BOLLING Ancestors

Robert BOLLING (photograph, left) was the son of John and Mary (Carrie) Bolling. He was born at Tower Street, All Hallows, Barking Parish, in London on December 26, 1646. Robert arrived in the Virginia colony on 2 Oct 1660 at the age of fourteen. His father John, was one of the Bollings of Bolling Hall, near Bradford, England (see photograph and more information below).

Robert's ancestry can be traced to Robert Bolling, Esquire, who died in 1485 and was buried in the family vault in the church of Bradford. According to Bolling family oral tradition, the original deBolling family was Norman French, and came to Barking Parish with William the Conqueror. Below is a photograph of Bolling Hall, near Bradford, England.

When I was a child, my favorite history story about America was Pocohontas. I named a precious kitten Pocohontas. While I don't descend from Pocohontas, my ancestor's first wife was married to a granddaughter of Pocohontas whose descendants are named the Red Bollings. I descend instead from the White Bollings (when he married Anne Stith, below).

First Marriage

In 1674, he married Jane Rolfe, the daughter of Thomas and Jane (Poythress) Rolfe; granddaughter of Pocahontas. Jane died just a year after their marriage.
Their only child was:

1. John Bolling (January 26, 1676-April 20, 1729), married Mary Kennon. According to wikipedia, John Bolling the ancestor to Edith Bolling Wilson, Nancy Reagan, and John McCain.

Second Marriage
In 1681, Col. Bolling married his second wife Anne Stith*, daughter of John Drury and Jane (Gregory) Stith. They had the following nine children together:
i. Jane Bolling (b. 1682), died young.
ii. Robert Bolling Jr. (1682-1749), married Anne Mary Cocke. Ancestors of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush; Mary Anna Randolph Custis, wife of Robert E. Lee; and possibly American President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
iii. Stith Bolling (1686-1727), married Elizabeth Hartwell.
iv. Edward Bolling (1687-1720), married Ms. Slaughter.
v. Anne Bolling (1690-1750), married Robert Wynne.
vi. Drury Bolling (1695-1726), married Elizabeth Meriwether.
vii. Thomas Bolling (1697-1734).
viii. Agnes Bolling (1700-1762), married Richard Kennon.
vix. Molly Mary Bolling (b. 1702), died young.

The descendents of Robert Bolling's first marriage are termed "Red Bollings" and the descendents of his second marriage are termed the "White Bollings". His grandson Robert Bolling was one of the most prolific poets in colonial Virginia. As a merchant and planter, Bolling acquired a large estate. He was colonel of the militia and was a member of the House of Burgesses from Charles City County in 1702.

Robert Bolling died on July 17, 1709, and was buried on his plantation Kippax, in Prince George Co., Virginia, where his tomb still stands. However, in 1858, his remains were removed from Kippax to the Bolling mausoleum at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia erected by his great grandson.

Much of this information I excerpted from wikipedia.org, Robert Bolling.

Sources listed at wikipedia:
1. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.
2. Some prominent Virginia families, Louise Pecquet du Bellet, Edward Jaquelin, Martha Cary Jaquelin, page 305.
3. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.
4. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.
5. A Memoir of a Portion of the Bolling Family in England and Virginia, Robert Bolling, John Robertson, Thomas Hicks Wynne, Chesapeake Book Co., 1868, page 19.
6. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.

Link to a BBC 360 degree view of the interior of Bolling Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire, England:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/360/version2_bolling_hall_1.shtml