Grace Kemball, Samuel Rowland, and Robert Hicks, plus Dykes, Reynolds, Stewart and Severn

Grace was baptised in Hitcham in 1686, the daughter of Thomas Kemball and his wife Grace. By the time Thomas wrote his will in 1716, Grace was Grace Rowland. She had married Samuel Rowland in Hitcham in 1707.^[1]The full date of their marriage hasn’t been recorded; only the year has been recorded in the parish register. They had three children, all daughters:

• Grace, baptised 18 July 1708
• Susanna, baptised 19 Feb 1709/10
• Mary, baptised 26 Aug 1711

I haven’t found Samuel’s burial, but Grace remarried in 1731. On 28 Sep that year, “Grace Roulin”, a widow, married “Robert Hix”, a widower from Great Bricett. They were married for 20 years, before Robert died; he was buried on 29 March 1751 and was buried in Great Bricett. Perhaps Grace returned to Hitcham, where she still had family. She was buried there as “Grace Hickes”, widow, on 16 Feb 1768.

Grace Rowland

Grace, the eldest of Samuel and Grace’s three daughters, married Thomas Hood. The year is hard to work out; it was on 23 Feb, but the position in the parish register is confusing. It could be 1731/2, but it could be 1730/1. A child of “Thomas Hod”, unnamed in the register, was buried in Hitcham in 1732. There’s no sign of a burial for his wife, however, it seems that Grace passed away fairly young; Thomas Hood, a widower, married Haney Gremod in Hitcham on 13 May 1734. The registers are a scrappy mess around this time, so it’s possible that Grace’s burial has been lost. And Haney Gremod should really have been “Hannah Grimwood”….

Susanna Rowland

“Susen Roulin” married John Dikes (or Dyke in the other register that their marriage is recorded in) on 8 Oct 1735. She was about 25 years old. They had five children between 1737 and 1744: John, Susan, Grace, Samuel, and James. They were all baptised in Buxhall, a parish just north of Hitcham. Sadly, Susan died not long after the birth of son James: she was buried in Hitcham on 3 Feb 1744/5 as Susanna, wife of John Dykes.

Of their children, I traced Grace Dykes marrying a widower called John Browne in Hitcham on 28 May 1761. One of the witnesses was called Thomas Kemball. I wonder if this could’ve been her mother’s first cousin, Thomas Kemball who was son of Thomas Kemball and Sarah Ranson?

Mary Rowland

“Mary Roulin” married “Thomas Seben” in Hitcham on 4 Nov 1734. The surname eventually comes to be written as “Severn”, so that’s the version I’ll be using here.

They had five children, all baptised in Hitcham between 1736 and 1748: Mary, Joseph, Ann, Samuel, and Grace. Joseph and Ann both died in infancy.

Mary went on to live until she was about 65; she was buried in Hitcham as Mary wife of Thomas Severn on 12 June 1776. Thomas died in 1788.

Their eldest child, Mary, married Anthony Reynolds on 20 May 1762; at some point in the intervening 20 years, he was the governor of Hitcham’s workhouse. They had five children: Mary, John, Jonathan, Beersheba, and Grace. Mary died in 1772, and Anthony married a widow called Sarah Barton (born Sparke). Sarah’s first husband was William Barton, who was born in about 1730 and was the son of William Barton and Ann Hall. He was the uncle of “my” Thomas Kemball’s first wife, Joanna Barton. I think this is just a coincidence: although Anthony’s first wife was a descendant of the Kemballs, I don’t think it shows a closeness between the different strands of Kemballs and descendants of the Kemballs because his second wife’s husband was a Barton! I think it’s just inevitable when we’re dealing with small communities that there’s going to be lines crossing over.

Grace, the youngest of Mary and Thomas’s children, married John Stewart on 24 Dec 1767; I assume he’s related to Thomas Stewart, the prolific marriage witness who appears dozens, if not hundreds, of marriage records in Hitcham. John himself was a bricklayer.^[2]Grace’s burial record in 1782 tells us that her husband was a bricklayer. They had nine children between 1767 and 1782: John (died an infant), Thomas, Grace, John, Mary, Anne (died an infant), Elizabeth, Anne, and Frances.

Grace passed away in 1782 and was buried on 18 Aug that year in Hitcham.

Their daughter, Grace, had two illegitimate children: Charlotte in 1793 and John in 1796. Then, on 20 Nov 1812, she married Henry Fisher, a widower. Joshua Eley was one of the witnesses: we’ll meet him later as he married Elizabeth Kemball from one of the other branches. Is it a coincidence that he was their witness? Their relationship by marriage is rather distant, to be honest! Grace died in 1835, in her 60s.

So that leaves us with Mary and Thomas’s son, Samuel, a labourer.^[3]The burial of Samuel’s daughter Rhoda in 1782 tells us he was a labourer. He always signed the marriage register, though, so he was educated to an extent. I became quite fascinated by Samuel, something my mind sometimes does when it decides to latch onto someone tangental! His first marriage was on 15 Jan 1771 to Alice Tosbell. John Stewart was one of the witnesses – perhaps his brother-in-law mentioned above. They had four children: Thomas (died an infant), Rhoda (died aged 9), Samuel, and Anne (died an infant). Alice died in March 1777, not long after the baptism of their daughter Anne, and Anne died in the June.

Six years pass before Samuel married again. Wife #2 was Anne Kidby, and they married on 2 Nov 1783. Samuel signed his surname “Severne”, but the curate spelt it “Sebourn”, which might give us an idea of how it was pronounced. Again, John Stewart, presumably Samuel’s brother-in-law, was one of the witnesses. A son called Thomas followed, born in 1785. Then, in the space of a few months, Samuel lost both his wife and his son: Ann died in the summer, and Thomas died in the December.

Now, there’s something I should mention here. There was a big gap between the death of Samuel’s first wife and his second marriage. On 26 Jan 1783, a few months before Samuel married Anne Kidby, she had a daughter called Anne. Then, on 3 June 1805, Ann Severn, a single woman, married Samuel Steed in Hitcham. This makes me wonder if Anne Kidby’s illegitimate daughter was Samuel’s, as there’s no sign of any baptisms for an Anne Severn, his daughter, but the 1805 had to come from somewhere. If she was Samuel’s daughter, then it’s not unusual for her to have taken his surname once her parents were married.

Having lost his second wife in 1788, Samuel married wife #3, a widow called Esther Gibbon, on 24 Nov 1789. She was born Esther Reynolds and married Robert Gibbons, a husbandman from Lavenham, in 1781. I assume she was somehow related to Samuel’s brother-in-law, Anthony Reynolds, who had married his sister Mary. Samuel and Esther don’t appear to have had any children.

And then… Samuel and Esther disappear! I wonder what happened to them?

First published 10th February 2026