John Bolling

  General Notes:

John Bolling was Colonel of the Chesterfield Co., VA Militia and was known as "Major John". He was a member of House of Burgess, Chesterfield Co. for thirty years. He first married Elizabeth Lewis daughter of Col. John Lewis and Elizabeth Warner of Warner Hall. John was a merchant and had 5000 acres of land in Henrico Co..

In reference to descendants of Major John and both Elizabeths:

Elizabeth had no children...A list of children was made by Robert, one of the children Co. John and Elizabeth Blair Bolling.

He states that, "there were many children, some of whom died in their infancy", and goes on to name the ones who survived Col. John. The total list includes 18 children. Of the children who died young others were given the same name. There 2 Archibalds, 2 Sarahs, 2 Roberts, 2 Anns and 3 Elizabeths. Rebecca, the twin of Jane, only lived 25 days. None of the Elizabeths lived past one year.

Only 8 of his children survived him and of those Edward did not have any children. The others were Thomas, John, Robert, Mary, Archibald, Sarah and Anna. If all the children plus the ones in question were totaled there would be 28.

The Price list, published by Judge Zelma Wells Price, includes Benjamin and the others I have listed here. The Price list is based upon "an old and faded sheet which had been in the hands of John Tapley Bowling, (and which) shows twenty children as having been born to John Bolling, and gives there names and birth dates." Some VA genealogists refer to the additional twelve as the "mysterious Bollings"

More information is available about this from the Bolling Foundation and the Pocahontas Society.

John married Elizabeth Bland Blair, daughter of Archibald Blair and Sarah Archer, on 1 Aug 1728 in VA. (Elizabeth Bland Blair was born on 4 Apr 1712 in VA and died on 22 Apr 1775 in VA.)