This village was named after Rockingham Castle in Britain. In 1858, John Samuel James Watson left Rockingham Castle where he lived, but he left in disgrace. The 36-year old man had married a maid, Mary Martin, 14 years his junior. "This alliance, so far below his station" was just not acceptable to the Watson family who had lived at the castle, built for William the Conqueror, since Edward Watson leased the property in 1553.
The Watson clan took a practical approach to solving the problem. Legend has it that they invested $10,000 to finance John's banishment to Canada. He used some of the money to recruit a group of neighbours with the skills necessary to carve a village out of the wilderness. They made their way across the Atlantic, up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers to Farrell's Landing near Renfrew. They continued along the primitive Ottawa and Opeongo Colonization Road for about 80 km and the Peterson Branch Road for another 5 km. They then turned off for 3 km to their destination, a wooded valley containing a patch of arable soil, rare in the Canadian Shield."
Today it retains a few old buildings like its wooden church. People do still live here and it is a semi-ghost town along the old Peterson Colonization Rd.
The Rockingham Church, formerly known as St. Leonard’s Anglican Church, was built about 1875, when the hamlet of Rockingham was a thriving community.The post-and-beam church, clad with vertical pine siding and cedar roof shingles, held its last regular service in 1924 although it was not closed until 1941. The tiny congregation did not justify the payment of a minister and the cost of upkeep. On May 14, 1967, the Bishop of Ottawa performed the Act of Secularization on the church, ending its 92-year reign. The beautifully-proportioned building continued to keep watch over the village, gradually succumbing to decay until the Madawaska Association for Development Ecology came to its rescue in 1975. MADE repaired the back wall, re-shingled the roof and arranged for return of the curved pews from Quadeville Pentecostal Church. Unfortunately, another period of neglect followed until its condition forced the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa to apply for a demolition permit in 1995. This spurred a group of individuals to form The Friends of Rockingham Church, Inc. who assumed ownership of the building in 1998.
The headstone for John Watson can be found in the graveyard. This will require a short climb up a steep hill to the church. You are looking for a well camouflaged PB jar.
For an interesting video about the restoration, visit https://youtu.be/1Fnrdty7PK8