Queen Anne (Pamunkey chief)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Queen Anne (ca. 1650 - ca. 1715) became the chief of the Pamunkey tribe when her aunt Cockacoeske died.^[1]

Colonial Governor William Berkeley requested that Anne furnish warriors to the colonists during Bacon's Rebellion, but she refused on the grounds that her tribe had been neglected by the colonists for twenty years. She eventually relented when the colonists promised better treatment for her people. When Anne's village was attacked she barely escaped with her life, surviving in the forest for over two weeks. When the rebellion ended after Bacon died from dysentery, Governor Berkeley arrested most of his key followers.

After the rebellion, the new Governor Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper presented her with gifts from King Charles II of England, including a silver headband inscribed with the words "Queen of Pamunkey". Anne , queen of the Pamunky Indians, and her 20 year old son John West who was acting as interpreter, were at 20 February 1677 signing of the treaty concluding "Bacon's Rebellion" in Virginia. She exerted a considerable amount of influence over the treaty's terms, and included assurances of protection for herself and her people.

She was able to manipulate the terms of the treaty to help unify her people under her control and create a period of almost 100 years of peace with the colonists. When the treaty was signed, the first signature is that of the Queen of the Pamunkey first and then Queen of Woanoke, King of the Nottaways, King of the Nancymond (Nancemond) Tribe. The largest signature is that of John West, son to the Queen of the Pamunkey. John was said to be the son of an English colonel also named John West, for whose father the locality "West Point" was named. Her last appearance in history is in 1715, when she visited the colonial authorities to request fair treatment for her tribe.