William ROCKWELL
Biography

"William Rockwell, founder of the Rockwell family in America, was born on February 6, 1591, at Fitzhead, Somersetshire, England, the son of John Rockwell and Honor Newton, who were married at Fitzhead on July 19th, 1585. Besides William, John and Honor Rockwell had three other sons, Richard, John, and Roger, and a daughter, Joan.

According to the English history of the family, the Rockwells descend from Raoul or Ralph de Rocheville, a Norman Baron who crossed over into England with Queen Mathilda, the granddaughter of William the Conqueror, and aided her in her struggles against King Stephen to secure the throne of England for herself and her son Henry. When Henry II became King in 1154, he rewarded Ralph de Rocheville with 'three knight's fees' of land."

Source: Three centuries of the Rockwell family in America : 1630-1930, page 9.

"William Rockwell grew up in Somerset County, one of the fairest and richest shires in England. The climate is mild and the land fertile... In William Rockwell's time, Somerset was strongly Puritan... William Rockwell married Susanna Capen, daughter of Bernard and Joan Purchase Capen, on April 14, 1624, at Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester, in the county of Dorset. "
Source: Three centuries of the Rockwell family in America : 1630-1930, pages 10-14.


William and Susan were married at Holy Trinty Church in Dorchester County Dorset England by John White on 14 April 1624. He was a deacon in the church formed by Mr. Warhem in the New Hospital at Plymouth, England. On March 20, 1630, they sailed to New England on the "Mary and John" from Plymouth and landed at Watertown MA. He applied for freemanship on Oct. 19, 1630 and took the oath of fidelity May 18, 1631 in the new settlement of Dorchester. He had land granted to him near Savin Hill, Dorchester June 27, 1636. In the spring of 1637 he moved to Windsor, CT, where he built a house 2 miles from the original settlers.

William was the son of John Rockwell and Honor Newton

Susan was the daughter of Bernard Capen (c1562, Dorchester, Dorset, England - 8 Nov 1638, Dorchester, MA, age 76 -- shoemaker who came to America in 1633 on "The Discovery of London") and Joan Purchase (c1578 - 26 March 1653, age 73), daughter of Oliver Purchase.

Mary and John Passenger Lists

The Mary & John left England in March of 1630 and arrived seventy days later, on May 30, 1630, at the mouth of what is now Boston harbor. The ship's captain refused to sail up the Charles river as planned, because he feared running the ship aground in waters that he had no charts for. He instead left the passengers in a desolate locale miles from their intended destination. The settlers were forced to transport 150,000 pounds of livestock, provisions and equipment 20 miles overland to their final destination.

William Rockwell 1590, age 39, Dorchester, Dorset

Susan Capen (w) 1602, age 28, Dorchester, Dorset

Joan Rockwell (d) 1625, age 5, Dorchester, Dorset

John Rockwell (s) 1627, age 2, Dorchester, Dorset

The pilgrims sailed to America in the Mayflower in 1620 and planted a colony at Plymouth. Ten years later it was still small and isolated.

In 1625, Charles I became King of England. He was very unpopular and was beheaded nineteen years later.

By 1630, so many English had become discontented with Charles' monarchy that it led to the "Great Migration" of that year with many families leaving England to make their way to the freedom for their religious beliefs that they hoped to find in America.

The first group to leave that year sailed in ten ships that made up the Winthrop fleet under the command of Gov. John Winthrop. These ten ships carried one thousand men, women, and children plus their cattle and provisions.

Then on March 20, three weeks after the Winthrop fleet sailed, the Mary and John, a Mayflower-type ship under the command of Captain Squib, sailed from Plymouth in Devon to what is today Boston Harbor. The 400 ton ship carried 140 passengers, their livestock, and 75 tons of provisions. They made landfall on May 30.

The Mary and John was twice the tonnage of the Mayflower. The top deck carried livestock, the ship's galley, and the captain's and crew's quarters. The second deck carried the passengers fitted into its space of 25 by 60 feet, barely 10 square feet per person. The hold carried a minimum of rock ballast and the provisions. Interestingly, the ship had no steering wheel. Instead, it used a rudder, and the captain called out directions from the top deck to the helmsman in the bottom aft of the ship.

The man who recruited passengers for both the Winthrop fleet and the Mary and John was the Rev. John White, pastor of the Holy Trinity and St. Peter's churches in Dorchester. He concealed the passengers' Puritan connections for their own protection. Rev. White also helped form the Massachusetts Bay Company, having never traveled himself to America.

Most of the Mary and John passengers came from the areas of Dorcet, Somerset, and Devon in the southeast of England. Many came from the cities of Dorcetshire, Bridport, Exeter and Crewkerne. As they arrived in Dorcetshire, they were housed in the new hospital, an alms house and spent their last day there fasting and praying. The next day, March 20, they set sail for America.

The ship's contract with Captain Squib specified that he enter the harbor at the mouth of the Charles River and carry the passengers up the river before landing, but the captain was unfamiliar with the rock- and island-strewn inlet and landed the party far away from the harbor. He was brought up on charges when he returned to England, but the outcome is unknown.

The passengers made their way to their destination by land, eventually spreading out to settle in Dorcet, Massachusetts and Windsor, Connecticut. Some 150 years later, their descendents began a new migration to the plains of America and on to the west.

William and Susannah had a daughter, Ruth Rockwell who married Christoper Huntington. NOTE: The Rockwells are ancestors of Ulysses S. Grant through Ruth Rockwell and Christopher Huntington. Ruth and Christopher's son John married Abigail Lathrop and had a daughter, Martha. Martha Huntington married Noah Grant. They had a son, Noah Grant. He married Susannah Delano. They had a son Jesse Root Grant who married Hannah Simpson. Their son was Ulysses Simpson Grant.

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