New Kent County was established in 1654 from York County[3] and was organized and settled by William Claiborne.[4] The county's name originated because several prominent inhabitants, including William Claiborne, recently had been forced from their settlement at Kent Island, Maryland by Lord Baltimore upon the formation of Maryland.[5] Claiborne had named the island for his birthplace in Kent, England. Source Wikipedia.Richardson's parents were William Rountree, Abt.1700-1766 and Dorcas Dudley Rountree 1703-1766.
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| Colonists against one another - Tory vs. Patriot |
Richardson is about in the middle of 15 siblings (according to Ancestry). The following quote is on Ancestry under his name, a well documented discussion of Dr. CWOKR's research.
"He is not mentioned, so far as I can determine, in any record until his father’s will, dated 1 October 1765 and proven 16 September 1766 in Goochland County.[1] The will left him 200 acres, one slave and five cattle. He must have left Virginia almost immediately after his father’s death, for he was of South Carolina on 25 September 1768, when he sold to his brother Randall Rountree the 200 acres in Goochland County which was “…part of the tract on which William Rountree, deceased, lived and devised by his last will and testament to the said Richardson Rountree.”[2] This deed appears to have been a mortgage, for on 27 November 1770, Richardson Rountree, still “of the Province of South Carolina”, made a completed sale to his brother Randall to facilitate Randall’s sale of the land.[3]"
He is probably the “Richard” Rountree for whom at least two surveys were made just north of Fairforest Creek in 1771 and 1773 in the predecessor counties of Union District.[4] By the time the Ninety-six District was formed, he was living there. Richardson Rountree’s name appears on both the grand jury list and the petit jury list for the “Spartan” Division (later Union District) of Ninety-six District in February 1779.[5] His brother Turner Rountree, who was still in Virginia in 1771, had joined him in South Carolina for Richard and Turner appear consecutively on both jury lists.
He is an accepted DAR patriot, based on a records that he engaged in “militia duty in Brandons Regt., before & since the fall of Charlestown.”[6] A grandson, Andrew Jackson Rountree (born in 1818, the son of Richardson’s youngest child, Daniel Rountree), gave an account in the 1890s of this service:[7]
“…He is of South Carolina Stock, his grandfather and father having lived in Edgefield District. Richard (sic) Rountree, his grandfather, was living there during the revolutionary war, and was a very wealthy planter. He joined the patriot army, serving as a captain, and on one occasion while at home an incident occurred which showed his great nerve and courage. He was known as a man of wealth, and believed to be possessed of no small amount of money. This was a tempting bait to the tories, who, learning of his presence at home, surprised and captured him, and attempted to force him to divulge its hiding place. With determined courage he held out against them, although they went to the desperate extreme of tying and leaving him in the swamp. After the tories left, a faithful negro released him after he had been in the swamp two days and saved his life, and he lived to raise a large family. This remarkable man had a family of eighteen children. Three daughters remained in South Carolina. One of these married Wiley Barry; another Samuel Stalnaker, and a third Thomas Goldsmith. Five of the daughters settled in Jasper County, Ga., one marrying Jefferson Smith, another Cary Cox, another Asa Cox, another Stevens and the fifth Wilborn. [note the Wilborn is my ancestor.]
We also have a lengthier account of the same story from a great-grandson, William T. Goldsmith, writing about 1900.[9]
Following the war, on 3 April 1786 Richardson was granted 316 acres on Buffalo Creek, a branch of the Fairforest. He sold part of this grant on 21 December 1790 to Ephraim Wilborn with Richard Powell and his son James Rowntree as witnesses.[10] A few earlier plats for Richardson Rountree exist in the South Carolina archives for lands in the same vicinity, but I have not obtained them.
Richardson Roundtree was in the 1790 census of Union County, in Col. Thomas Brandon’s Regiment, with two males under sixteen, seven females, and six slaves.
The 1790 household should have included eight females, counting his wife, unless one of the daughters married earlier than is thought. Thus we must consider the possibility that Mildred might have been a second wife. Richardson Rountree’s wife is first mentioned on 15 March 1793, when Richardson and his wife Mildred sold 125 acres to Thomas Wilborn.[11] Then on 1 January 1794 “Richardson Rountree, planter, and Mildred his wife”, of Union County, sold the remaining 100 acres of the 1786 grant.[12]It appears that following this sale, Richardson and Mildred, along with several minor children, moved southward into the northern part of Edgefield District. Several grown and married children were left behind in the Union County area
Richardson is enumerated in both the 1800 and 1810 censuses of Edgefield District, as head of a household of seven whites and five blacks in 1800 and of five whites and seven blacks in 1810.[13] Both censuses suggest (as does the 1790 census) that that there might have been one additional son who predeceased his father. His wife Mildred was still living on 3 February 1814 when she and Richardson made a deed of gift to their son Daniel Rountree.[14] She evidently died sometime in the next five years, for Richardson’s estate records do not mention her.
