This article was contributed by guest author Jamie (Rowland) Fish, who recently discovered a link to Oxfordshire with the help of YDNA. Jamie is the founder and administrator of the Rowland Project at FamilyTreeDNA and resides in North Carolina.

The First Rowland YDNA Project Member: Oxfordshire to North Carolina

The first participant of the Rowland Surname DNA Project through FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) belongs to what has been labeled as Rowland Group H: Wake/Johnston County, North Carolina/Oxfordshire, England. It has been determined that there were at least two genetically different Rowland lineages found in colonial Johnston/Wake Counties, NC….so far identified as Group H and Group J: Colonial Surry County, Virginia area. There is significant documentation of Rowlands in the colonial Surry County, VA area and it has been too easy to assume that all Rowlands found a bit further south in North Carolina were related to this group, especially since they all seemed to use the name William. YDNA has been the perfect tool for sorting out these lineages.  

My father’s earliest documented ancestor, in what was then “the Colonies”, was Nathan Rowland. Records show Nathan Rowland (c1720-c1800) received a grant from the Earl of Granville in 1761 for 700 acres of land in what was then Johnston County, in the middle of the current state of North Carolina. In the following years, additions to this land exceeded 2500 acres in the area that today is known as Wake County. (Wake County was formed in 1770 from parts of Johnston County, Cumberland County, and Orange County).  Subsequent generations through Nathan’s son, William Rowland (d.1794), were born here, including my father, and part of the early lands are still owned by Rowland descendants.

But Nathan Rowland’s birthplace (or his father’s) has always been a mystery, as it is for most Americans whose ancestors arrived prior to about 1800. There were very few, if any, churches for registration of marriages, births, or deaths. Courthouse fires were common and most of the records that still exist are land transactions.

My genealogy efforts ran out with old Nathan until YDNA testing came along! In 2004, when my father was almost 82 years old, I convinced him to take the YDNA test through FamilyTreeDNA but the results quickly dashed my hopes. There was absolutely no match to anyone…..not even a non-Rowland surname! However, the Rowland Surname DNA Project was born! Over the following years, several other U.S. Rowland lineages were building their trees with YDNA matches, but other than a couple of known cousins, my father had no matches at all. Then, 10 years later, in 2014, there was a YDNA match to a Rowland fellow in Australia (Y111)! The most he knew was that his family had been in Buckinghamshire, England for about 100 years and had left there in the 1930s for South Africa and then Australia. However, he gave me the postal address for a Rowland cousin still living in the U.K. who supposedly had the “family tree”. I wrote to this fellow with no response but then thought perhaps I was being intrusive or he thought it might be a scam or just didn’t have the time. In the meantime, my life moved on, as often happens. A few years passed and during the pandemic, as I was filing things in my genealogy research, I decided to write to this U.K. cousin again. After many months, I was shocked to receive an email from him!

He was most helpful and delightful and I have been beyond excited! He shared with me that when his father was in the British Army in the 1940s, he had the College of Arms trace his Rowland lineage from Buckinghamshire backward to Oxfordshire in the mid-1600s. They told him at that time that they could probably go back further but it would cost him more money than he was able to justify at that time.

It seems the basic information of their lineage from the College of Arms goes back to a Richard Rowland of Wolvercote, Oxfordshire (c.1655-1734/5). His house at Nunnery Close, Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, England is still standing.

The oldest surviving house in Lower Wolvercote is probably the 17th-century ‘Nunnery Close’ at the western edge of the village. It was extended in 1702 by Richard Rowland whose initials appear on a datestone at the east end of the north wall. From 1764 to 1786 the house was a public house, the Crown, later the Cow; in the early 19th century it was divided into two and then three dwellings, but was occupied as a single house in 1884.

Richard Rowland (c1655-1734/5) of Wolvercote

       -Richard Rowland (1691-1761) only son of Richard above

                 -Richard Rowland (1720-1805) 

                          – John Rowland (1750-1817)

                                  -Richard Rowland (1786-1863) moved to Creslow, Buckinghamshire in 1822

                                            -William Rickford Rowland (1845-1897) 

                                                   -Richard Rowland  (1877-1967) born Creslow,

What lovely information! However, by my calculations, my Nathan Rowland was born around 1720 or so and thus would not be a son of Richard of Wolvercote (c1655-1734/5) since this Richard only had one son.  The children of Richard (1691-1761) also do not show a Nathan. On the plus side, this information has given me a place to look for my ancestors! There are bound to be other relatives of Richard!

Naturally, in following up on this information I discovered the Oxfordshire Family History Society and have been overwhelmed by their help. I ordered birth, death, and marriage information for Rowlands in early Oxfordshire parishes although I realize my search for Nathan or his father/grandfather may be difficult. I have added the YDNA of my father and his first cousin to the Oxfordshire Geographic YDNA Project and most importantly convinced the Australian YDNA Rowland match to join as well, giving a participant with documented Oxfordshire roots back to the 1600s. The Oxfordshire Geographic YDNA project was thrilled as this is exactly the sort of information they were seeking. I have also made an appeal for current Rowland males with known Oxfordshire ancestry to participate in YDNA testing.

As an American, the place names and English history of the 1600s and 1700s are unfamiliar to me, so I am studying maps and histories as well as trying to learn the social systems of that time period. Hopefully, this will help me to understand the causes of immigration and where to look for possible clues. It seems that these Rowlands, while not titled or landed gentry, were educated and had significant status which makes it easier to find records of their lives. They were land owners and well-respected managers of estates of the gentry. It has been suggested that perhaps my immigrant ancestor was not the eldest son, who would inherit the family lands, and as such decided to seek his fortune and adventure in the Colonies. He would have had money and education, and thus was able to escape the fate of the indentured servants of that time.

A tantalizing bit from early North Carolina records: keep in mind that North Carolina was settled in the eastern counties first, including those listed below, with gradual migration west.

• Albemarle County,  NC
  Oct 1701:  headrights proved for importation of William Rowland
• Chowan formed from a precinct of Albemarle in 1670 then a full county in 1685.
• Bertie County, NC (Eastern NC) formed in 1722 from Chowan
• 1728 Nov 11 Bertie Co, NC.Deed Book C, p62
• Nathan Rowland of Chowan Precinct bought land in Bertie Co from Thomas and Mary Rhodes. On Cashy Swamp (Same that he sold in 1747)
• 1734: Richard Rowland, jurat and Catherine Rowland (assume a witness)
• 1734: Deed to John Rowland witnessed by Richard Rowland
• 1734: Richard Rowland sells 137 acres on the east side of Wattom Swamp
• 1735 deed adj to Nathan Rowland on Wattom at Cashy Swamp
• Edgecombe Co formed from Bertie in 1741
• 1743: Nathan Rowland of Edgecombe Co sells land (recorded in Bertie)
• 1744 Edgecombe Co Pleas and Quarter Sessions
• Headrights proved for Nathan Rowland for importing his wife, Mary, and child, Sarah (these headrights were for bringing in people from Virginia or other areas, not necessarily from overseas)
• 1747:  Nathan Rowland of Edgecombe Co sells land on the east side of Cashy Swamp adj Roades Plantation on Wattom Swamp (recorded in Bertie )

It would be too easy to assume that these fellows are “my” Rowlands but obviously, more research is needed to prove or disprove that. It is tantalizing though seeing the “Richard” name in NC when it seemed to be pretty popular in the Oxfordshire lineage!    

All ideas or information are welcome!

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Additional information:

• Oxfordshire, England page on Wikipedia
• Rowland Project at FamilyTreeDNA
• Rowland DNA Group H page at Rowland Genealogy