Our Rowland side of the family tree includes families who emigrated to Virginia and North Carolina — and even Massachusetts and New York — before the Revolutionary War, then moved to Tennessee and Kentucky through the 1840s. While some family branches ended up moving further westward over the years, my direct lines of descent all stayed in Tennessee and Kentucky. (I guess they got tired of moving.)
It’s a lot harder to cluster and characterize these families than our Gough side because they came to America a long time ago and many records from that time have been lost or destroyed. One way is to group them is by why they came to America.
Some families came in search of religious freedom, primarily to then-colonies in the northeast:
- Edward Fitzrandolph came to Plymouth Colony in 1630 and eventually moved to New Jersey where his children became Presbyterians and Quakers.
- In Plymouth Colony, Edward married Elizabeth Blossom, daughter of English Puritans who sailed to Massachusetts from Holland when Elizabeth was nine years old.
- Henry Mershon was brought to New York about 1685 by his father, Henri Marchand; they were Huguenots seeking freedom from religious persecution in Catholic France.
At least two (and quite probably others) came as indentured servants, who worked for a specified period of time (generally 7 years) often, but not always, for the person who paid their passage, and then were freed from their indenture.
- Richard Windrow arrived about 1762 from Ormskirk, Lancashire, England and in 1769 was freed from his indenture in Louisa County, VA.
- Ralph Blankenship’s 1686 passage to Virginia was paid by a wealthy aristocrat; Ralph may well have been an indentured servant.
We know the names (but not the places of origin) of several other immigrant ancestors but don’t know what pushed or pulled them to America.
- John Puckett was in Virginia at least by 1665, when he received a land patent in Henrico County; he may have arrived in Elizabeth City County (now Hampton Roads) in 1637.
- John’s wife Anne may be Anne Jeffryes/Jefferson, but we don’t know whether she and John were married in England or in Virginia.
- William and Sarah Thrasher arrived in the mid-1760s, living first near Harper’s Ferry in what is now West Virginia, according to their son Isaac’s War of 1812 pension application.
- Richard Womack received a grant of 460 acres in 1672 in Virginia; his daughter Anne married John Puckett’s son William in 1676.
- Rev. John Moore was living in Middelburgh (now Brooklyn), Long Island by 1652.
- Ralph Hunt was first recorded in Middelburgh tax rolls in 1656 though he may well have arrived there earlier.
Most of our other family lines are mysteries in terms of when they first arrived and where they came from. The Rowland Families List page includes all our family groups (father and/or mother) that we have documented so far.