THE TWIN ROWLEYS

westmohney
Dec 3, 2020
4 min read

The 4th Day of the 7th Month 1639, Mr. Rogers' plantation shalbee called Rowley

Rowley, Yorkshire, England

We begin the history of our numerous Rowley families with an account of still another reverend who found himself in hot water back in jolly old England. Ezekiel Rogers graduated M.A. from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1604. In 1631, he was given the post of reverend in the town of Rowley, County Yorkshire, England. After seventeen years of faithful service, he found himself dismissed from his post for "refusing to read from that accursed book, that allowed sports on God’s Holy Sabbath."

The Book of Sports outlined the many English recreations, such as "dancing, archery, leaping and vaulting" that were permissible on Sunday. When King Charles I ordered all English clergy to read from the book on the pulpit, the Puritans, who adhered to strict observance of the Sabbath, took this as a direct affront to their religion.

Note: The Book of Sports was written specifically by the Anglican Church to cause problems for Puritan clergy who wanted to stress absolutely no activity on the Sabbath for their parishioners.

Stripped of his post in Rowley and believing that the "future of Puritanism was at stake," Ezekiel made plans, with twenty other Yorkshire families, to leave for New England.

Of those twenty families, six are our relatives. All came from Yorkshire County, and all lived within 15 miles of Ezekiel's church in Rowley. Those families were the Brighams, Crosbys, Elithorpes, Haseltines, Swans and Stickneys. When Reverend Rogers left for the promised land, the Haseltines, Crosbys, and Elithorpes are listed with him on a ship named "John" which sailed in the summer of 1638.

The Stickneys, Swans, and Sebastian Brigham are not listed on the "John's roster." However, since those families names are not found on the rosters of any other ship that came to the Americas, most probably an error (common among the early ship rosters) omitted them and they did, in fact, come to New England on the "John."

Note: The ship "John" which carried Reverend Rogers and some of our ancestors to America was also notable for bringing the first printing press to North America. The owner of this press, another defrocked minister, sadly died on the voyage over. Fortuitously, his widow married the president of Harvard College and the press found its newest and best home at that hallowed institution. This press was the one used to print The Freeman’s Oath, a document “that every man over 20 years of age, and six months a householder, had to swear to in order to become a citizen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.”

Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts

Upon their arrival in the late summer of 1638, Reverend Rogers and his troop wintered in Salem and then, upon the advice of ministers in Massachusetts, chose a place by the sea (and the salt marshes!) between Ipswich and Newbury.

Purple = Salem Orange = Ipswich Red = Rowley Blue = Newbury

Reverend Rogers' congregation paid Ipswich and Newbury £800 for the land. By the time the first foundations had been laid for their new community, the original twenty families had grown to sixty. The name of their newfound settlement is no surprise: "Mr. Roger's plantation shalbee called Rowley."

weavers

Of the early settlers in Rowley, Edward Johnson, in his Wonder-working Providence says: "...the town of Rowley in Massachusetts was founded by an untypical group of English Puritans who came from the East Riding of Yorkshire, and had been drawn into the great migration by the charisma of their East Anglican minister. Their home in the north of England had been the center for the manufacture of coarse linen and hemp textiles by a work force that consisted largely of children."

The new settlement of Rowley, Massachusetts, rapidly developed the same sort of industry that had existed in Rowley, Yorkshire. Reverend Rogers' new town had the distinction of being the first in the colonies to fabricate cloth.

the life of Rowley

I believe no one could improve on the idyllic life in Rowley pictured by J.D. Kingsbury in his Memorial History of Bradford. He writes:

"...they settle at Rowley, sixty families. There is a pleasant little village down near the sea, where the great elms have cast a century's shade. The weavers have erected a mill, and have woven the first cotton in the colonies. There walks among those colonists a man of devout spirit, great dignity of character and an indomitable will. It is Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, leader of the colony, pastor of the flock, a non-conformist.

"The Hasseltines came over with Rogers. They were probably hardy, vigorous men with little education. John (11U) could not write his name. They are herdsmen. Rowley plantation has sent its herds into the forests, and these men, with flint-lock musket and ten foot pikes, guard them from the wolf and bear and the Indians who prowl in the wilderness. Ann Hasseltine (10GGM), the first bride of Rowley, will spread out her linen on the grass to whiten in rain and sun; and the thick warm flannel from the loom will be folded and laid away for winter use, for Robert (10GGF) will need it when the winter days come, and he must guard those herds in winter's cold as well as summer's heat."

Note: The Haseltines who settled in Rowley mentioned in Kingsbury's book are our grandfather Robert Haseltine (10GGF) and his brother John (11U).

sister cities

The village of Rowley Yorkshire and the town of Rowley Massachusetts still enjoy close relations to this day. In 1994 the people of Rowley, Mass. gave to St. Peter’s Church in Rowley Yorkshire a stained glass window to honor the memory of their founder who was minister to both towns. In the right upper corner of the window is the present day First Congregational Church in Massachusetts which was established in 1639 by Ezekiel Rogers. In the left lower corner is St. Peter's Church in England, built in the 13th century. And can't we just imagine that the colonists pictured in that stained glass window are Robert (10GGF) and John (11U) Haseltine with their wives.