith may have had a son, John,^[9] but there is no mention of him in McCartney's Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers (see Roger Smith's entry on page 41, accessed 24 May 2020).

Immigration

It is unclear whether William Pierce's wife (at the time of sailing) was the mother of his daughter.

Capt. Pierce was a passenger on the ill-fated Sea Venture in 1609. His wife and daughter were both reported to have arrived on the Blessing, but the year isn't given. The Muster reports only one other surviving Blessing passenger.

The Blessing was one of the 9 vessels which formed the Somers/Gates fleet of 1609 (the so-called Third Supply fleet). It survived the storm and arrived in August. It returned to England in October, and crossed again with Lord Delaware's rescue mission of 1610.

At the time of Delaware's departure from England, the Sea Venture passengers were in Bermuda, but nobody knew that. The news in England was that Pierce and the rest of the Sea Venture passengers, and most of the fleet's supplies, were missing, and probably lost, and if so, the colony would seem unlikely to have fared well.

It seems unlikely that Pierce's wife and daughter would have sailed in these circumstances. More probably they sailed with Pierce in 1609, though on a different ship for some reason.

Jamestowne Muster

A search of records for the 1624 Jamestown Muster available online through virtualjamestown.org return the following:^[8]

Name	Muster	Status	Location	Corporation	Age	Ship	Date of Arrival	Muster Date	Notes
Richard Pierce	Pierce Richard	head	Neck-of-Land	neare James Citty		Neptune	not given	4 February 1624/5
William Capt Pierce	Pierce William Capt	head	James Citty	James Citty		Sea-venture	not given	24 January 1624/5	"The rest of his servants, provisions, Armes Munitions &ct at Mulbery Iland"
Jone mrs Pierce	Pierce William Capt	his wife	James Citty	James Citty		Blessinge	not given	24 January 1624/5
Elizabeth Pierce	Pierce Richard	his wife	Neck-of-Land	neare James Citty		Neptune	not given	4 February 1624/5
Roger Capt Smith	Smith Roger Capt	head	James Citty	James Citty		Abigaile	1620	24 January 1624/5	"The rest of his men theire provisions Armes &ct. Over the Watter"
Joane mrs Smith	Smith Roger Capt	not given	James Citty	James Citty		Blessinge	not given	24 January 1624/5	(this profile)

Sources

1. ↑ Peirce, Joan - A9683; (Muster of 1624/5), wife of John Rolfe and Roger Smith. accessed 28 July 2019
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Nugent, Nell Marion, (1934) Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1800, 1st ed. Richmond: Dietz Print Co., Archive.org (Page xxx).
3. ↑ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1915) Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume I-II. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Archive.org (Vol 1, Pages 101-102).
4. ↑ Hotten, John Camden, (1874) The Original Lists of Persons of Quality; Emigrants; Religious Exiles ... London: Hotten, Page 224.
5. ↑ William Pierce's wife Jone is profiled in WikiTree as Jone Phippen. No children are shown in the Muster as being in the Pierce household.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Lyon Gardiner Tyler. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, entry for John Rolfe (accessed 24 May 2020).
7. ↑ Tyler has Jane's marriage to John Rolfe in 1620. This article on Jane by Nancy LeSourd (accessed 24 May 2020) has their marriage in 1619 and Elizabeth's birth in 1620. The article also says she married Roger Smith the same year that John died (1622), which is probable - a widow with a young child would have remarried quickly in colonial Virginia. The entry for John Rolfe in McCartney's Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers says (on page 608): "The Rolfes produced a daugther, Elizabeth, around 1621."
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Pierce search (28 July 2019), Smith search.
9. ↑ Harrison Thomas LaTour. Website: LaTour Genealogical Collection URL: http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=kingharry&id=I11889 Date: 2009-03-18. Note - This link leads to a search page as of 24 May 2020.

• Stanard, W.G: "Virginia Land Patents", in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 1 #4 (Apr 1894), p. 445.
• Jamestowne Society - http://www.jamestowne.org/parry---peirce.html
• Liberty Letters blog: "Jane Pierce," by Nancy LeSourd.
• McCartney, Martha W (2007). Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, pp. 607, 608, 649.