Name origin: From the Saxon rod, counsel, and bert or bericht, bright or famous, famous in council.
b.parents ukn
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b.abt.1408 Glassenbury, Kent, England (parents ukn)
m.Agnes Buckfold Gent
b.abt.1412 Glassenbury, Kent, England
CHILDREN (all born Glassenbury) included:
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b.abt.1438 Glassenbury, Kent, England s/o John and Agnes (Buckfold Gent) Roberts
m.(1)Oct. 23, 1463 Margaret Penn
m.(2)April 20, 1481 Isabelle Culpepper
m.(3)Alice Nayler
b.abt.1462 Glassenbury, Kent, England d/o Richard Stephen Nayler
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b.July 10, 1494 Glassenbury, Kent, England s/o Walter and Alice (Nayler) Roberts
chr.Sept. 21, 1494
m.(1)Elizabeth Fremingham
b.abt.1502 Glassenbury, Kent, England d/o James and Elizabeth (Walworth) Fremingham
m.(2)_______ Sackefeld
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b.1526 Glassenbury, Kent, England s/o Thomas and Elizabeth (Fremingham) Roberts
d.June 23, 1580 Cranbrook, Kent, England
m.Jan. 22, 1555 Frances Maynard
b.1537 of Glassenbury, Kent, England d/o John Maynard
d.Feb. 1648 Kent, England
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... http://www.glassenbury.blogspot.com/ Sir Thomas Roberts had issue by his wife Frances James. Their second son was Thomas Roberts, baptised at Cranbrook, Kent, October II 1590. He made his Will 23 November 1644 and it was proved by Walter Roberts 2 December 1647. In the Cranbrook Church Register there is an entry for a burial of a Thomas Roberts on May 3. 1645, which we may reasonably conclude refers to this man. His father had left him by Will the sum of £50 a year, which in 1641/2 became the subject of Chancery Proceedings {Charles 1st, R315}. In these proceedings reference is made to the complainant, Thomas Roberts, gentleman; to Sir Thomas Roberts, knight & baronet, his father and to Sir Walter Roberts. Peter Courthope is another party to the dispute. There are other Chancery Proceedings on more or less the same subject and with the same parties in 1641 {Charles 1st, R8/4} as in 1639 {Charles 1st, R38/50}.
The Will of this Thomas Roberts "of Glassenbury, Kent, Esqr." {ref: P.C.C. 247 Fines}, mentions Sir Walter Roberts and "the Lady Roberts" his mother. He was unmarried. and had no children.
Thus, the Thomas Roberts born in Woolaston, Worcestershire (about 1600) and emigrated to America, where he died in 1673 after having had issue through his wife (evidently married about 1627) Rebecca Hilton, cannot have been the second son, nor any son, of Sir Thomas Roberts of Glassenbury, Kent, and his wife Frances James. The various American and French web-sites which claim this relationship take into consideration neither the fact that their Tom Roberts was born in Worcestershire, the only claimed child of this Kent family to have been born there; nor that Worcestershie is a long way from Kent; nor that the Roberts of Glassenbury had no ancestral connection with that western county. Worcestershire is, on the other hand, nearer Wales, where Roberts was and is one of the commonest names, as is Thomas.
Neither have they taken into account the fact that the Irish Roberts of Glassenbury family of baronets (now resident in the USA) used to claim descent from the very same Thomas Roberts that the American websites claim. That descent was considered not capable of proof by Garter King at Arms, and accordingly a new Baronetage was created for the Irish Roberts family in 1809. The latest (1999) "Burke's Peerage" entry for the family claims no such descent.
The erroneous Woolaston-New Hampshire descent has been enshrined in the International Genealogical Index of the Mormon Church and is leading astray various amateur genealogists who do not have access to fuller sources. The probably reason for this is that, according to, amongst others, Col. J. W. Tyler, in his articles on the Kent and Sussex family in "Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica", vols. 6 & 7 (1927/8), various royal descents are traceable through this family, and thus the various web sites claim connections with Charlemagne and many many others.
Common sense, as well as a two volume typescript on the family in the Society of Genealogists library in London, show that neither the Irish Roberts nor the American ones, can claim descent from this Thomas, and that if there is some reason for believing that the Irish family may be a branch of the Kent and Sussex one, there is no reason to suppose that the American family is in any way connected to them.
29th May 2002: Please also look at the following succinct web site which proves that the father of the American Thomas Roberts of Woolaston was a John Roberts and not Sir Thomas of the Glassenbury family: http://www.imt.net/~toss/Roberts.html
[Note: this website is not working.--HAW] http://robertsofwoolaston.blogspot.com/ That Governor Thomas Roberts was the son of John Roberts of Woolaston is clear (for those who have any doubts please consult www.glassenbury.blogspot.com).
In "The Visitation of Huntingdonshire" (1613), Camden Society, London (1849), p. 31 (pedigree of AP RHESE), there is a reference to a "John Roberts of Wolastone" who was the first of four husbands of Cassandra ap Rhese, the daughter of William ap Rhese (or Price), who was the son and heir of Robert and his wife Joan (the daughter of John Otter), and of Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of Robert Latimer of Duntish. Robert ap Rhese was the son of Isaac & Joane, sister of Sir Reginald Bray, Knight & Counsellor tp King Henry VII. Isaac was the son of Juon ap Rhese and a daughter and co-heir of Wonton. Juon was the son of Mathew ap Rhese of Lan in Brecknock and of a daughter and heir of Radnall. And finally, Mathew was the son of Juon and a daughter and heire of Cradock. The pedigree also gives a long ascent of Joane Otter from Richard Washingley, who is mentioned in 1366.
