Some Thoughts on Robert Rockhould

Robert Rockhould (name as on earliest found documentation) was born probably between 1600 and 1605.  He was likely born in England but could have been born in the Netherlands.  While no documentation, there is sketchy information that his father was one Richard Rockwell who died about 1621 in Fitzhead, Somerset, England.  Richard was the son of William Rockwell and Marion Wyke (or Pyke or Kyne); he married Thomazine Littlejohn in Fitzhead September 1593.

Considering the interchanging of the Rockhould, Rockhold, Rockholt, Rockwell names over the years, it is not a long stretch.  History tells us many Puritans were not willing to convert to the religious ilk's of the English royals and some left England for the Netherlands in the early 1600s, before any real colonization of America. Robert married Sarah Greniffe about 1633, probably in the Netherlands where sons Robert Junior and Thomas, and daughter Mary were born.  The family immigrated first to Virginia colony around 1637, as reflected in land records of the time.  Daughter Ann and son John were born in Virginia.  The family relocated to Maryland colony around 1649.

Robert was an armourer (gunsmith) by trade but the family became very successful farmers with several hundred acres, mostly in tobacco.  All of the first generation, Robert Jr., his siblings and their wives died in Maryland.  Their descendants moved eventually to the corners of the new world, as it grew.  Today there are relatives found with three variations of the family name; Rockhold, and Rockholt as well as Rockwell.  The family Rockwell does not always trace back to Robert, there is a separate line of the Rockwell family originating in Connecticut around the same time Robert came to Virginia.

I favor the idea our Robert, son of Richard Rockwell of Fitzhead,  was a brother or cousin of John Rockwell.  If, and it's a very big if, Robert left England under penalty of arrest (which could have occurred over even a trivial matter) he would have changed his name since the arrest warrant would have followed him to the colony.  I support this idea with the documentation of the use of Rockwell be a few of the second generation individuals.

Given the type of information that was being returned to the Netherlands from the Dutch colonies, (It weren't no picnic) I can well understand Robert's choice of Virginia over the Dutch colonies.