Rowney Family Tree

The association of George and Hannah with this family is speculative based on information from the IGI Database. Their ancestry is also speculative. George is believed to have been christened in the village of Gamlingay, in Cambridgeshire, in 1758, when he was around 2 years of age. While George was still young, his parents are thought to have moved from Gamlingay to live at Kempston, just a few miles west of the city of Bedford, in Bedfordshire.

George is understood to have worked for over thirty years as a freeman for a farmer named Mr. SHARP from Bedford. This would suggest that he must have began this term of employment sometime before 1780. He was later the foreman on the SHARP property.

George married Hannah HALL in March 1786 in the village of Goldington, situated just a few miles south-east of Bedford. George would have been around 30 years of age at that time. Hannah was 28 years old, and seems to have lived in the parish of St Paul in Bedford. They appear to have baptised all of their children in St Paul after their marriage. George's second cousin, Edward ROWNEY, was also possibly living at Goldington around that time. Edward's father died in May 1786. It is not known whether George and Edward may have had some kind of collaboration around Goldington. The witnesses at George and Hannah's marriage were Catherine BRUCE and John COOK. John COOK was himself married to an Ann ROWNEY at Goldington in November 1786. Ann was the daughter of William ROWNEY and Ann BIRD of Potton, in Bedfordshire. John's brother Thomas COOK also married one of Ann's sisters at Goldington. The confluence of ROWNEY families around Goldington at this time is remarkable but as yet unexplained.

George and Hannah had eight known children who all appear to have been baptised in the city of Bedford. All except one was baptised in the parish of St Paul. Their first born, Thomas, was born around 1786. He was followed by Ann, who was born in 1788, and Mary Ann , who was born in 1790 and was the only child who was baptised at St Cuthbert's, in Bedford. Mary Ann died in 1792 when she was just 15 months old. She was buried in the churchyard at Goldington. In 1793, another son, William, was born, then son George arrived in 1795, James in 1798, John in 1800, and finally, their last child, Samuel, was born in 1803.

Their daughter Ann was married to a former army Sergeant Major named John GREEN at St Pauls in Bedford in 1808. John and Ann settled for a time at Deal, in Kent, before emigrating to South Africa in 1819.

In March 1810, George and Hannah's youngest son Samuel died at just 7 years of age.

George himself also died within weeks of Samuel's death in 1810. He died in the House of Industry (possibly a workhouse) and was buried in the parish of St Paul in Bedford. George seems to have been about 54 years old when he died. His surviving family at that time would most likely have been, his widow Hannah (aged 51), and their unmarried sons; Thomas (aged 24), William (aged 17), George (aged 14), James (aged 12), and John (aged 9).

Most of their sons seem to have been successfully apprenticed out. Thomas is understood to have gained an apprenticeship before running away to join the army. William became a tailor in London and married before emigrating to the United States; George became a cabinet maker in Bedford; and James became a blacksmith at Gravesend in Kent. John also married and settled around Bedford, but his trade is not known.

One of their grandsons later claimed that two of George and Hannah's sons (ie. their uncles), were believed to have been killed while fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, possibly at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The two ROWNEY brothers in question have not yet been identified and the story of their deaths has also not been verified at this stage. Incomplete records show that there was a Private James ROWNEY who fought with Captain William's BETT's company in the 3rd Battalion 14th Regiment Of Foot at Waterloo, and later received the Waterloo Medal, but it is not known if this was James the son of George and Hannah, who would have only been around 17 years old at that time. Thomas ROWNEY is said to have served in a Light Dragoon Regiment (possibly the 2nd or 7th) around that time, but his record of service has not yet been investigated and his fate is not known, although it seems that he was still alive when his sister left for South Africa in 1819.

Hannah is believed to have died sometime around the 1830's when she would have been in her 70's. The accuracy of this information is uncertain and seems to be at least partially based on a dream or vision recalled by her daughter Ann many years later.