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James Rosier (1573-1609), the son of a Church of England clergyman, became a Roman Catholic after graduating from Cambridge. He is known for his account of a 1605 expedition to Maine in which he describes the native peoples and fauna and a journey along an unidentified "great river" which has not been positively identified, but may have been the Penobscot or the Saint George River. In 1608 Rosier left England for Rome, where he joined the English College of the Jesuits. After his ordination in 1609 he took the name Philip James in anticipation of joining the Jesuit mission in England, but died at Loreto later that year on his journey to England.
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Rosier was born on 1 June 1573 at Winston, Suffolk, the son of James Rosier (d. 1581), a Church of England clergyman, and his wife, Dorothy Johnson. After his father's death in 1581, he was brought up in Ipswich by Robert Wolfrestone, a relative of his mother's, and then in Sir Philip Parker's household. After graduating BA from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1593 and MA in 1596,[1] he entered the household of Sir Philip Woodhouse at Kimberley Hall in Norfolk where he became a Roman Catholic about 1602 under the influence of Lady Woodhouse, a member of the Catholic Yelverton family.[2]
Rosier was among those who sailed to Maine with Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602.[3] About that time he met Thomas Arundell, who hoped to establish a colony in America for his fellow Catholics. Arundell joined with Plymouth merchants and perhaps his brother-in-law, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, to set forth an expedition under Captain George Weymouth to explore the Maine coast. The voyage lasted from 5 March to 18 July 1605, with Rosier on board as cape merchant and reporter.[4]
According to Quinn, there were three versions of Rosier's account of the voyage: a now-lost journal; a manuscript version obtained first by Hakluyt and then by Purchas, who abridged it in Purchas his Pilgrimes in 1624; and yet another manuscript, perhaps edited by Hakluyt, which was published as A true relation of the most prosperous voyage made this present yeere 1605, by Captaine George Waymouth, in the discovery of the land of Virginia.[5] On 30 October 1605 Rosier, acting as Weymouth's agent, witnessed an agreement with Sir John Zouche for a voyage to Virginia, which was abandoned as a result of the revelation of the Gunpowder Plot in November of that year, and the development of other plans for the colonization of Virginia.[6]
For the next two years Rosier was in the service of Lord Buckhurst. On 7 May 1608 he left for Rome, where he was admitted into the Jesuit English College. The account he gave there of his life omits his involvement in the voyage of 1605. He was ordained on 18 April 1609, taking the name Philip James. He died at Loreto later that year on his way back to England to participate in the Jesuits' English mission.[7]
The location of the "excellent river" discovered on the 1605 voyage is not specified. Morey argues that the expedition explored the Penobscot River. It has also been suggested that he traveled up the Saint George River.[8] The native Algonquian vocabulary Rosier records was earlier identified as Etchemin.[9] More recently it has been argued that it is Eastern Abenaki.[10]