Mary Rowswell

     Although Melissa Bateman Glover wrote a history on her Grandfather, James Glover, she did not write one on her Grandmother, Mary Rowswell Glover.  In the history of James she mentioned a couple of things about Mary.  When James met her in Barrington, Somersetshire, England, she made her living by making gloves.  Melissa says about Mary in her older years, “Mary was light complexioned with blue eyes and rather inclined to be heavy set and was a quiet, demure person.  Though a faithful wife and a good mother she never quite conquered a longing for her loved ones and friends in England.”

     Her life was not easy, after she and James Glover were married she and her husband lived in her birth town of Barrington, very close to Shepton Beaucham, and she had two children. Then they must have moved to Langport, Somerset, because her third son Joseph was born there. Then her husband moved her to Wales where she had five more children.  Her husband having preceded her to Wales had met the missionaries and joined the Mormon Church before she got there.  That was a life-changing experience.  She did embrace the gospel but none of her family ever joined but the children did and all remained faithful. She sent her oldest daughter to America without family and it was several years before she saw her again when they reunited in Utah.  Mary then came to America in 1866 with her husband and eight children, the youngest not yet three months old.  She had another baby in Pennsylvania where they lived long enough to make money to continue their journey to Utah.  It was a little over three years before they left Pennsylvania.

     Mary also had her sorrows. Her youngest son, Hyrum, (she had four girls after him) after several weeks of illness died.  He lacked five months of being fifteen years of age.  Melissa writes that he was a good looking, very intelligent boy.  Sometime before his demise, his school teacher had said to him, “Hyrum, there is no need of your attending school any longer.  I have taught you all I know.”  Mary’s daughter Emma, age 17, who was married to James Brown died in childbirth that same year, 1881, the baby passing away a few weeks later.

     Mary’s permanent home in Midvale was located a short distance south of James’ blacksmith shop.  It was an adobe building and consisted of three rooms, a living room in the center with a bedroom on the north and one on the south.  Later a summer kitchen made of lumber and a screened in porch were added.  South of the house was an orchard consisting of several kinds of good fruit trees, gooseberries, and black and English currant bushes.  Along the entire length of the orchard was a thicket of wild Pottawattamie plum trees.  They bore profusely.  Melissa says she remembers the bushels that were picked some seasons by relatives and friends and the good preserves the plums made.

     Mary died before her husband on 10 June 1896 in Midvale at the age of 72 and was buried in the West Jordan cemetery.

     Just a comment from Cheryl Graham about Mary’s ancestry as I think it is amazing.  Mary was the second child and had 8 siblings, 1 child Betsy died at 4 months of age and they named the next child Betsy as was common in those days. She had 3 sisters and 3 brothers that lived to a fairly old age.  Her father, William, died at age 67 and her mother, Ann, at age 81.  William was born in Shepton Beaucham, Somersetshire, England as were his ancestors for SEVEN generations before him!

       William’s father was John, John’s father was William, and then there were 3 Henry’s.  The first Henry’s father was Edward and Edward’s father was Patrick.  Patrick was born about 1535 and it is not certain but he may have come from an Isabella “Rowsell” born about 1511.  The name Rowsell changed with the first Henry to Rowswell and has been used since.  So, for all those generations the name was passed down through sons until Mary and she married a Glover, otherwise Grandma Rosalind Glover Pearson would have been a Rowswell.

Also, the family stayed put all those years. They lived in Shepton Beaucham (pronounced Beecham) for hundreds of years AND RELATIVES STILL LIVE THERE.  No wonder Mary had a hard time moving away from home.  Thank goodness for St. Michael’s church that kept great records all those years.  It was a small community with only one church.

                              Shepton Beaucham's St. Michael's Church

                                 St. Michael's Church showing cemetery