Pochins

Pochins (fl. 1597–1610) was the Weroance of the Kecoughtan who lived in the Tidewater region in what is now Hampton, Virginia. He was a son of Wahunsenacawh, the leader or Mamanatowick of the Powhatan Confederacy.

Pochins was installed at Kecoughtan after Wahunsenacawh conquered the nation and deposed its previous leadership around 1597 or 1598. His appointment formed part of Wahunsenacawh's expansion of the Powhatan Confederacy and his effort to place relatives or politically reliable leaders in important political positions. Pochins remained the Kecoughtan Weroance when the first English colonists arrived in Virginia in 1607. His fate after English forces seized the Kecoughtan's territory in July 1610 is not recorded in the historical record.

Historical sources

Almost all surviving personal information about Pochins derives from English colonial accounts, particularly the writings of William Strachey, who lived in Virginia in 1610 and 1611 and served as the colony's secretary. Strachey identified Pochins as one of Wahunsenacawh's sons and referred to him as the leader at Kecoughtan. Strachey's manuscript was composed several years after the founding of Jamestown but remained unpublished until the Hakluyt Society issued it in 1849. Strachey's description of him as a young Weroance indicates that he had not reached adulthood by the opening years of the seventeenth century, but it's not enough to know his birth year.

Authority within the ruling family was inherited through the female line. John Smith recorded that Wahunsenacawh's office was expected to pass first to his brothers, then to his sisters, and subsequently to the descendants of his eldest sister. Pochins's status as Wahunsenacawh's son therefore did not place him in the direct line of succession to Mamanatowick. His position at Kecoughtan instead depended upon his father's appointment and political authority.

Wahunsenacawh sometimes allowed a conquered community's existing ruler to remain in office, provided that the ruler joined the Confederacy. In other cases, he deposed the existing leadership and installed a relative whose loyalty was more secure. Pochins's appointment represented the latter method of political consolidation.

Conquest of Kecoughtan

The Kecoughtan occupied a strategically important area near the mouth of the Powhatan River, later renamed the James River. Their territory included agricultural land, fishing grounds and access to the waterways connecting the James River with Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay. The principal Kecoughtan settlement was situated near present-day Hampton, although historians and archaeologists have differed over its precise location.

Around 1597 or 1598, Wahunsenacawh made war against the Kecoughtan. According to Strachey's account, his army killed the community's previous Weroance and placed Pochins in power.

Pochins's appointment consequently made him both the nation's leader and an agent of Wahunsenacawh's Confederacy at the entrance to the James River. Taylor interprets the arrangement as an effort to control movement, trade and access to the shorelines of the Chesapeake region.

The much smaller community encountered by the English in 1607 reportedly contained approximately eighteen dwellings and twenty fighting men. The difference between that observation and Strachey's description of the settlement's former size may reflect the warfare, displacement and resettlement that accompanied Wahunsenacawh's conquest. As Weroance, Pochins was responsible for local political decisions, diplomacy and the organization of the nation's response to threats.

Relations with the English

The Kecoughtan were among the first people encountered by the English colonists who arrived in 1607. On April 30 or May 1, the colonists entered the Kecoughtan capital near the mouth of the James River. The inhabitants welcomed them, provided food and tobacco before the expedition continued upriver.

These exchanges occurred within an unstable political relationship. The English relied heavily upon Indigenous food supplies, while the people of Tsenacommacah attempted to determine whether the newcomers could be incorporated into existing systems of trade, tribute and military alliance. The English, meanwhile, increasingly viewed the Kecoughtan fields and strategic position at the entrance to the James River as desirable property for their own settlement.

On July 9, Gates's forces approached the Kecoughtan settlement. An English drummer performed music and dance to induce inhabitants to leave their houses. The soldiers then attacked, killing an unrecorded number of people and driving the survivors from the settlement. The English burned the town and occupied its cleared fields and fishing grounds. No contemporary source describes whether Pochins was present during the attack, whether he survived it or whether he continued to lead the displaced Kecoughtan afterward. The nation may have remained in the surrounding region or been adopted into other member nations. The historical interpretation at Fort Monroe holds that Kecoughtan people continued to be present in the area at least as late as 1618.

Historical interpretation

Pochins's appointment is used by historians as an example of the different strategies Wahunsenacawh employed in creating and maintaining the Confederacy. Rather than demanding tribute from the Kecoughtan, Wahunsenacawh replaced their Weroance with his own son, displaced part of the population and introduced settlers with closer political and kinship connections to the capital.

The episode also demonstrates the political importance of waterways in Tsenacommacah. Control of Kecoughtan gave Wahunsenacawh influence over travel between the James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. A little more than a decade later, the English identified the same location as strategically valuable, expelled the population governed by Pochins and converted the land into a colonial military and farming center.