Council Chamber, WhitehaH, Oct. 19, 1677.

Report of [Committee for Tr.\de and Plantations] to THE King. That the Articles of Peace made between the Lieut. Governor of Virginia and the Indian Princes their Neighbours, namely the Queen of Pamunkey, the King of the Nottoways, John West, son to the Queen of Pamtmkey, the Queen of Waonoke and the King of the Nancimond Indians be printed and copies sent to Virginia for the better pubhcation and observance thereof. Signed by Anglesey, Essex, Craven and J. Williamson. Indorsed "Read in Council Oct. 20*^ 1677 and ordered."

(Colonial Papers 2 pp)

Source: Virginia Historical Society. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Volume XXII. (January 1914) "Virginia in 1677," Abstract: MacDonald and De Jarnette papers, (colonial papers 1677: 2 pp) published:Richmond, Virginia. House of the Society. (page 363). Virginia State Library.

Her birth date is uncertain. Some say circa 1595. Widely varying theoretical dates are given in internet postings by professional and amateur researchers.

She accompanied Pocahontas on her trip to England in 1616.

Mother of Toby West (Chief Totopotomoy of the Pamunkey) by Thomas West, 3rd Lord de la Warr, circa 1616.

Her Powhatan name was Matachanna. Some family trees and the book "Shawnee Heritage" by Don Green give her name as Rachel Matachanna Powhatan. Early West family historian Leonard West theorized her Christian name was Rachel Powhatan, based on the frequency of the name Rachel among the Croshaw descendants. (ref., Shawnee Heritage by Don Greene; also Monteith Family and the Potomac Indians by William Deyo).

William Deyo, official Pamunkey tribal historian, said, "Rachel Powhatan would not have been a sister of Pocahontas but a cousin (born about 1600). For Rachel to have the bloodline of the matrilineal royal succession, she had to have been a daughter or granddaughter of Powhatan's sister, whom I believe was the wife of the Great King of Patawomeck. When the King of Patawomeck called Opitchipam his brother, it was because he was actually his brother by marriage rather than his real brother, as by the words of Powhatan, himself, he only had 3 brothers by his mother (Opitchipam, Opechancanough, and Keckatough)."

Tribal historians say she later married Col. Joseph Croshaw, burgess, and became the mother of several of his children, including possibly (as some say) Unity Croshaw who married John West II, nephew of Thomas West, Lord de la Warr, and first cousin of Toby West. (See Shawnee Heritage by Don Greene.)

Death date is UNKNOWN, but 1646 according to several family trees on Ancestry.com (sources not shown).

SHE IS NOT KNOWN to have been buried on the Pamunkey reservation which was officially established as the permanent home of the Pamunkey tribe as early as 1648, but since the remains of earlier Pamunkey leaders Chief Opchanacanough and the great Powhatan were indeed brought to the burial mound on this site and interred here as legend says, with the remains of other tribal leaders, and her son Totopotomoy is here as well, then it is possible Toby West's mother Rachel Croshaw could be here, too.

DNA RESULTS

DNA results for descendants of Unity Crowshaw West show varying degrees of Native American ancestry. One descendant shows .51 percent Amerindian while another descendant shows 3 percent.