James Rowsell (1751 - 1796)

St. Augustine's Church, West Monkton

James Rowsell was born in August, 1751 in West Monkton, Somerset.

He was a child of Richard Rowsell (1720-1772) and Elizabeth Cure (1729-1770).

James was apparently a butcher. He was married to Mary Kidner (1751- ), also of West Monkton. They had 4 children:

John Rowsell (1771-1813)
Mary Rowsell (1777- )
James Rowsell (July 1780- )
Sarah Rowsell (1782- )

In 1783, Mary (nee Kidner) was under investigation locally for having employed a 13 year-old pauper girl from Devon, named Mary Challis. It is unclear from the record why Mary Challis was in West Monkton or how the investigation was concluded, and more importantly whether this Mary Challis was either deported back to Devon or found some way to stay in James' home. What we do know, however, is that James' household in West Monkton included this young woman, Mary Challis, for at least some period of time, and that Mary would have been essentially the same age as James' first son, John, who was by then a young man.

James died in West Monkton, in 1796. We do not currently know how long Mary lived, or where she died.