Although I agree that the figure is too high, I suspect that the actual
numbers may be higher than what the 19th century historians were aware
of (or willing to acknowledge). A Spanish document (dated few years
after 1607) claimed that a number of Englishmen had joined the Indians
and "married" native women. This is a subject of debate. As mentioned by
Tom Apple on this list, there was the 1638 marriage of John Basse to the
daughter of the Chief of the Nansemonds. There was also a marriage of
Maryland's Englishman Giles Brent to Kittamaqund around this time. Other
undefined relationships also occurred, like the case of Cockacoeske,
Queen of the Pamunkey, who had a son John West by an English colonel. 

In spite of Governor Spotswood's observation that he hardly knew any
English person married to a Native American spouse, the assimilation of
a number of Native Americans into English society did occur in greater
numbers (in order to survive)towards the end of the 17th century  The
Queen of Appomattox, if I recall correctly from my research, requested
that she and her people live among the English in the latter part of the
17th century.  A "John Kiquotan" of Surry County may have been married
to an Englishwoman. There were 17th century Native American families
with English surnames as well as other records indicating other
English-Indian marriages.  I've seen at least one court record where
officials gave "permission" to a local Englishman to marry an Native
American woman, and other similar marriages (or relationships) have been
implied through indirect inference in documents. For example, one
Christian convert married first an Englishman and then a Frenchman at
Manakintown. The truth about the  figures or percentages may actually
lie somewhere between this formerly believed "small number" and this
forty percent. 

On another subject related to this very topic, we know that laws were
passed to prevent marriages between whites and non-whites in colonial
times. With Native Americans, were these laws passed to prevent any
future growth in this direction or to stop what was then becoming a
common practice? 

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