This John Roberts would have been of the generation before the Visitation (1613), therefore perhaps not the father but grandfather of the Thomas Roberts who became Governor of Dover, New Hampshire, if this is the right Woolaston.
The link seems worthy of more research for those interested in a possible ascent for Governor Roberts.
--End of Wilson e-mail
b.1559 of Glassenbury, Kent, England s/o Walter and Frances (Maynard) Roberts
d.Feb. 20, 1627 Glassenbury, Kent, England
m.1584 Frances James
b.1563 Smarden, Kent, England
d.1648 Glassenbury, Kent, England
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NOTE: This line needs more work! See above email
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b.1600 Woolaston, Glouster, England; presumed son of John Roberts
d.Sept. 27, 1673
m.1627 Dover, NH; Rebecca Hilton
b.1602 Wearmouth, Durham, England; d/o Mark Hilton
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NOTE: Dates of children's birth suggest that Rebecca Hilton may have been his 2nd wife...? Places of birth of children further confound issue.
NOTE: Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire, page 175: ROBERTS, ROBARTS, Thomas, Mr. Dover, signed the combination in 1640; had lawsuit in 1641; proprietor in 1642; juror 1646; taxed Oct. 19, 1648. "Thomas Roberts, Newe England," is in list of fishmongers in Tax Roll of London, 1641.
His will dated 27 Sept. 1673, probated 30 June 1674, beq to children John, Thomas, Hester, (now wife of John Martyn "of New Jarze") Anne (wife of James Philbrooke), Elizabeth, (wife of Benjamin Heard of Cochechock), son-in-law Richard Rich, husband of daughter Sarah.
From Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700, by Holmes: THOMAS, settled Dover, NH, 1623.
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b.March 25, 1621 Glassenbury, Kent, England; s/o Thomas and Rebecca (Hilton) Roberts
d.Jan. 21, 1695 Dover, NH
m.1655 Dover, NH Abigail Nutter
b.ca.1634 of Dover, NH; d/o Hatevill and Anne (Ayers) Nutter
d.aft.1674 Dover, NH
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NOTES: From The Robertses of Northern New England: Sarah had seven children.
John Roberts was one of the first children born in what would become Dover, NH. He died there in 1694/95 of dropsy.
John was a prominent citizen of early Dover, serving as a selectman for six years in the 1660s and 1670s, as the surveyor of highways in 1661 and 1668, and a sergeant (later lieutenant) of the militia. In his role as constable, along with his brother Thomas, he was charged by Massachusetts by authorities with ridding the colony of Quakers. In one well-recorded incident in 1662 the two brothers literally dragged two proselytizing Quaker women through the winter snow and threw them into a canoe.
In 1680 Charles II decided to set off New Hampshire as a seperate royal province. To that end he appointed several local leaders to establish a new government. As one of those leaders, John Roberts was named Marshall of the Province. He resigned his office, however, shortly after the grandson of John Mason appeared on the scene to begin exercising his inherited rights as the landlord of all of New Hampshire. As it turned out, the younger Mason was successfully opposed by the new government at every turn, but it is easy to see why John, a prominent landholder in Dover, would be reluctant to be put in a position of possibly having to enforce Mason's claims.
The glorious revolution of 1689 in England, which resulted in William of Orange succeeding James II as monarch, reverberated throughout New England, and for a time there was no government in the colonies. John Roberts was among six prominent Dover citizens who convened a convention of like-minded citizens of Portsmouth and Exeter. It was the recommendation of this convention that New Hampshire be reunited under the government of Massachusetts.
John made numerous gifts of property to his children and grandchildren, most notably land in what became Kittery, ME (the "fowling marsh") to son John, April 20, 1680 and land on the west side of Great Bay to sons Joseph, Hatevil, & Thomas, on November 29, 1694. He was in all probability a literate man, as his signature on many early documents would attest.
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b.1633/1655 Dover, NH; s/o Thomas Roberts and Rebecca Hilton
d.1703 Dover, NH
m.1670 Dover, NH Mary Leighton
b.abt.1636 Dover, NH d/o Thomas and Joanna Leighton
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b.ca.1661 Dover, NH; s/o John Roberts and Abigail Nutter
d.March 3, 1724/1725 Dover, NH
m.Lydia Roberts
b.abt.1666/67 of Rollinsford, NH; d/o Thomas Roberts and Mary Leighton
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NOTE: From The Robertses of Northern New England: Hatevil married his first cousin Lydia Roberts, the daughter of Thomas and Mary (Leighton) Roberts of Dover. Hatevil, who as known as Lietenant, served as constable of Dover in 1694 and 1695 and as grand juror in 1697 and 1700. This family lived in the part of Dover which became the town of Somersworth in 1754 and Rollinsford in 1849.
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b.Oct. 11, 1698; s/o Hatevil Roberts and Lydia Roberts
d.Dec. 27, 1771
m.Sarah Wallingford
b.June 16, 1704 Rowley, MA; d/o Nicholas Wallingford
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