Surname Saturday ~ ROLLINS of Dover (Newington), New Hampshire

ROLLINS / RAWLINGS / RAWLINS

My 9th great grandfather, James Rollins (about 1613 - about 1687) first lived in Newbury, Massachusetts and then removed to Dover, New Hampshire where he was made a freeman on 14 May 1634.  He was granted six acres at Dover on 18 March 1648.  His occupation is unknown, but sometime around 1661 he returned to London where "he received cloth to be delivered to Mr. Cogswell of Ipswich and Mr. Raynes of York" [Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, page 595].  This is interesting to me because John Cogswell (1650 - 1724) of Ipswich is my 8th great grandfather.  James Rollins was back in New Hampshire again in 1663.

Around 16 December 1685 James Rollins made his will which mentioned his wife Hannah; sons Benjamin, Ichabod, and Joseph; and his sons-in-law Obadiah Morse and Phillip Chesley.  He must have died sometime between writing this will and 13 September 1689 when his son had a deed written that mentioned him as "Benjamin Rawlings son of James Rawlings deceased".  His will was not proven until 25 July 1691.

Very little is known of James Rollins' life, but he did sign the Dover Combination on 22 October 1640, and the May 1654 petition.  The Dover Combination was the document that established the town government, and a copy was found in the Public Record Office in London with the names of the men who signed (including my ancestors James Rollins, Thomas Leighton, John Heard, Anthony Emery, and Peter Garland).

I descend from James Rollins' daughter Sarah who married Phillip Chesley about 1678.  They lived at Oyster River (Durham), New Hampshire.

Some ROLLINS resources:

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620 - 1633, by Robert Charles Anderson, Volume III, pages 1552 - 1555.

Records of Families of the Name Rawlins or Rollins in the United States, by John R. Rollins, 1874 [errors in the children of James Rollins in generation 1]

Granite Monthly: The New Hampshire Magazine, Volume 1 (September 1877), pages 129 - 134

My ROLLINS genealogy:

Generation 1: James Rollins, born about 1613, died between 16 December 1685 and 13 August 1687 at Bloody Point (now the town of Newington), Dover, New Hampshire; married about 1638 to Hannah Unknown; seven children.

Generation 2:  Sarah Rollins, born about 1658; married about 1678 to Phillip Chesley, son of Phillip Chesley and Elizabeth Leighton.  He was born about 1646 at Oyster River, New Hampshire, and died 18 December 1695 at Oyster River.  Six children.

Generation 3:  Jonathan Chesley m. Mary Weeks
Generation 4: Comfort Chesley m. Stephen Perkins
Generation 5:  Mary Perkins m. Nathaniel Batchelder
Generation 6:  Jonathan Batchelder m. Nancy Thompson
Generation 7:  George E. Batchelder m. Abigail M. Locke
Generation 8:  George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson
Generation 9:  Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen
Generation 10:  Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ ROLLINS of Dover (Newington), New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 5, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/01/surname-saturday-rollins-of-dover.html: accessed [access date]).