Lucy Grover's Recollections

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Rolph Grover

"This is a record of information received by Gary Rolph in March of 1984 from a descendant of Stephen and Susannah Stewart-Rolph that offers the most authoritative lead received todate on the identity of the ancestor of Stephen Rolph, his descendants being recorded in Chapters 3 and 4 of book V.

The source of this information is a statement given by Lucy Rolph-Grover to her daughter, Corinia Maria Grover-Mack prior to her death in which she identified Thomas Rolph as being Stephen Rolph's father, and therefore being her great-grandfather. The statement is as follows:

'Sometime, as supposed, in the 17th Century, Thomas Rolph, in Canterbury, Kent County, England, was walking out alone. He was taken and impressed aboard a "man of-of-war" vessel and brought to America and landed at, what is now, Boston. As soon as he had an opportunity he sent for his family (he being sick with consumption), a wife and two sons. He wrote his wife to take all his private papers, what money she wanted and his coat of arms. He owned a vast amount of property in Canterbury, and when his oldest son, John (Stephen was the second son) became of age, he took the papers and started to go and care for the property in Canterbury and wherever their possessions were. But they never knew what became of him. Stephen Rolph was my grandfather, and my father's name was John Rolph, born in Princeton, Mass. Dec. 20, 1752. My mother's maiden name was Mary Osborn, born Oct. 14, 1753 in Litchfield, Conn.

My grandfather, Stephen Rolph, saw the captain of the boat on which his brother, John, had sailed several years afterward, and he asked him about his brother. The captain said he thought there was a man of that name onboard, but he thought he died on the passage. If so, what became of the papers and property belonging to the Rolphs, as Stephen was the only heir left.'"

Source- Ancestry.com user: meadowart; Originally shared: April 20, 2013