Weroance[pronunciation?] is an Algonquian word meaning leader or commander among the Powhatan confederacy of the Virginia coast and Chesapeake Bay region. Weroances were under a paramount chief called Powhatan. The Powhatan Confederacy, encountered by the colonists of Jamestown and adjacent area of the Virginia Colony beginning in 1607, spoke an Algonquian language. Each tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy was led by its own weroance. Most foreign writers who have come across a weroance only did so on a special occasion. This is the case because a foreigner's presence was special. John Smith noted that there are few differences between weroances and their subjects.[1]
In older texts, especially from the time of the early Jamestown settlers, spelling was not standardized, so the following spellings are used in different texts:
- weeroance
- weroance
- werowance
- werowans
- wyroance
- wyrounce
- wyrounnces
A weroansqua is a female ruler. Spellings of this word also vary.
- ^ Rountree, Helen C. (2005). Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough : three Indian lives changed by Jamestown. Charlottesville (Va.): University of Virginia press. p. Chapter 2. ISBN 0-8139-2323-9.