Dear Listers, For your entertainment and perhaps a little enlightenment here are copies of recent writing and correspondence on the subject of Newfoundland Folklore. Goodmorning Dr. Hiscock...here is a bit of Newfoundland Folklore, based on my experience with genealogy research. I am still working on the earlier mentioned article for posting to ROOTS NL subscriber list. Cheers, Lloyd Three Brothers.......Folklore, Fact and Fancy (aka.Past, Present & Future or Father, Son & Ghost)....... October 27th,2003, by Lloyd George Henry Rowsell, Victoria, BC. (born at Toulenget, Newfoundland) Folklore....�a widely held unsupported specious notion or body of notionsor �traditional customs, tales, or sayings preserved orally among a people. Fact....�a piece of information presented as having objective reality or �an actual occurrence, event. Fancy.....�to form an idea about on the basis of inadequate evidence or in the absence of evidence." The above definitions were taken from Webster�s New Collegiate Dictionary published in 1977. Here is some of the information that I have discovered during my research into the history of my family surname that relates to a story about Two, Three or Four Brothers coming to Newfoundland from England. A book, found in many Newfoundland homes which was compiled under the direction of E.A. Seary, a professor at Memorial University records �Three Rowsell brothers of Huguenot ancestry (the surname was originally Rouselle), came to Newfoundland from Poole or Bristol in the early 1700�s; they settled in Bonavista Bay, Notre Dame Bay and Pushthrough (MUN Folklore). It also records under the surname Russell �Three brothers, Edward, Stephen and William, from Bristol, England settled at Bay Roberts about 1800 (MUN Geog.) A book titled �The Lively Hope Experience" written by Lodrick Rowsell Sr. has these words. �Some people have inquired, �Where did the Rowsells originally spring from?" I was told by a woman, whose name was Rowsell who lived at Harrington Harbour on the Quebec North Shore, that some Rowsells left England and came to North America. Their names were Edward, Henry, James and John. I partly confirm the truth of this story; my father�s name was Arthur Henry, and his father�s name, John." A young woman who has recently traced her ancestry back to William Rowsell born December 31, 1806, who was the son of John and Emma Rowsell had this to say on September 18th, 2001 �Our Rowsell family is from William�s lineage, my grandfather was also a carpenter and shipbuilder. The three brothers that originally came over were William, Thomas and the third is believed to be Joseph, but we are not completely sure. They were the sons of a shipbuilder and their mother was a Negro woman. In England in that time they were not allowed to be married to a Negro person. The sons, being part Negro and discriminated against, left England." She also wrote: �The spelling of Rousell has now been changed back by many Rowsells to ROW because of misspelling in the Census records and a lack of education. It seems the �u" was meant to be a �w". The above well documented William Rowsell (Rousell) was baptized, as an , and his birthplace was recorded as being Change Islands, Notre Dame Bay. The family Bible in my possession, given to me at CB NL by a descentant of the first names recorded in the book, records the marriage of John and Emma Rowsell on September 8th, 1798. Rev. Walter Smith, in 1874, also recorded the births of their sons Thomas, George, John (third son), William, Joseph, and twins Henry and James. A few days ago I was intrigued to find a similar Bible, published in 1874 by the same US publisher, in the home of a distant "Dawe" relative in Victoria, B.C. A copy of a letter from the Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John�s, in my possession, has this to say. �I have been working on your file and have been successful in tracing your Rousell ancestors to England. It appears that a George Rousell moved into St. Mary�s in about 1880. It may have been earlier. This George married a Johanna Ryan that began the Rousell clan." I wrote to the author of this letter, Larry Dohey, on August 20, 2001 requesting permission to print and publish the information above. Permission was not granted nor denied. In response to my earlier question about the name of the town where George was born in England he wrote this "The name of the community in England is not identified." From a book titled �Oh Gloria: the Fagan family and history of St. Mary�s", this excerpt was taken, referring to Joanna (Han) Rousell. "My mother was born in Path End, daughter of George Rousell and Bridget (Butler) Rousell. Her grandfather, also George Rousell, and his son, John (her uncle) were lost in the 1875 sea disaster. Either her grandfather, or his father is supposed to have jumped ship from a British naval-training, fishing boat. He settled in Path End, which was �out-of-the-way" and an unlikely place for the British officers to look for him." This excerpt is taken from page 90 of a book titled �I Have touched the Greatest Ship", by Melvin Rowe...a history of Heart�s Content. �Family tradition says that THREE Rowe BROTHERS left Bridport, England to seek their fortune in widely separated parts of the world. The first brother emigrated to Newfoundland; the second