See also
| Husband: | Charles Roe (1715-1781) | |
| Wife: | Rachel Harriott (c. 1735-1819) | |
| Children: | John Harriott Roe (1768-1833) | |
| Marriage | 23 Oct 1766 | Prestbury, Cheshire |
| Name: | Charles Roe | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | Thomas Roe (1670-1723) | |
| Mother: | Mary Turner (1670-1724) | |
| Birth | 7 May 1715 | Castleton, Derbyshire |
| Death | 3 May 1781 (age 65) | Macclesfield, Cheshire |
| Fact1 | Three wives and at least 14 children between 1744 and 1768. | |
| Name: | Rachel Harriott | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | - | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | c. 1735 | St Elizabeth's, Jamaica |
| Death | 15 May 1819 (age 83-84) | |
| Name: | John Harriott Roe | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Spouse: | Hannah Ramsden ( - ) | |
| Birth | 12 Jul 1768 | Macclesfield, Cheshire |
| Death | 19 Oct 1833 (age 65) | Macclesfield, Cheshire |
Charles Roe was admitted as a freeman and a burgess of Macclesfield
His memorial is ornamented with "devices emblematic of his mathematical genius".
The funeral took place at dusk, was torchlit, elaborate and somewhat theatrical.
A coin which he himself had designed is held in the Roe files. On the front is a bust and the legend "CHARLES ROE ESTABLISHED THE COPPER WORKS 1758". On the back is a seated figure of Genius with one hand on a cogwheel and holding a drill in the other and the legend "MACCLESFIELD HALFPENNY 1791".
He was working as a merchant in the old-established silk button industry, then in August 1758, he and his brother-in-law, Rowland Atkinson, Headmaster of the Macclesfield Grammar School, began erection of a copper smelting mill on Macclesfield Common. He also discovered a valuable copper mine in Anglesey. His monument and portrait are in Christ Church and there is a copy of the portrait in the Town Hall.
He was the subject of a Paper by WH Chaloner, "Charles Roe of Macclesfield (1715-1781), an Eighteenth Century Industrialist" Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 62 (1971)
With grateful acknowledgements to Sue Terwijn.
Charles Roe (7 May 1715 - 3 May 1781) was an English industrialist. He played an important part in establishing the silk industry in Macclesfield, Cheshire and later became involved in the mining and metal industries.
He was born in Castleton, Derbyshire, the youngest of the eight children of Rev Thomas Roe, vicar of Castleton, and his wife Mary née Turner. His father died when he was aged eight and the family moved to Stockport, Cheshire. Soon after this his mother also died and Charles went to live with siblings in Macclesfield. It is thought that he was educated at Macclesfield Grammar School. He entered the button and twist trade and became a freeman of Macclesfield in 1742. In 1743-44 he built a small watermill on Park Green and in 1748, in partnership with Glover & Co., a larger mill for the production of silk on Waters Green. Roe was mayor of Macclesfield in 1747-48
He started mining copper at Coniston in 1756 and around the same time at Alderley Edge, Cheshire. In 1758 he built a copper smelter on Macclesfield Common. Roe built brass-wire and rolling mills at Eaton near Congleton and at Bosley. In 1764 he obtained a mining lease for Parys Mountain in Anglesey and for a lead mine in Caernarvonshire. In March 1768 a discovery was made of a very large deposit of copper ore, which was known as 'The Great Lode' and which turned the mine into the largest copper mine in Europe.
In 1767 Roe & Co. built a copper smelter on Liverpool's south shore but following complaints about pollution the works was moved to Toxteth Park. Roe ceased mining at Alderley Edge in 1768 and at Coniston in 1770. In 1774 the Macclesfield Copper Company was formed comprising Roe and 14 other partners. It became one of the three greatest brass companies of the late 18th century.
In 1743 Roe married Elizabeth Lankford, daughter of a button merchant of Leek, with whom he had three children who survived infancy. Elizabeth died in 1750 and Roe then married Mary Stockdale in 1752 with whom he had eight children. Mary died in 1763 and Roe married Rachel Harriott in 1766, with whom he had one son.
Charles Roe was an evangelical Christian. He invited Rev David Simpson to Macclesfield and built Christ Church for him to undertake his ministry. Roe was buried in the family vault in Christ Church. A memorial to his memory is on the south wall of the church.
Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Roe)