Weroance Nectowance "King of the Indians" Powhatan ¹

  General Notes:

Born 1600-20 at Tsenacomoca, Orapax, in what is now New Kent County, Virginia, and died After 1645.

Weroance Nectowance Powhatan signed the Treaty with the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1645, at which time he was called "King of the Indians" by the English.

Nectowance, Werowance (Chief) of the Powhatan, was a son of Opechancanough according to some family trees online, although Wikipedia says he was Opechancanough's nephew. He is known to have succeeded Opechancanough.
Different family trees compiled by English-Indian descendants give varying birth and death dates as well as confusing relationships. Some family trees show Nectowance as the father of Cockacoeske, Queen of the Pamunkey, who was known to be a granddaughter of Opechancanough.
"The Royal Family of the Powhatan" by John C.E. Christensen (1997) says Nectowance is "assumed to be son of Opechoncanough. Signed Treaty with the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1645, at which time he was called by the English "King of the Indians.""

Tribal historian William Deyo said, "I believe that Necotowance married a woman of the same line as Pocahontas and Cleopatra, which gave his daughter, Cockacoeske, the right of succession after her husband.
"We know for a fact that Cockacoeske was the granddaughter of Opechancanough, who was the head of the federation because of the matrilineal royal succession through his mother. If Opechancanough's wife was Cleopatra, sister of Pocahontas (also of the royal line of succession), his son could succeed him as leader of the federation. Necotowance was the next in line who became the head of the federation. Totopotomoi was the next to succeed and was the husband of Cockacoeske, who succeeded in her own right after Totopotomoi (who was killed in 1656)."


Not known with certainty to be buried on the Pamunkey reservation but possibly there with the remains of other tribal leaders and ancestors as tradition shows. The bones and/or mummified remains of earlier leaders were entombed at the sacred Uttamussak temple where they were guarded by seven priests.

Nectowance might have been buried in one of the Manquin mounds, one of "two other mounds near Manquin, King Wm. Co., which are precisely at the location found on the 17th century map labeled as "Opechancanough's settlement of Menmend," as stated in "THE SEARCH FOR ELUSIVE VIRGINIA COASTAL PLAIN BURIAL MOUNDS:
AN EXAMPLE FROM KING WILLIAM COUNTY," by E. RANDOLPH TURNER and HERBRT G. FISHER, VRCA Quarterly Bulletin Archaeological Society, Volume 39, Number 4, pages 177-181. (Virginia Research Center for Archaeology, now Center for Archaelogical Research; William and Mary University). Page 178: "Such a relocation probably also would have involved removal of bodies of esteemed individuals in mortuary temples originally situated farther east to avoid depredations during English raids. The two mounds near Manquin are directly north of the likely settlement attributable to Opechancanough yet..."