to the West Indies and the third to America." In the late 1800�s �three bretheren" named Samuel Dawe (their ancestors were said to have been born into non-Catholic families at Portegrave, CB NL) moved from CB to BC. One settled at Victoria, B.C. the other two settled at Royal City, B.C. The Royal City Dawe boys named Samuel were given nicknames �Northern Sam" �Big Sam"and �Little Sam." NL writer, Gerald Andrews in his 1997 book titled �History of a Newfoundland Outport" recorded some of the events in the early life of �Northern Sam" He also wrote that the Daw family of Portegrave were the earliest recorded claimers of land in Newfoundland, pre dating John Guy�s Colony of 1610. My mother�s sister, who resides in NJ USA suggests that her Daw ancestors were granted land at Ship Cove, Portegrave by Queen Elizabeth I. When I began looking into my own family history I started by asking questions of my father�s younger sister, Marion. She said I think that my grandfather�s name was Henry, he died before I was born. I don�t know anything about his parents or ancestors. Some people say that they came over from England and that there were �three brothers." A few months ago I photographed an old Waterbury clock in the possession of Charlie Russell of Bay Roberts. He claimed that the clock was passed down for several generations in his family and came over with his ancestor John Russell in the 1700�s. He said �I think there were �three brothers" William, John and Edward". Even though the label was partly removed, Charlie suggested that the clock was made in England in the late 1700�s. He has not had the clock checked by experts to confirm authenticity. Shortly after photographing the 'old clock", ( unrelated familiar NL slang includes the words 'me old ') I found a website which displayed a photograph of a very similar clock which was said to have been made about 1845-1850 by the Waterbury Clock Co. of Connecticut. One interpertation of the information contained in the ATB Rowsell Website is that the earliest recorded Rousells in Notre Dame Bay were brothers named George Rousell (b.1726) and Thomas Rousell. Diaries of Pulling and Peyton suggest that a Thomas Rousell was killed by Beothucks in 1789. According to E.A. Seary�s book, the next Generation records three men, possibly �three brothers"all born c. 1750-1756, George Jr., Thomas of Exploits in 1797, and John d. Dec. 1815 and buried at South Brook, Hall�s Bay. A few months ago I spoke, by telephone, with a retired woman from Ontario about her �first time" visit to the Bonavista Bay area of Newfoundland, the home of her ancestors. Her father�s name was William Jennings Rowsell. She said that her earliest known Rowsell ancestor in Newfoundland was Samuel Rowsell. He was one of �three brothers" who came from Parkstone, England to Newfoundland and settled in Bonavista Bay. Samuel and his brothers were fishermen and had a boat which they named �Three Brothers" She did not remember the names of Samuel�s brothers. The "Brotheren" in the above stories so far are EDWARD, GEORGE, HENRY, JAMES, JOHN, JOSEPH, SAMUEL, STEPHEN, THOMAS, WILLIAM Today it appears to me that the projenitors of Rowsell / Rousell / Russell in Newfoundland are as follows: ..late 1600�s to early 1700�s ..Bay Roberts.....Edward Russell, Henry Rousell (Rosewell), and Stephen....Nfld. History records that a Capt. Edward Russell was Commodore for Newfoundland in the year 1676. ...mid to late 1700�s ..N. D. Bay ..... George Rousell, John, and Thomas, ...mid 1800�s...St. Mary�s......George Rousell ...mid 1800�s....Pushthrough .....Edward Rousell ...mid 1800�s....Bonavista Bay ....Samuel Rowsell, from Parkstone, England The earliest records of the Rousell family in N.D.Bay includes the places named Change Islands, Nipper�s Harbour, Leading Tickles, and Hall�s Bay. For comments and clarification I can be reached at lgrowsell@yahoo.com. REPLY:Lloyd, Thanks for your thoughts on the "three brothers" motif of family history. It's something we folklorists have thought about too. As the American fammily folklore scholar Mody Boatright used to say, there are some motifs repeated so often that all of them cannot be true. About twenty years ago I convinced one of our graduate students to go through the family history reports that led (in part) to Seary's section called "Family Traditions." She came to the same conclusion in her report which she never published but which (I believe) is still on file at the MUN Folklore & Language Archive. There are many repeated motifs of families' oral history. Some are no doubt true, but others say more about the contemporary desire for pattern in what is believed about the past that about the past itself. Philip Hiscock ============================================================| | Philip Hiscock ------ philip@mun.ca | | Department of Folklore | | Room E4053, Education Building | | Memorial University of Newfoundland | | St. John's, Newfoundland A1B 3X8 CANADA | | Telephone: 709-737-8778 Fax: 709-737-4718 | |=============================================== Thanks Philip for your reply....may I quote you in my report to the NL ROOTS LIST ? Cheers, Lloyd --- Philip Hiscock <philip@mun.ca> wrote: "No problem". __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears http://launch.yahoo.com/promos/britneyspears/