John Bolling


Major John Bolling was a colonist, farmer and politician in the Virginia Colony.

Early life and marriage

John Bolling was the son of Colonel Robert Bolling and Jane Bolling. He was a lineal descendant of Pocahontas and her husband, John Rolfe.
John Bolling was born at Kippax Plantation, in Charles City County, a site which is now within the corporate limits of the City of Hopewell. He made his home at the Bolling family plantation "Cobbs" just west of Point of Rocks on the north shore of the Appomattox River downstream from present-day Petersburg, Virginia.
John Bolling married Mary Kennon, daughter of Richard Kennon and Elizabeth Worsham, on December 29, 1697. They had six children, whose names appear in John Bolling's will:
In 1722, he opened a tobacco warehouse in what is now the 'Pocahontas' neighborhood of Petersburg. William Byrd II of Westover Plantation is said to have remarked that Major Bolling enjoyed "all the profits of an immense trade with his countrymen, and of one still greater with the Indian."
Major Bolling served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1710 until his death in 1729.