Rowney Family Tree

Luke's date of birth was provided as a rough estimation of c.1740 with his burial and marriage details. This estimation may have been based on a possible age given at his time of burial. His wife's age would seem to suggest an older age would have been more appropriate as a guess in the absence of other information. There was a Luke POULTON christened in the village of Shrivenham, in 1741, with parents Thomas and Elizabeth POULTON. Shrivenham is situated just a couple of miles to the east of the large Wiltshire town of Swindon, across the Berkshire border. If Luke's estimated age was informed in some way then this baptism information seems quite plausible, and I've decided to accept it as a speculative point of reference for the time being.

In 1762, Luke married Catherine CLERK in her home village of Oaksey, located a few miles to the west of Swindon, in Wiltshire. Luke is believed to have been around 20 years old and Catherine around 30 years old when they married. Catherine's family had historical links to Swindon, so this also adds some further credulity to Luke's possible birth to the east of that town.

Luke and Catherine settled in Oaksey and raised their family there. Only three of their children have been definitely identified to date. All were christened in Oaksey; William who was born around 1766; Job who was born around 1768; and Hannah who was born around 1771. There is a strong possibility that there might have been other children, and some suggested candidates identified from 1841 census data living in the immediate area could include; Thomas POULTON (b. 1767) of Somerford, Wiltshire; and Charles POULTON (d.1806) of Cricklade, Wiltshire. Both these men left descendants in the area who seem to have continued close contact with the family of Luke and Catherine's presumed son William who settled at Crudwell, Wiltshire. Their son Job's family settled nearby across the border in Gloucestershire, and their presence there may explain the movement of later generations of the family into that area.

Catherine is believed to have died around 1773 when she would have been about 40 years of age. She would have left Luke with a relatively young family to care for. It is not known whether he remarried.

Luke died in 1786 when he was around 44 years of age. He was buried in the churchyard at Oaksey.

NOTE: The bottom line with Luke's family and it's connections is that there is some quite convincing circumstantial evidence suggesting family bonds between the POULTON families from around Swindon and Malmesbury in Wiltshire, but little firm evidence has been sighted to date which can confirm specific relationships. So the family structure provided should be regarded as a hypothetical work-in-progress, with inevitable errors large and small to be hopefully sorted out by the further accumulation of information.