Quaker Roots
Roots of Stevens Family.
Roger Stevens was born in Beverly, Essex Co., Massachusetts, in 1727 where his parents had had two children earlier.1
His parents had already had five children in Marblehead.2
Three of them were baptized on the same day in 1717 possibly an indication that they were making a concession to the strong Puritan pressures of the local Congregational faith.
Later in Beverly they became associated with the Unitarian Church.
When he was young his family moved to Bellingham, Norfolk Co., where they had another child, then to Dudley in the same county, where they had two more, and then in about 1733 to Quaker Hill, Dutchess Co., New York.3
Roger was the fifth son of Roger Stevens and his wife Susannah (Sykes).
This man was said to have been born around 1700, come to America from Wales in early life, and as early as 1722 to Quaker Hill, New York.
This is the tradition reported in 1872.4
Coming to America.
It appears that the emigration to America also involved at least one earlier generation.
We find that a Roger Stephens died at Marblehead in Jul or Aug 1710.5
He had married 24 Jul 1686 to an Elizabeth Sowdin ("Lowdin" on the records of the Court of Quarterly Sessions).
One is inclined to think that these might possibly be the parents of the Roger Stephens who married there 4 Dec 1710 to Susannah Sixes.6
However, there is no such birth on record, and since the marriage was solemnized in the County court it is suggestive of Elizabeth being involved in taking on an established household.
Quaker Connection.
The pattern of changing faith is in complete harmony with the idea that the immigrant to America, Roger Stevens, was none other than a Quaker of that name who had previously lived in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surry, England.
This man had previously had a son in Esher by the name of Roger on 28 May 1667.7
His wife soon died and he remarried and had five additional children, the names of some of whom match those of Roger and Susannah.
It is quite possible that the Quakers in Surry moved to Wales for a short time before taking part in the emigration to the American colonies that took place from there in the early 1680’s.
In fact, participation in a settlement at Quaker Hill, New York, is entirely consonant with the pattern prevalent at that time.
Thus, there appears to have been a direct line of at least four Roger Stevens:
| b. abt. 1638, d. 1710 |
| b. 28 May 1667, d. abt. 1741 |
| bp. 23 Jul 1727, d. abt. 1806–8 |
| b. abt. 1748, d. 1793 |
The above identification requires that the 1686 marriage be the third in sequence for the sawyer of Surry, and that he is the Roger who died in 1710.
It also requires that the Roger who married later in that same year was aged 43 at the time, even though his wife was only about 17.
However, his presumed age and background would be quite in accord with the fact that he died in the early 1740’s in Quaker Hill.
