H Rollins
Hon. Edward H. Rollins.
COMPILED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, WITH SOME ADDITIONS,
BY HON. DANIEL HALL.
The Rollins family is one of the oldest and most numerous in the state. In southeastern New Hampshire, from the seaboard to Lake Winnipesaukee, the Rollins name is prominent in the history of almost every town. Most, if not all, the representatives of the name in this region, and among them the subject of this sketch, are the descendants of James Rollins (or Rawlins, as the name was then and for a long time after spelled, and is now by some branches of the family), who came to America in 1632, with the first settlers of Ipswich, Mass., and who, ten or twelve years afterwards, located in that portion of old Dover known as "Bloody Point," now embraced in the town of Newington, where he died about 1690. The representatives of the family suffered their full share in the privations and sacrifices incident to the firm establishment of the colony, and performed generous public service in the early Indian and French wars, and the great Revolutionary contest. Ichabod, the eldest son of James Rawlins, and of whom Edward H. is a lineal descendant, was waylaid and killed by a party of Indians, while on the way from Dover to Oyster River (now Durham), with one John Bunker, May 22, 1707. Thomas, the second son of James, who subsequently became a resident of Exeter, was a member of the famous "dissolved assembly" of 1683, who took up arms under Edward Gove and endeavored to incite an insurrection against the tyrannical royal governor, Cranfield. For this attempt, Gove and others, including Thomas Rawlins, were presented for high treason. Gove was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, but was subsequently pardoned. We do not learn, however that any of the others were tried. Others of the family fell victims to the murderous malignity of the Indians.
There were from twenty-five to thirty descendants of James Rawlins, of the fourth and fifth generations, engaged in active service, and several of them in distinguished capacities, in the patriot cause during the Revolutionary war.
Among the first settlers of that portion of Dover which afterwards became Somersworth, was Jeremiah Rollins, the only son of Ichabod, heretofore mentioned as slain by the Indians. He was one of the petitioners for the incorporation of Somersworth as a separate parish. He died a few years previous to the Revolution, leaving several daughters, but only one son, Ichabod Rollins, who became an active champion of the Revolutionary cause, was a member of the conventions at Exeter in 1775, and served as a member of the committee appointed to prepare a plan of providing ways and means for furnishing troops, and also as a member of the committee of supplies, the principal labor upon which was performed by himself and Timothy Walker of Concord. He was a member of the convention which resolved itself into an independent state government. January 5, 1776, and served in the legislature in October following. He was the first judge of probate under the new government, holding the office from 1776 to 1784. He was subsequently a member of the executive council, and died in 1800. From this eminent citizen, the town of Rollinsford, formed from the portion of Somersworth in which he resided, received its name. He stands midway in the direct line of descent from James Rawlins to Edward H.,—the great-grandson of James, and great-grandfather of Edward H. He had four sons, of whom John, the oldest, was the grandfather of Hon. Daniel G. Rollins, who was judge of probate for the county of Strafford, from 1857 to 1866, and whose son, Edward Ashton Rollins, was speaker of the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1861 and 1862, commissioner of internal revenue under President Johnson, and is now president of the Centennial Bank at Philadelphia; and another son, Daniel G. Rollins, was recently district attorney, and is now surrogate of the city and county of New York. James Rollins, the third son of Ichabod, and grandfather of Edward H., settled upon the farm in Rollinsford which has since remained the family homestead. He was the father of thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters. Of these, Daniel Rollins, the eighth child, born May 30, 1797, and who married Mary, eldest daughter of Ebenezer Plumer, of Rollinsford, was the father of Edward H. He succeeded to the homestead, but sold out and went to Maine with a view to making his home there. He soon returned, and repurchased that part of the homestead lying east of the highway, and erected a dwelling opposite the old family mansion, where he lived a life of sturdy industry, rearing a family of six children, four sons and two daughters, and died January 7, 1864.