Roose Free chr 17 Aug 1561 Dallinghoo

[Suffolk Sue B]

The oldest will I have is for Thomas Rous born 1656 at Westleton which is dated 1728, in this he mentions his son Thomas and daughter Ann Paul (Ann married twice, first to Wm Chambers then to Thomas Paul) and his (second) wife Mary (late Clamp) and he wished to be buried alongside his former wife (which would have been Ann Gooch as Mary was still living). Connected to this will is an inventory taken by E Woods and John Rouse. The next will I have is that of John Rous, who mentions his son Thomas (who married Hannah) and Thomas' brother John who is the one who died young. Thomas was given the farm etc at Theberton, and John the farm etc at Westleton - oddly in later years we find a grandson Thomas in residence at Westleton. I was able to look at the Court Rolls a while ago and it clearly shows when Thomas took over the office (I can't remember what his title was) from his brother John following John's untimely death. What is missing is information connecting Thomas Rous born 1656 to John born about 1700 - but who knows the place and date. It wasn't at Westleton that's for sure...............well sort of sure, the years that are important are virtually unreadable on the parish registers. Something that I've never been able to find out is whether the John Rous of the inventory is the same John Rous of the will. I've compared the signatures and it's possible they could be the same hand - but the first is a strong hand while that on the will is rather hesitant, possibly because John was at the time an ill man.
So we need to know two things - proof that Thomas Rous (bn. 1686) who married Sarah at Covehithe was the son of Thomas born 1856 at Westleton, and secondly the parentage of John Rouse born about 1700. Although I suspect John was born a bit before this as he and his wife Mary had a daughter Mary baptised at Westleton in 1718. (Sadly this Mary must have died an infant as they had another daughter Mary baptised in 1721).
I need all the luck I can get - thanks

[smudwhisk]

Ipswich Records Office have two earlier Rous of Westleton Wills:

Thomas Rowse of Westleton 1641 W79/105
Martha Rouse widow of Westleton 1685 R75/14 (registered) or W115/19 (original)

They only have a copy of the original of Thomas' Will so you'd need to hope that they have it microfilmed otherwise it's £10 per page digitial image (that's what they quoted me for one the other year).  If they've been microfilmed it's a lot cheaper!

I have an interest in the Rous family of Denham but my last direct Rous ancestor died in 1574 and haven't done much work bringing the line forward yet other than obtaining PCC and NCC Wills.  I don't have any of the Archdeaconry of Suffolk Wills.  There does seem quite a number of Rous families in Suffolk, I would imagine many are related but not necessarily all as it's not that uncommon a name.  I have another unrelated Rous line from White Waltham in Berkshire who moved to Great Waltham in Essex in the early 1600s.  They're supposed to be related to yet another line in Devon but apparently nobody has been able to find any link.

Nicola