The Roe Family Queen Anne High Chest of Drawers, possibly by Jacob Carle, Hempstead, Queens County, New York, circa 1765

Jonas Roe Sr. (1727-1798) m. Phebe Row (1731-1796), Warwick, New York;

His son, Nathaniel Roe (1751-1821) m. Bathsheba Dunning (1752-1797), Warwick, New York;

His son, Joseph Roe (1791-1864), m. Harriet Wheeler (1796–1876), Warwick, New York;

Their daughter, Harriet Roe (1827-1905) m. Dr. Isaac Carey (b. 1823);

Their son, Fred Carlton Carey (b. 1865), Warwick, New York;

His first cousin, Elizabeth Wheeler Roe (b. 1861) m. Arthur J. Burgess (1856-1934), Deland, Volusia County, Florida;

Their daughter, Mary Elizabeth Clark Burgess Nielsen(d. 1996);

Mark Kiely, Lebanon, Ohio at the Navy Pier Show, Philadelphia, 1995.

Mark Keilly advertisement, Antiques and the Arts Weekly, 2001;

Remi Spriggs, “Living with antiques: An Americana collection in New Jersey,” Magazine Antiques (April 2005), 94-105;

Leslie and Peter Warwick, Love At First Sight: Discovering Stories About Folk Art & Antiques Collected by Two Generations & Three Families, (New Jersey: 2022), pp. 148-50, Fig. 287, 288a-b.

Jacob Carle of Hempstead, Queens County, Long Island is likely the maker of this high chest. As his name is the only name beginning with Car and having less than 6 letters as per the signature in Long Island is my Nation 2^nd edition, Appendix on Long Island woodworking craftsmen. He is listed as a member of the local militia at age 23 in 1758 and was a carpenter. Also the overbuilt nature of the highboy is consistent with being built by a carpenter and not a cabinetmaker. There are several Jacob Carles in Hempstead in the eighteenth century, but one who married Margaret Pettit in 1760 which is about the time the high boy was made and therefore is likely to be the correct maker. 

A high chest of drawers from Long Island with lovely proportions, original surface, and brasses, circa 1760-80, was in Mark Keilly’s ad in the Antiques and the Arts Weekly in 2001. It was his first time showing at the Philadelphia Navy Yard Show. We got in line early and went straight to Mark’s booth. After examining the high chest of drawers, we decided to buy it. 

Mark told us he had received a call from a friend in Deland, Florida about the high chest being available and the next day he drove straight to Florida from Dayton, Ohio without stopping, in order to purchase it. He bought the high chest from the Roe family, originally from Long Island, and then about 1730, they moved to Warwick, New York, and about 1910, they moved to Deland, Florida. We found a jelly label in the top left drawer which had several undecipherable words, but what we could read was: ...family piece-Hunt...it might have been /Roe piece.

It is similar to a Oyster Bay, Long Island high chest of drawers from illustrated in Long Island is My Nation by Dean Failey, pp. 118-9. It has three smaller drawers on the top section and one long drawer over three drawers on the bottom section. It had similar slipper feet and a cyma curved skirt with a central three-part fish tail. We visited several Long Island historical societies and concluded the high chest was made on Long Island.

We found on the side of the top left drawer a very faint chalk inscription Car.. and there was space for only two more letters before the drawer ended but the letters were illegible. In Long Island Is My Nation, there is a list of cabinet makers active in Long Island in the 1750s-60s when the high chest was made. The only names beginning with Car and having a couple of letters after the “Car..” were two brothers whose last name was Carle. They lived in North Hempstead, Queens County, Long Island about 13 miles from Oyster Bay. Jacob Carle was listed as a carpenter. John Carle was listed as a carpenter/joiner. According to Dean Failey, on Long Island, the term “carpenter/joiner” was used in preference to “cabinetmaker”. Therefore, the high chest was most likely made by John Carle. Since John also lived in North Hempstead, only five miles from Flushing, where the Roes had originally lived, they could have easily purchased it in North Hempstead, Long Island.

Mark Keily told us he bought the high chest from Elizabeth Clark Burgess Nielsen in Deland, Florida and that she inherited the high chest from her parents, Elizabeth Roe and Arthur J. Burgess. Five years later Mark gave us a small notebook that he had found in the high chest that he meant to give us. Fred C. Carey was on the cover of the notebook where he kept his bridge scores. With this information from Mark, the information written on the jelly label, and Fred Carey’s name on the notebook, we decided to use these clues to pursue the Roe family provenance. The underlined names are the likely owners of the high chest.

The first Roe in New York was Nathaniel Roe (1670-?). He and his family lived in Flushing, Long Island as early as 1670. His son, Nathaniel (1702-1770) had a few children and moved about 1730 to Warwick, Orange County, New York where he had six more children. Since he already had a family when the high chest was made in 1760-80, he was not the likely buyer. Unfortunately, the wills in Orange County do not have the inventories of the Roes on file.

We hypothesize how the high chest got to Warwick, New York and ended up in Deland, Florida. Below are the probably owners and the owners that are proven by evidence: Mark Keilly, the bridge book, and a label inside the chest.

1. Jonas Roe(1727-1798) the son of Nathaniel Roe is likely the first owner as he was 25 years-old and was establishing a family in 1755-80 in Warwick, New York, when the high chest was made. High chests were not made in Orange County, New York, so he probably went back to Hempstead, Long Island where his family was from to get one.

2. The high chest passed down to Jonas’ eldest son, Nathaniel Roe (1751-1821).

3. Nathaniel’s youngest son, Joseph Roe (1791-1864) was the will’s executor and probably got the high chest. Joseph married Harriet Wheeler and they had two sons: James and Gilbert and two daughters: Harriet Ruth Roe (1823-?) and Ann M. Roe (1819-?).

4. Gilbert Roe, his wife, and daughter, Elizabeth moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin about 1860 and likely did not take the high chest with them since it is extremely heavy. It was probably left with Harriet Roe.

Harriet Roe married Dr. Isaac Carey (1823-?). They had one child, Fred, whose bridge book was found in the high chest. Ann never married and lived with the Careys. 

5. Fred C. Carey inherited the high chest. In the 1910 Census, he was president of the First National Bank of Warwick, New York. Fred never married and died in Warwick in 1926.

6. The high chest seems to have passed down to his first cousin, Elizabeth Roe, who was the daughter of Gilbert Wheeler Roe. Elizabeth lived in Wisconsin where Gilbert Roe became a millionaire in banking and lumber and died in 1902. After he died his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Arthur J. Burgess moved to Deland, Velusia County, Florida according to the 1920 Census. Elizabeth inherited the high chest from her first cousin Fred Carey when he died in 1926. Elizabeth died in 1935.

7. Their daughter, Elizabeth Clark Burgess Nielsen inherited the high chest and sold it to Mark Keilly in 1995. She died in 1996 at the age of nearly 100. Her main house in Florida had burned down but not the barn where the high chest of drawers was stored.