Summary Overview

Starting at the finish

There is no doubt in my mind that at birth Ann Rosser’s surname was Richards. This was initially found for me by Gwent Archives and all subsequent research by me has been totally synergistic with this assertion. When Elizabeth Cooper penned her family history it stops at “Ann Rosser” as her maiden name had not been passed down in the family, and in any case her marriage to John Rosser was a second marriage.

Elizabeth Cooper is slightly fuzzy in respect of Ann’s surname in her first marriage and it is not fully clear that this surname was “Lewis”. But we do know from her writings that “our” arm of the family is descended from a Thomas Lewis. Part of the fuzziness is that in one account Thomas is her son, and in a second account he is a son-in-law.

However, the overriding evidence in the Shirenewton Registers is that Thomas Lewis was, indeed, a son. This makes her surname in her first marriage to be Lewis. It is relatively easy to identify her first husband as Thomas Lewis.

Early Life

Ann was born to parents Evan and Mary Richards. I have been unable to find a marriage entry for this couple so Mary Richards’ maiden surname remains unknown. Ann was baptised on 3rd May 1747.

Ann’s parents registered two further children in Shirenewton – Evan in 1749 and Mary in 1752.

Ann married Thomas Lewis on 5th June 1770 in St Thomas a Becket, Shirenewton. I do not have a birth or baptism date for Thomas Lewis as this is a fairly common surname.

Remarriage and Death

Ann remarried on the 24th November 1800. Her second husband was John Rosser. There were no children of this marriage.

Ann died 2nd January 1832. I do not have a death or burial date for John Rosser.

Ann’s Handwriting

Why the “script” heading for this section?

We are fortunate to have three instances of Ann’s handwriting. She obviously could read and write and she signed the register in her own hand at both of her marriages. There is a third signature on a membership ticket dated 1815.

I chose a script that fitted in with Ann’s handwriting and is is “Pinyon script” by Google. I felt that using this in some places of the site would give a “true” Ann Rosser ring to it!

Note that she sometimes spells her forename as “Anne” and sometimes as “Ann”. I mostly use the latter on my site because that is the spelling that is in modern day circulation of her and her exploits.

Ann’s children

Ann and Thomas registered seven children in the Shirenewton area. They are –

William, baptised 23rd February 1772
Thomas, baptised 23rd July 1775 – my forebear
John, 1778 – baptism date unreadable due to register being damaged
Mary, baptised 23rd August 1780
Susanna, baptised 5th October 1783
William, baptised 23rd November 1786 (presumably the first born was deceased)
Nancy, baptised 19th August 1787

These names have a strong resonance with Wesley, his mother, and his siblings.

It is recorded that Ann’s husband died “before the chapel was completed”. There is a burial for a Thomas Lewis on 22nd August 1790.

It is further recorded that only three of their children were alive at the time of Thomas’ death, two boys and one girl. One of these is Thomas, born in 1775, as he is the person recorded in the written history handed down in my family. The other surviving boy could have been either John – 1778 – or William – 1786. The Will of Ann’s father, Evan Richards, tells us that the surviving girl was Mary, baptised in 1780.

I have attempted to find any descendents of Mary and either a John or a William. However, I cannot say for sure if there are any descendents of these children. Firstly, I cannot find a marriage for Mary. Secondly, I can find no information for a John. However, thirdly, there is a potential set of descendents for William. There is a headstone for a Hannah in the graveyard and the date of her death can be linked back to being a probable wife of William. A family Bladen appears to be descendents of this couple.

I cannot say for certain that this is a descendent line of Ann Rosser. The written documents of Elizabeth Cooper in my tree don’t seem to be replicated in other potential trees.

My focus, then is limited to Thomas – baptised 23rd Feb 1775 from whom I am descended.

Missing Registers

We know from the written history of Elizabeth Cooper that only three of Ann Rosser’s children grew to adult age. We also know that one of her daughters is buried in the vicinity of the pulpit in Earlswood Chapel.

But all attempts to find the marriages and deaths of her children end in failure. We can’t even be sure that the children whose baptisms are in the Shirenewton Registers were her only children.

It’s my belief that Ann, having created her Methodist “congregation” was keeping the Registers herself. Such registers were called “Non Conformist Registers” because the “legal” place to register BMD events was in the local Church of England.

As we know, towards the end of Ann’s life the cottage in which she and her second husband, John Rosser, was devoured by fire. If Ann were keeping her own registers they may well have been in her possession in the cottage, and hence destroyed by fire.

Thomas’s Family

We know from Elizabeth Cooper’s handwritten family history that the “Tiplin” family is descended from the marriage of Thomas, Ann’s son and Ann Madley and that only one of their children – Susanna – went on to have children. Susanna married Thomas Tiplin. Susanna is often referred to as “Susan”.

Hence, in “my” arm of the family everyone is a descendent of the surname “Tiplin”.

Thomas Lewis was a widower when he married Ann Madley and he already had a daughter, Ann, from his first marriage. So Ann could have had children with a “half” relationship to the Tiplins.

My research indicates that Ann married a John Edwards. Edwards had at least three children from a previous marriage, but I have been unable to find any children from his marriage to Ann.