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As one of the earliest settlements in America, Rowley was founded by Rev. Ezekiel Rogers in 1639. Few towns as small in population have given more to the nation than Rowley, with so many firsts making up its history-from the great Puritan migration voyage across the sea that Rogers shared with the nation's first printing press to Lorenzo Bradstreet's invention of the Bradstreet Sleeper, which later evolved into the Pullman sleeping car. Rowley has much to offer: scenes of the village, and the historic town common, or the "Training Place," where Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec encamped in 1775, the picturesque Glen Mills area with its 1642 stone arch bridge, and the site of the first fulling mill in the colonies (1642-1643), which manufactured the first cloth made in the Western world. The book displays images of country stores, wagon peddlers, and early gristmills and sawmills. It also shows shoe manufacturing, boatbuilding (at its peak in 1900), farming, and salt marsh haying. It truly brings to life another era in American history.

"In 1638, Thomas Nelson traveled with Rev. Ezekiel Rogers and his company from Rowley, Yorkshire, England, to settle Rowley, Massachusetts. This genealogy treats several generations of Nelson descendants and provides new insight into Thomas's possible ancestry at Drax, Yorkshire. An ahnentafel for Philip Stapleton, the maternal grandfather of Thomas and Philip Nelson, is also included, and indicates each way he descends from Edward I, King of England, and Edward III, King of England. Appendixes provide additional historical context regarding the establishment of Rowley, Massachusetts, and discuss the royal line of Dorothy Stapleton, Thomas Nelson's first wife" -- Publisher's description.