Rowley – Surname Saturday

Brown-Sanford-Parsons-Maben-Rowley Line
By Don Taylor

Name Origin[i]

Family Search and Ancestry indicate that “Rowley” is a habitational name from many places in England, including Staffordshire, Devon, Durham, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, and Essex. Forebears agrees and goes further to suggest it relates to a parish in East Riding of Yorkshire[ii] and a parish in Staffordshire. The surname does take on other spellings including Roley, Rolley, Rollie, and Rowlee.

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Geographical

There are about 47,000 people in the world who bear the Rowley surname. It is most prevalent in the United States (over 20,000), and the highest Density is in Guernsey. Guernsey is a self-governing dependency of the British Crown in the Channel Islands off the coast of France.

In the US, nearly 2,000 live in California, and it is most common in Utah, where 1,700 folks have the surname.

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Direct Rowley Ancestors

• 5^th Great-grandmother: 207 – Electa Rowley (1783-1830) [iii]
• 6^th Great-grandfather: 414 –  Wicks Weeks Rowley (1760-1826)
• 7^th Great-grandfather: 828 – Nathan Rowley (1726-1806)
• 8^th Great-grandfather: 1656 – Moses Rowley (1705-1779)
• 9^th Great-grandfather: 3312 – Nathan Rowley  (1664-1742)
• 10^th Great-grandfather: 6624 – Moses Rowley (1627-1705)

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My Rowleys in History

Wicks Weeks Rowley was a patriot in the Revolutionary War and a private in the New York Militia. He is Patriot #A099352 in the DAR.

My earliest known and my immigrant ancestor is Moses Rowley (1627-1705). He came to Plymouth Colony in 1632.

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Locations of my Rowley Ancestors

• British Colonial America, Connecticut Colony, Hartford
• British Colonial America, Connecticut Colony, Tolland, Hebron
• British Colonial America, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Barnstable
• British Colonial America, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bristol
• British Colonial America, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth
• England, Norfolk
• United States, Connecticut, Middlesex, Chatham.
• United States, Michigan, Washtenaw, Saline
• United States, New York, Columbia, Claverack
• United States, New York, Greene, Lexington

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My Rawley Descendants

I have 754 known descendants of Moses Rowley in my tree: 122 Browns, 17 Bergs, and 17 Parsons. I have written about the descendants of Electa Rowley, but not her yet.

• 4^th Great-grandmother: 103.  Deborah Buel Maben (1805-1874)
• 3^rd Great-grandmother: 51.  Mary E Parsons (1828-1888)
• 2^nd Great-grandmother:  25.  Marion Sanford (1846- c. 1895)
• 1^st Great-grandfather: 12. Arthur Durwood Brown (1869-1928)
• Grandfather: 6. Clifford Brown | aka Richard Earl Durand | aka Richard Earl Brown (1903-1990)

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Sources

Ancestry – Don Taylor’s Roberts-Brown tree on Ancestry, accessed 21 Feb 2024.

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Endnotes

[i] Common surname origins include:

• Occupations (such as “Farmer.”
• Physical characteristics (such as “Short”).
• Habitational. Place, or landmarks names(such as “Hill”).
• Patronymics, derived from father’s name (such as Johnson from ”son of John”).

[ii] Rowley, Massachusetts, was named after Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire where Reverend Ezekiel Rogers was the pastor for twenty years. – Wikipedia-Rowley, Massachusetts.

[iii] I have not had the opportunity to personally research this individual or her ancestors. As such, their names and dates are tentative and/or speculative.