William ROCKWELL
Biography

William Rockwell

ORIGIN: Dorchester, Dorsetshire
MIGRATION: 1630 on Mary & John
FIRST RESIDENCE: Dorchester
REMOVES: Windsor 1638

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: The claim has been made that William Rockwell was made deacon of the Dorchester congregation at the time of the sailing of the Mary & John early in 1630, but the evidence for this has not been found. Certainly Rockwell was performing the duties of a deacon in his earliest days in New England. On 3 September 1633 "[t]here is administration granted to William Gaylord & William Rockwell, of the goods and chattels of John Russell, of Dorchester, who deceased August 26th, 1633" [ MBCR 1:107]; this sort of service was frequently provided by the deacons. Also, prior to the establishment of selectmen in Dorchester, many of the town orders were signed by JOHN MAVERICK , JOHN WARHAM , WILLIAM GAYLORD and William Rockwell - in other words, the two ministers of the congregation and the two deacons. William Rockwell would certainly have retained his membership in the church, and presumably his position of deacon, for the short time of his residence in Windsor as well.


FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 18 May 1631 [ MBCR 1:79, 366].


EDUCATION: Signed his name to Dorchester town orders [ DTR 1-7].


OFFICES: Signed Dorchester town orders either as selectman or deacon, 21 January 1632/ 3 to 2 June 1634 [ DTR 1-7]. Jury of life and death in the case of Austen Bratcher, 9 November 1630 [ MBCR 1:81].


ESTATE: On 17 December 1635 it was ordered that William Rockwell have half an acre of ground next to Mr. Stoughton's near the fish house "to build him a house with condition that if he go away and leave the plantation, he leave the said house and ground to the plantation in paying him the charge" [ DTR 13]. On 27 June 1636 he shared a marsh lot with Nicholas Upsall [ DTR 17]. On 5 July 1636 William Rockwell received eight acres added to his former lot [ DTR 18]. On 2 January 1637/ 8 it was ordered that "Nicholas Upsall and Will Rockwell are to take what is theirs where their eight acres was granted and none elsewhere and that equally betwixt them" [ DTR 26]. In the meadow beyond Naponset William Rockwell had lot #75 of four acres [ DTR 322].


In the Windsor land inventory on 4 February 1640[1], William Rockwell had "granted from the plantation an homelot nine acres"; eight acres in the Great Meadow; forty acres in the Northwest Field (annotated "this sold to Mr. Horsford"); and over the Great River a parcel twenty rods by three miles, adjacent to a parcel ten rods by eightscore rods [ WiLR 1:69]. (This entry was made posthumously, and probably as something of an afterthought, as it appears below the entry for ROGER WILLIAMS , rather than having a page to itself.)


BIRTH: Baptized Fitzhead, Somersetshire, 6 February 1590/ 1, son of John and Honor (Newton) Rockwell [Sir Anthony Richard Wagner, Pedigree of Rockwell and Allied Families: Extracted from the Records of the College of Arms (London, n.d.), p. 2]. (Other sources give the year of baptism as 1591/ 2 [Rockwell Gen 188-92; M&JCH 17:131-33].)


DEATH: Buried at Windsor 15 May 1640 [ Loomis Rec 1:50; Grant 79 (gives only year of death)].


MARRIAGE: Holy Trinity, Dorchester, Dorsetshire, 14 April 1624 Susan Capen [ Dorset Marr 7:9], daughter of BERNARD CAPEN . She married (2) Windsor 29 May 1645 as his second wife MATTHEW GRANT [ Goodwin Anc 106]. She died at Windsor 13 November 1666 [ CTVR 22].


SOURCE: The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III -- NEHGS



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