According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, it is thought that he was educated at Macclesfield Grammar School.

[1] He started mining copper at Coniston in the Lake District in 1756 and around the same time at Alderley Edge, Cheshire.

In 1758 he built a copper smelter on Macclesfield Common[1] using coal from a shallow outcrop outside the town.

[2] 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.

Both ore and coal were landed at a small purpose built dock below the copper smelting works on Wellington Road, Toxteth.

[3] In 1743 Roe married Elizabeth Lankford, daughter of a button merchant of Leek, with whom he had three children who survived infancy.

He invited Rev David Simpson to Macclesfield and built Christ Church for him to undertake his ministry.