Capt. William Rowell, 2nd Regiment N.H. Line – Original Member
William Rowell was born in Essex, Massachusetts on September 11, 1740. He was the son of Jacob and Dorothy (Straw) Rowell. William Rowell married Mary Brown in Epping, New Hampshire on May 5, 1763 and had issue.
William Rowell was appointed as an Ensign in Colonel Enoch Poor’s 2nd New Hampshire Regiment on September 20, 1775. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Continental Infantry Regiment (the temporary designation for the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment) on January 1, 1776. He was promoted to First Lieutenant in the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, Continental Line on November 8, 1776. He was further promoted to Captain with duties as a Company Commander in the 2nd New Hampshire on April 2, 1777.
During the Continental Army’s encampment at Valley Forge, Captain William Rowell is listed as the Commander of the 8th Company in the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, Continental Line. He is further marked as “Present” for December 1777, “On Furlough” for January-March 1778, “On Furlough to New Hampshire” for April 1778, and finally “Present” for May and June of 1778.
Captain William Rowell served to the close of the war and was brevetted Major by Congress on September 30, 1783. Captain William Rowell became one of the original 30 members of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Hampshire on February 5, 1784.
Captain William Rowell removed to Virginia sometime after the War, most likely after the death of his wife, Mary in 1790. He married secondly, Hannah Sargent, a daughter of Jeremiah and Armenellah Enoch.
Captain William Rowell died in Wood County, Virginia (present-day Wirt County, West Virginia) on September 27, 1816. He is buried in Round Bottom Cemetery next to his second wife, Hannah, near Elizabeth, West Virginia.
Sources: Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army (Baltimore, 1914), 476; Selected Wartime Service Records of Captain William Rowell; Round Bottom Cemetery Records; Gravestone of William Rowell.
