INTRODUCTION

Heacham is a little known village between King's Lynn and Hunstanton. It has neither the size nor the traffic of its larger neighbours but has two beaches, some thriving businesses and a lively Church, and is very much a live English Village.

Heacham also has an historic link with the Indian Princess, Pocahontas, recently popularised by the Disney films. The link is celebrated by a memorial in the Church and the inclusion of a replica of the Church plaque on the Village sign.

In 1583 Sir Walter Raleigh entered the fringe of the hitherto unexplored country of North America and named it Virginia in honour of Queen Elizabeth. The natives were numerous and threatening and Raleigh decided to adventure no further. Glowing accounts of the richness of the country were, however, brought back to England by these adventurers and a company was formed in London called the "London Virginia Chartered Company". In 1585 the Company sent out what was the first expedition of English settlers to North America.

Powhattan was then the powerful over-king of the Algonquin Indian tribes "from the Atlantic seaboard to the falls of the rivers". The astonishment caused to the Potentate and his tribes by the landing of the English soon changed to fear and hatred and led to the complete extermination of the colonists of whom no trace has ever been found.

In April 1607, the London Company sent out a second company under the leadership of Sir Thomas Dale, who later became Governor of Virginia. With Sir Thomas sailed Captain John Smith of Lincolnshire. About the same time an interesting group of Norfolk men, John Rolfe of Heacham, Henry Spelman of Congham, Cobbe of Snettisham, etc., went out. The expeditions anchored in Chesapeake Bay and called their settlement Jamestown after the reigning King of England, and the district, Norfolk, a name it still retains. The new colonists at first entered into friendly relations with the natives but when Captain John Smith, in December 1607, attempted to explore further into the Indian's territory, he was captured and taken to Powhattan's camp.

According to Smith's account (published in 1662) Powhattan, after a parley with his chiefs, decided upon the Englishman's death. The natives were preparing to brain him with their clubs when Pocahontas - "the King's own darling daughter" - then a child of ten, interposed her own head between Smith and his murderers. Powhattan ordered Smith's life to be spared.

There is no doubt that from 1608 onwards Pocahontas was a frequent visitor to Jamestown and that she acted as intermediary between her father and the colonists. This became increasingly necessary as disputes constantly arose between the settlers and the natives; indeed Pocahontas is depicted as "the good genius of the colonists, warning them of the hostile schemes of the Indians and sending them provisions in times of scarcity".

On the l3th April 1612 Pocahontas was about 15 years old and while she was away staying with her uncle, she was lured on board a vessel and taken to Jamestown as hostage for the good behaviour of the natives. In the following year she converted to Christianity, was baptised under the name of Rebecca, and later married to John Rolfe, who appears from his letter to Sir Thomas Dale (now in keeping of the Bodlian Library at Oxford) to have been sincerely attached to the Princess. Powhattan was flattered by his daughter's marriage to an Englishman and the event was followed by a friendly alliance, the exchange of prisoners and other proofs of goodwill.

In 1616 Sir Thomas Dale brought Pocahontas, her husband, their young son and a numerous retinue of attendants to England. It is recorded that Pocahontas was presented to Queen Anne, Consort of James 1st, who paid her marked attention. In company with the Queen she attended the twelfth night masque in 1617. Although the Queen smiled on the Princess, the King scowled on John Rolfe. Tradition has it that Rolfe was nearly prosecuted for high treason for having married a Princess without his Sovereign's leave. Sir Thomas Dale was included in his King's displeasure but he replied that, as Governor, he represented His Majesty and accordingly had given his sanction to the Marriage as a matter of urgent policy. The King thereupon made no reply.

Meanwhile the London Virginia Company and other Companies of the great City of London received them and their retinue with "great and handsome entertainment's". This is easily understood when we realise that such was the prosperity of the colony of Virginia that twenty thousand pounds of tobacco were exported in 1619. In the Colonial Entry Book of January 1617 we learn that the Princess Pocahontas, though reluctant to return to America, ailed under an English climate and on the eve of her return to America died at Gravesend and was buried in the Chancel of the Parish Church.

