Pocahontas had a relationship with an English settlement.
Kent Fort was a fort and settlement located near on southern Kent Island in colonial Virginia and later Maryland , and was the first English settlement within the boundaries of present-day Maryland and the third oldest permanent English settlement in the United States , after Jamestown , Virginia ( 1607 ) and Plymouth , Massachusetts ( 1620 ) . Pocahontas ( born Matoaka , known as Amonute , 1596 -- 1617 ) was a Native American woman notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown , Virginia . In a well-known historical anecdote , she is said to have saved the life of a captive of the Native Americans , the Englishman John Smith , in 1607 by placing her head upon his own when her father raised his war club to execute him . When the opportunity arose for her to return to her people , she chose to remain with the English . In April 1614 , she married tobacco planter John Rolfe , and in January 1615 , bore their son , Thomas Rolfe .