This is a brick wall. Emmanuel Rouse was supposedly born in Rhode Island in 1673. He married a Sarah Long in 1711 at the age of 38; which would indicate that there was probably another marriage before that. It has been claimed that he married an Ann Harris in 1693 at Clyst Hyden, Devon. This would indicate that he was living in England, probably for some time, after being born in the colonies, but I can find no information on his father, which one would assume should have been named on the marriage documents, at least those from England. This is a very strange person. He was listed as a ‘cooper’ by occupation, but was apparently educated, and was quite wealthy for a colonial, and owned a lot of land in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, I suspect that making barrels would not pay that well. Apparently, he seems to have had reason and means to return to England for some time in his youth and early adulthood, but that is assuming that he really was born in America; I have not personally seen documentation of that.
It has been speculated that he is somehow connected to William Rouse the English privateer in service to the Netherlands in the 1630s because his money, even his existence seems convoluted, or Rouse-Mudberry (who I believe were already extinct), or somehow connected to John Rouse the Quaker from Barbados. I find it unlikely at this point that he was a member of the Dutch branch up from New York because he owned property in Massachusetts which had little tolerance of other Englishmen much less Dutch. I am probably deluding myself that simply finding Emmanuel would open the floodgates to the thousand years back to Normandy, but just nailing this mystery person to the right branch of the family would be a start.
His son was named James, born 24 May 1715 in East Greenwich, Kent, R.I., who had Benjamin born 5 March 1737 East Greenwich, Kent, Colony of Rhode Island, who had George Washington Rouse born 1777 who moved to New York.
