William Rosewell

Major William Rosewell (c.1606 – c.1680) (also Rowswell or Rousewell), was a London apothecary, a Royalist soldier, apothecary to Queen Catherine (wife of Charles II), and Master of the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries (1661–62).

Family William Rosewell is identified as 'Somerset born' and of 'North Curry, Somerset'. He commenced his apprenticeship in 1620 at about 14 years of age so was born about 1606.

Sometime before 1638, William married Phillipa Phillips (died 1705) the youngest daughter of Francis Phillips of London (one of the Auditors of the Royal Exchequer) and sister of Francis Phillips (died 1674), of the Inner Temple and of Sunbury Manor, Sunbury, Middlesex (now Surrey). William and Phillipa had two sons, William (1638–1692) and Edward (1641- dead by 1679), who were both admitted to William Dugard's private school in 1650. Dugard had been temporarily suspended as headmaster of the Merchant Taylor's School. William Rosewell junior went on to St Paul's School and to Wadham College, Oxford, in 1656 as a Pauline Exhibitor. He graduated B.A. 1660, M.A. 1663 and D.Med Lambeth 1675.

William Rosewell M.D. had a practice at Guildford, Surrey. He married Jane Davies and they had two children: William (c.1662–1693) buried at Sunbury; He began his career as personal attendant to Richard Neile, Bishop of Winchester (1628–31) and later Archbishop of York (1631–40), a close associate of William Laud in the Star Chamber and elsewhere. He was released in an exchange of prisoners in September and within a few days was promoted to Major.

Sir Marmaduke Rawdon and his regiment marched out of Basing House in May 1645 and eventually took up positions in Faringdon, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) where they were soon again under siege. Major Rosewell received an injury to his thigh in early 1646 when leading an attack against occupying forces. He led the defence of Faringdon until the surrender of 24 June 1646.

During the 1650s William Rosewell was reappointed an officer of the London Trained Bands, living on his pay and possibly acting as a Royalist spy. In 1662 he commanded a body of Trained Bandsmen that broke up a Quaker meeting and imprisoned thirty of the worshipers. He was later Lieutenant Colonel of the Yellow Regiment of the Trained Bands and a Justice of the Peace.

His estates at North Curry had been sequestered (confiscated) as he 'Bore arms against Parliament'. He paid a fine in 1646 to have them restored. However, in 1647 he lodged a complaint with the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents that a Thomas Rosewell, who had held the estate during sequestration, had refused to give up possession of 3 acres in Haskin (Haskey) Moor, (North Curry), Somerset. The Committee decided to take no further action in 1648.

William Rosewell was elected as Master of the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries in August 1661 and held the position for the one-year term. He is described as a 'remarkable man upon whose judgement in difficult negotiations the Company had come to rely with increasing confidence'. Unfortunately, the Queen was no better at paying her servants than was the King as William had to again seek funding from the Treasury for the perfumes he had made for Catherine's private chapel. restored his personal fortune.

Death William Rosewell is reported to have died in the 1680s but no specific date of death or burial has been found. The last reference to him was to a deed of settlement made 10 February 1679 by which 'William Rosewell, of Bloomsbury, conveys the leases of a house in the new street called Southampton Street and of eight tenements in Paternoster Row, to Sir Rob. Sawyer and others, in trust for his wife Philippa after his death, his grandchildren William and Edward Rosewell, and his son William Rosewell, M.D.; with several contingent remainders.'

However, his place of burial and that of his wife and eldest son is known: ‘A note of the graves in the chancel and church of Sunbury as far as I am aware taken 7 March 1692. In the middle of the chancel: Dr Wm Rosewell of Guildford; In ye south side Col Wm Rosewell of London ye Queen’s Apothecary and ye Dr’s father’. In her will written in 1700, Phillipa Rosewell directs that her body be buried in Sunbury Church in the same grave as her late husband.