rowlesfamily

Rowles of Omaha Nebraska

From the Colonials of
Virginia and Maryland
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Henry Corbin, Our Colonial Ancestor, came to VA in 1654 on the Sailing ship "Charity." Henry is descended from the Pharaoh Amenhotep and wife Nefertiti, and Ramses, and many more through his mother on the links below.

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Welcome to our Rowles Family

This is the family of William Donaldson Rowles, and his sister Frances "Fanny" Rowles Daley Bosteader The Rowles were pioneers in Indian Territory of Omaha, but they were well trained in the arts of survival for life on the prarie because of the American Revolution and life at that time in Baltimore, Maryland. As a wee child I was told I was descended from a duke as I ate my oatmeal, as were descendants of the Graftons of Baltimore to this day. I have still not found solid proof of this, but it is probably true.

Our family history was written down by Aunt Fanny's son John D. Daley, from the words handed down by his great-grandmother Priscilla M. Chamberlain who lived with his family. I would like to share some of that history.
The Rowles Family descended from Colonials Sir Edmund Jenings through his son Edmund Jenings, Esq. the acting Governor of Virginia, and his wife Frances Corbin, the daughter of Henry Corbin. Their son William was the father of Edmund Jenings, father of Candace Jenings who married Nehemiah Miller Rowles of Anne Arundel, MD. Candace Jenings' mother Mary Waters was the granddaughter of William Iiams and Elizabeth Plummer. Elizabeth was the step-granddaughter of Colonial George Yates, so she was sometimes referred to as Elizabeth Yates in some publications.

Mary Waters married Edmund Jenings, Sr. who was the son of William Jenings whose paternal grandfather was Sir Edmund Jenings, and his maternal grandfather was Henry Corbin. Nehemiah and Candace Rowles were the parents of Joshua Jenings Rowles and Mary Jane Rowles whose daughter Caroline married Joshua's son William D. Rowles as a second marriage for both. Joshua's wife, Harriet Donaldson was the daughter of William Donaldson son of Sgt. John Donaldson, and nephew of Lady Jane Donaldson Fairfax who was the second wife of Reverend Lord Brian Fairfax of Mt. Eagle.

John Donaldson and his sister Jane were the children of James Donaldson and Ann Bailey, daughter of Stephen Bailey and Elizabeth Harrison. Sgt. John Donaldson married Jane Wiggington, daughter of Spencer Jackson Wiggington. Harriet's mother Priscilla M. Chamberlain was the daughter of John Chamberlain of Fairfax, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland, and Priscilla Elizabeth Grafton.

The Rowles family of Anne Arundel and Baltimore, Maryland first came to Nebraska in 1856. My great-grandmother Bessie Rowles was born in Sarpy County in 1863 a few months before the death of her great-grandmother Priscilla M. Chamberlain Donaldson 1772-1863. Priscilla lived out the latter years of her life in the home of her granddaughter Frances E. Rowles Daley Bosteder, ancestor of Judy Richardson. It was through Frances' children that Priscilla handed down our family history.

Frances' son John D. Daley, our first family historian, died in 1922. Frances' granddaughter, Genevieve, daughter of Lucretia Daley, wrote a family history for Aunt Fanny's niece, Bessie Rowles Newman, my great-grandmother, about 1930. Bessie said we were descended from the Indian Princess Pocahontas, but I'm still looking for proof of that. However, it is a proven fact that her cousin John Randolph of Raonoke was descended from Pocahontas aka Rebecca Rolfe. Bessie's daughter Charlotte, Aunt "Lottie," made copies of our family history for her sister Sybil, my grandmother who gave them to me when I moved to Virginia a few months before she died in 1969. On that trip to Virginia I found the graves of Priscilla, her grandson Nebraska Legislator William Donaldson Rowles and his son Charles Rowles, and John Donaldson Daley, grandson of Frances E. Rowles Daley, Judy Richardson, generously shared her genealogy with me many years later.

Bessie Rowles married Professor James "Walter" Newman, aka Walter J. Newman, Superintendent of Schools for Sarpy Co, NebraskaWalter married Bessie Newman, the daughter of William Donaldson Rowles and Mary Jane Crowthers, daughter of Elizabeth Wilhelm and banker John Crowthers, Sr. William was an early settler of Nebreaska Territory. He was a shop-keeper, in the Calvary in wartime, and Sarpy county Sheriff, Senator and Congressman of Nebraska. In later line he married his cousin Caroline Dyson, daughter of Mary Jane Rowles, sister of Capt. Joshua Jenings Rowles. Walter and Bessie Newman were the parents of Charlotte Augusta Forristall, Charles Newman, Sybil Laura Headley and Alice Violet Newman who died in childhood. It sometimes helps to know a person's religion when trying to discover ancestry records, however, one cannot be certain.

My grandmother always said she was Pennsylvania Dutch from Holland. In any case, Thomas Wilhelm was descended from Hollanders of Pennsylvania and Mennonite aka Anabaptist. His first wife is unknown but we do know she was Haplogroup T2, which is my maternal mtDNA.
The Rowles were originally Quakers "Friends." The Rowles and Donaldson families in Maryland were Methodist Episcopalians. Elizabeth's granddaughter Bessie Rowles Newman was a Baptist who was born and died in Nebraska, however her daughter Charlotte had Bessie's funeral in Charlotte's Methodist Church. Of Bessie's daughters: Charlotte Newman Forristall died a Methodist in Colorado; Sybil married into the RLDS Headley family with a history of almost one hundred years in LDS/RLDS. When Sybil's sister-in-law Nora Headley married Otha Bendon, the entire Headley family became Roman Catholic in 1922. Sybil and Clyde Headley died Catholic in California.

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The descendents of Thomas Corbin, Esq.