In 1727 Gravesend Church was burnt down. A church was rebuilt on the same site but of different architecture and no one knows whether the present apse is over the old church or somewhat West or North of it. The registers going back earlier than Pocahontas fortunately escaped the fire and tell us that "The Princess was 1616 Mar 2 buried in ye Chauncell". Her actual grave has been sought in vain.

JOHN ROLFE

In 1608 Rolfe married an English wife; and his wife sailed with him for Virginia in 1609. On the voyage they were wrecked and cast on the Bermudas. Here a daughter, who died in infancy, was born to them. The parents reached Virginia in 1610. Rolfe was the first Englishman to introduce the regular cultivation of tobacco into Virginia. Of the death of his first wife we have no record but he was a leading settler when (5th April 1613) either captivated by her beauty and grace, or as a fellow colonist puts it "for the good of the plantation" he married Pocahontas. There is legend that the very ancient Mulberry tree in the gardens of Heacham Hall - always known as the Pocahontas Mulberry tree - was planted at the time of a visit which John Rolfe and his wife paid to Heacham. On the death of Pocahontas, Rolfe returned to Virginia leaving their son Thomas to be brought up in England, partly with his uncle, Henry Rolfe, and partly with Sir Lewes Stukely of Plymouth.

Thomas returned to Virginia in 1640 when he was about 25 years old. It is significant that a village in Virginia named Heacham dates from that time. Thomas Rolfe remained in America and married Jane, daughter of Francis Pothyress, leaving issue an only daughter, Jane, from whose marriage to Colonel Robert Bolling, many eminent American families are descended. The forefathers of John Rolfe rest in Heacham Church and it is fitting that the tablet in memory of his wife Pocahontas should be placed just above those of his father John Rolfe and his mother Dorothy Rolfe.

THE VILLAGE

There has been a settlement here since 3000 BC, The choice of this area gave much to support the daily needs of the people. The river for fresh water, the sea for fish and shellfish, deer and other creatures from the deeply wooded area around. The settlement lay in a hollow, with the fall into it from north, south, and east.

The name of Heacham arises from its l2th century overlord Geoffrey de Hecham, and its river, the Hitch. Over the years speaking and spelling have become Heacham - meaning "The Home in the Thicket". Evidence has been found here of passing centuries dating from the Stone Age, including the Romans and the Normans who left us our beautiful Church.

The story of the Red Indian Princess, Pocahontas, and her romantic marriage to the son of the Lord of the Manor, John Rolfe, shines like a beacon in the early 1600s.

Two hundred years ago, the Day Labourers of Heacham, Sedgeford and Snettisham met in our Church in a brave attempt to better their working and living conditions; though this they failed to do, their example and courage is recorded on a plaque on the Wheatsheaf Corner.

Heacham has grown, but in the growing has lost that special community feeling. Poor homes, crudely built, have given way to dwellings of brick and carrstone. There are still a few houses that can claim l8th century beginnings.

The Village once had its own brickyard - but the coming of the railway in 1862 brought in a much cheaper, though poorer, brick. This form of transport opened the door to a positive flood of visitors who came for the sea and the beauty of the Village. Caravan holidays began and the Village became popular; new housing estates took many of our open spaces, Many little shops have closed and some traditional village traders are no more.

We remember our dead of the two world wars on a splendid war memorial hard by the Church, and in our fine Public Hall. This was the Village of the first co-ed school in the country, here Frank Southgate R.A. came to teach painting and drawing. Sir Alfred Munnings came to the riding school to paint the horses and mares with foals at foot - sadly both school and horses are no more.

When you visit us, respect our ancient history and enjoy with us the vastly changing but ever- hopeful present
(Freda England).

"Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass."

(From In Time of "The Breaking of Nations" T. Hardy)

15th May 2000