ROWNEY families in Beds. in 1600's

[marc roberts]

I've located who I believe to be the earliest ROWNEY name bearers in Bedfordshire OPR. The details are following, but there is a simple question at the end:

John ROWNEY with wife Judith who were having children in the parish of Langford from 1691-1711.

Mary ROWNEY who married Robert FORTESCUE (or FOSCUE) in Potton in 1686, they had two children there, then Mary was buried there in 1689.

Elizabeth ROWNEY ("wife of John ROWNEY") buried in Biggleswade in 1706.

Elizabeth ROWNEY married Henry HALL in 1708 in Biggleswade. They have three children there between 1709 and 1715.

Braunston (or Braumston) ROWNEY marr. Elizabeth HUCKLE in Sutton in 1723 and they have children there between 1723 and 1739.

Jonathan ROWNEY marr. Mary BIRD in Potton in 1729, then apparently remarries (Mrs Frances WAGSTAFF) in 1731 and they are having children in Potton up until 1740.

The naming of children suggests Jonathan and Braunston were related.

John ROWNEY marr. Elizabeth HEWITT in Blunham in 1719, they have a son in Sandy in 1721 and then John apparently dies and was buried in Sandy in 1725. Elizabeth is buried in Sandy as a widow in 1739.

Another John ROWNEY and an Elizabeth ROWNEY are both buried in Biggleswade in 1737. They are thought to have been the married son and unmarried daughter of John and Judith (above), but this is not certain.

***

Looking at all of the above it seems entirely possible that a single ROWNEY family living somewhere around Biggleswade in the mid 1600's could be responsible for bringing the relatively uncommon ROWNEY surname to Bedfordshire. The parishes with known early ROWNEY presence in rough chronological order seem to be Potton, Langford, Biggleswade, Blunham (one marriage), Sandy, Sutton, Dunton, Northill, and Southill.

I was hoping that someone with access to records from the 1600's such as Poll Tax or Hearth Tax, may be able to check to see whether any ROWNEY families/households appear, and if so, where and how many? I'm not sure how the records are organized, so a search of the above parishes would hopefully be sufficient to answer the question, although a countywide result would obviously be more conclusive.

Any information at all on the very early ROWNEY families in Bedfordshire would be invaluable.

Many thanks and best wishes,
Marc Roberts

[bedfordshire boy]

Fortunately the 1671 Hearth Tax Return is indexed, but unfortunately there are no Rowneys in Beds. The closest is Rowl(e)y, of which there were three, in Eaton Socon, Luton, and Clophill, which doesn't look like the same family.

A2A has a few hits including in 1722 a  Recognizance
John Rowney of Girtford: "for striking John Fryer several times with a great stick." This is probably the John who married in Blunham and had children in Sandy (Girtford is a hamlet in Sandy)

David

[bedfordshire boy]

That part of Beds is close to Cambs and Hunts. I see that "Bransom" Rowney was buried in Sutton in 1764. The IGI shows a number of "Branson Rowning(e)"s in Little Gransden Cambs in the 1600s which might be worth looking at a bit more closely. Sutton is only 6 miles from Lt Gransden, and Potton is even closer

David

[cathymcc]

Marc

There was a William ROWNEY of Langford [in the Biggleswade Hundred] chosen by lot in Feb 1763 to serve for King & Country - too early for that American War thing?  Maybe Ireland? 

Please see Bedfordshire Archives?  Have you sought Wills, Marc?  If you ask the archivist they will be able to tell you more

cathy

[marc roberts]

Thank you very much for checking that for me, David. I'm familiar with the ROWLEY families you mention because they present as a potential complication, but to date I haven't identified any cross-overs that I can recall, so it looks like my ROWNEYs weren't in the 1671 Hearth Tax returns. Can you tell me please whether the 1671 returns included the names of the occupants of all houses, or just the owner of the houses (who presumably paid the tax). I understand that in some cases only the owners who paid the taxes were recorded, but in other cases even the poorest families may have been recorded if they occupied a house.

The possible Branson ROWNING(E) connection in Little Gransden you found looks very interesting indeed. I will certainly check that out very carefully. I know some of the Langford ROWNEY family found their way to Gamlingay for brief time, and others drifted across that way later too.

I've also just noticed a submitted IGI entry which must be fairly recent showing a George ROWNEY marrying a Judith in Langford in 1664. I don't recall seeing this in the OPR, and the lack of any specific date makes me skeptical.

Thanks again for your help,

Marc

[marc roberts]

Thanks very much for that, Cathy.

I've only identified two William ROWNEYs who seem to have been alive and able for such service; one was the son of Jonathan of Potton, who married in Potton in 1766, aged 26, raised his family and died there in 1790; the other was a grandson of John and Judith of Langford, who was married in 1758 at age 27 and seems to have been living with his wife and having children at Southill between 1759 and 1775, and who died in 1797 (I'm not sure where). It would seem, if it was one of those two men, that they didn't spend too long away from home in their service, so they probably didn't go far.

I've looked a few times at A2A over the years and found a couple of very interesting ROWNEY records (including the one David mentioned - thank you David). One record (Susannah ROWNEY of Goldington) you pointed out a year or so ago, Cathy, was my ancestor, and with that land title information I was (with the help of Peter and Trevor at the Records Office) able to track down the location of her cottage (now long gone) when I visited England briefly in 2006. For that I am very thankful indeed. I'm living in Australia and was able to make some very interesting discoveries in the few days I had available in Bedford, mostly thanks to the particularly helpful staff at the Records Office there. I did get a will for Jonathan ROWNEY of Potton, but unfortunaltely it doesn't shed any light on his origins or possible connections to other families in the area.

Many thanks,

Marc

[bedfordshire boy]

The hearth tax return listed occupiers, as opposed to owners, so it's akin to a census listing heads of households. This return lists separately under each parish those occupiers who were exempted from paying the tax.

The 1664 Langford marriage entry on the IGI is a fairly typical member submission (the wishful thinking variety) - there's no such marriage in the Langford transcript (which has compared the parish register against the bishop's transcript)

As the IGI for Beds is virtually complete pre 1812, if the earliest Rowney/Rowning and variations was 1686 then it seems they must have turned up from outside. With Potton and Lt Gransden being only 5 miles apart there must be a reasonable chance that the Lt Gransden family crossed into Beds where the pastures were inevitably greener.

I've just realised that a Great Gransden, Hunts, Rowney married my great uncle, also from Gt Gransden, but I've not researched her at all.

David

[marc roberts]

Thank you again, David. I guess that means we can say with a fair degree of confidence that the ROWNEY family were not living in Bedfordshire in 1671. That is very helpful indeed.

It is curious that the "ROWNEY" variation on the name seems to overwhelmingly prevail in Bedfordshire, but the "ROWNING" version seems equally predominant in Cambridgeshire.

Who was your great uncle in Great Gransden? I'll keep him in mind.

Marc

[cathymcc]

Rowney/Rowley are they the same?  And then other spellings?

Try ''row" at Beds Archives and also at the UK National Archives

cathy