Richardson died intestate in Edgefield District, evidently in March 1819. On 26 March 1819 his sons James and Daniel Rountree applied for letters of administration. They were made coadministrators on 20 April 1819. James and Daniel were the only surviving sons left in South Carolina by this time. Daniel, the younger son by about 30 years, carried the bulk of the administrator duties, apparently because James was living in Union County. Richardson Rountree’s estate sale on 18 and 19 May 1819 included purchases by several of the children, and the settlements of the legatees identify them.[15] These records make it clear Mildred had died before Richardson.
Mildred was identified as “Mildred Hart” in a genealogy published in 1937, without supporting evidence.[17] However, none of the earlier published records of this family (see above) identify her as a Hart. An old theory that she was the daughter of John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, has long been disproved.
Analysis of Richardson’s estate records[18] identifies the same twelve children named by Andrew J. Rountree. If, as Andrew said, there were six more, they must have died before their father and without heirs of their own. And all but one must have died before 1790, for the censuses of 1790, 1800, and 1810 fit the known family with the exception of one son.
...5. Mary Rountree (1772 – 1851?) married Elijah Wilborn, probably after the 1790 census (where only a Epraim Willburn is enumerated). He is in the 1800 Union District census with one male and four females under 10. He reportedly died in 1819 in Union County. Mary is said to have died in Panola County, Mississippi in 1851. They had at least three children – Mary, Jane, and William Rountree Wilbourn.
[I have left out all the other 11 children's information which she details explicitly]
(Source: Ancestry member drcwokr 2013) See footnotes at end of posting.
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The following is my version of his life, and his 2 wives. It may prove to be somewhat fictional, as more documents show people were alive when I thought they had died, or they had died when I thought they were alive...
When he was a young man in 1760 he married Mathilda Anderson in Goochland County, VA, and then they started raising their family, having about 9 children before Mathilda died in 1774. Before that time, Richardson had acquired property in South Carolina, and by 1768 (apparently) he had two children born there, but then returned to VA for the next several children's births. His wife, Maathilda probably died in VA.
In 1775 he remarried a younger woman, Mary Mildred Hart from Maryland. Her father may (or may not) have been the signer of the Declaration of Independence, Hon. John Hart. Richardson and Mary Mildred had another 9 children born in the 96th District, or Union County, SC. Mary Mildred Hart may have died in 1782, but he fathered 3 more children after that date. Either the date of her death is wrong, or he married again and we don't know who that wife was.
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Footnotes of Ancestry member drcwokr:
[1] Goochland County Deed Book 9, p38-39 (will) and p39-40 (inventory)
[2] Goochland County Deed Book 9, p207
[3] Goochland County Deed Book 10, p123
[4] Reference not noted. Land indices at the SC archives show plats in what was then Craven and Granville counties to a Richard Rountree on the waters fo the Pacolet River just north of Fairforest Creek in 1771 and 1773.
[5] The Jury Lists of South Carolina 1778-1779, Hendrix & Lindsay, ed., (1975) p80, p102. Turner and Richardson Rountree appear consecutively on both the grand jury list and the petit jury list, both dated sometime after February 1779, for the Spartan Division of 96 District (which included what was later Union County),
[6] South Carolina Stub Entries to Indents, Vol. X, p178
[7] The Memoirs of Georgia, (1895), Vol. 1, pp377-78
[8] Mr. Rountree’s information on his uncles and aunts is credibly accurate, and it provides a measure of proof that our William Rountree was indeed a son of Richardson Rountree.. It is apparent, however, that he mixed up Thomas (who died in Tennessee) and William (who settled near Huntsville).
[9] Historical Collections of the Joseph Habersham Chapter, Daughters of the American
Revolution, Vol. II (Atlanta, 1902) pp30, 148
[10] Union County Deed Book C, p33
[11] Union County Deed Book C, p364[12] Union County Deed Book C, p351]
[13] Edgefield District 1800 census, p165: Richardson Roundtree 02001-12001-5. 1810 census, p42: Richardson Rountree 10201-00001-7.
[14] Edgefield Deed Book JJ, p?.
[15] Edgefield District probate records, box 25, piece 891.
[16] Tobacco and Slaves, Allan Kulikoff (1986), p56-7, quoting studies of Virginia’s Northern Neck and Middlesex County, Virginia.
[17] The Compendium of American Genealogy, Frederick A. Virkus, Vol. 6 (1937), p106.
[These genealogies were contributed by correspondents and published without verification.]
[18] In loose fibreboard boxes, Edgefield County
[19] SC Revolutionary Indents, “for service in Brandon’s Regiment”.
[20] Union District Deed Book B, p34.
----------------------(more not pertinent, about the other 11 children)
http://www.genfiles.com/rountree/RichardsonRountree.htm
And if all of that isn't enough to be mind-boggling, Richardson Roundtree also was engaged in the War of 1812. More about him tomorrow...
Mildred Hart was not a daughter of John Hart the signer of the declaration. He had no daughter named Mildred according to all known sources and his daughter Mary , who many claimed as Mildred , died without marrying
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Merryanne...I'll definitely look to changing a few things based on your good information.
ReplyDeleteActuially, the author of the lengthy quotation is me, Robert Baird, and it was taken from th earticle on Richardson Rountree on my website at www.genfiles.com/rountree
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Robert Baird. I just looked at your very inclusive site. Will delve into it more as soon as I get a chance!
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