William ROUNSEVELL

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William Rounseville
Massachusetts, Deaths and Burials
Name: William Rounseville
Gender: Male
Death Date: 31 Jan 1744
Death Place: Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts
Father's Name: Philip Rounseville
Mother's Name: Mary Rounseville
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: B03765-4 , System Origin: Massachusetts-EASy, GS Film number: 1993524 , Reference ID: P 291
Citing this Record
"Massachusetts, Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FH9N-V8Q : accessed 07 Oct 2014), William Rounseville, 31 Jan 1744; citing Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts, reference P 291; FHL microfilm 1993524.

William married Elizabeth MACOMBER about 1735. Elizabeth (daughter of John MACOMBER and Elizabeth WILLIAMS) was born on 15 Mar 1715 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA; died on 3 Jan 1815 in Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William ROUNSEVELL was born in 1735 in Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA; died in Sep 1797 in Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA.
2. Joseph ROUNSEVELL was born about 1737.
3. Levi ROUNSEVELL was born about 1739.
4. Sylvester ROUNSEVELL was born on 18 Mar 1741; died in young.
5. Elizabeth ROUNSEVELL was born on 25 Aug 1743 in Freetown, Massachusetts.

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Maintained by: InMemory
Originally Created by: jtb

Philip Rounsevell was born in Honiton, England, whence he came to America before 1704 and settled in Freetown, Massachusetts. He was employed in the cloth dressing mills of Captain Josiah Winslow. Subsequently he purchased a large tract of land at Furnace Village, East Freetown, where he erected a dam and a mill, in which he conducted for many years the business of cloth dressing. (A cloth dresser assembled yarns on a beam and applied a paste to the wrap to smooth down the filaments of yarn and increase stiffness before weaving.) (Gen. & Fam. Hist. of the State of NH, Ezra Stearns, v. 2 p. 904)

Sailing from either Torquay or Topsham in 1698 or 1700, Philip Rounsevell left Honiton, Devonshire, England to live in East Freetown (Assonet Village) Bristol County, Massachusetts. His personality emerges from the historical material as a shrewd businessman, a stubborn, independent thinker and a devoted grandfather. (Avis J. Kirsch, A Rounseville Chronicle)

Philip was by trade a clothier or cloth dresser, remarkably possessed with the faculty of "taking time by the forelock." He gained an enormous estate, completely disproportionate to that of any of his neighbors. His intuitive foresight taught him to go into the wild woods and select just the sites and tracts that became most valuable. One of his favorite plans was to purchase lands which others discarded as worthless. But when mill sites became wanted, Philip Rounsevell was found to hold the key to almost every stream, brook, or rivulet having an available water power, for miles around. Neighbors had laughed at his land that "would starve a grasshopper." In derision, they called his land "Skunk's Misery", and "Beaver's Paradise." But now this same land controlled mighty water supplies. (Ebenezer W. Pierce, The Peirce Family, p. 93-94)

He is the son of William, and a "clothier" or cloth dresser by occupation, came to New England prior to Dec. 25, 1704, the date of a letter from Philip to his father. He later, it is said, removed to the site of the later Malachi Howland house to go into business for himself and built the dam of the "Howland mill." He removed from Freetown about 1721 to near Hunting House Brook in Middleboro and thence to that part of Tiverton which later became East Freetown. He purchased there a large tract of land and built the mill dam at Freetown village, where on the site of the old cloth mill his children erected a blast furnace, a sawmill and gristmill and still later a sash, door and blind factory. (Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts, p. 201.)

Philip married Mary HOWLAND. Mary (daughter of Samuel HOWLAND and Mary SAMPSON) was born in 1673; died on 8 May 1744 in Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts; was buried in Rounsevell Cemetery, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Samuel married Mary SAMPSON about 1673. Mary (daughter of Abraham SAMSON and ? NASH) was born about 1650; died after 18 Apr 1716. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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The youngest (at least the last mentioned in the will of Humphrey) of the Howlands who have been heretofore referred to as arriving at Plymouth probably before 1625, was without doubt Henry. It is on record that he was a brother of Arthur, and they all doubtless held the same family relationship to each other.....

Search has been made in vain for his name on records of departures from England and arrivals in this country. The first mention made of him in New England is that in the allotment of cattle to the different families in Plymouth in 1624, he appears as the owner of the "black cow." On the first page of Vol. 1 of the curt records of new Plymouth, is found in a list of freemen, under date of 1633, the name of "Henery Howland." On the 25th of March of the ame year he is taxed "s.9 for the publike vse,......rated in corne at vi s p bushell." His thrift is shown in the fact that on the 27th of March, 1634, he is on the tax list for 18s.

He appears in Duxbury among its earliest settlers, some of the first inhabitants of Plymouth locating themselves there across the harbor, on the north side of the bay. here he is referred to as living "by the bay side, near Love Brewster's" and the record reads that he was "one of the substantial landholders and freemen."

The old records of Plymouth colony say that "Att a Courte held ye 5 of Jan., An 1635." Henry Howland was chosen "cunstable for Duxberry.".....

In 1640 he purchases five acres of upland and one acre of marsh meadow in Duxbury, the price which he paid being "Twelve bushells of Indian Corne." For several years he was surveyor of highways in the town. In 1643 he was on a list of freemen of Duxbury, and of men able to bear arms. He served on the "Grand Inquest" (grand jury) in 1636, '38, '39, '40, '49, '51, '52, '53, '56.

He was evidently placed on the next grand jury, for his name appears in 1657, June 3d, on a list of tose who refused "to serve on the Grand Enquest". The apparent reason for this is that he had joined the Friends' sect, which was just beginning to spread in America, and the duties were such that he could not conscientiously perform them...

At the court of October, 1657, Henry "was summonsed to appear at the next March Court to answare for intertaining Quakers meetings in his house." he appeared at the court referred to, and was fined 10s....

Toward the latter part of his life he became a large possessor of real estate. In 1652 he was associated with others in a large tract of land in Dartmouth. On the 2d of April, 1659, together with twenty-six others, he bought of Wamsutta and Pattapanum what was then called Assonet and is now Freetown. They gave 20 coats, 2 rugs, 2 iron pots, 2 kettles and one little kettle, 8 pairs shoes, 6 pairs stockings, 1 dozen hats, 2 dozen hatchets, and 2 yards broadcloth. At the division, in 1660, of "yeffreeman's land att Taunton River," which was this purchase, he received for his share the sixth lot. This was afterwards inherited by his son Samuel. He was one of the grantees of Bridgewater, but probably never lived there. In 1664 he bought a large tract of land in Mettapoisett (Swanzey).

Henry married Mary about 1628. Mary was born in England; died on 16 Jun 1674 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: The claim that Mary was a NEWLAND is unsupported

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Brother to Henry Samson

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Name:
Samuel Sampson, deceased grandson of Lieut. Samuel Nash, was a son of Abraham Sampson of Duxbury, from which it appears that Samuel Sampson's mother was one of the daughters of Lieut. Nash. Abraham Sampson had sons George, Abraham and Isaac who are not mentioned as Lieut. Nash's grandsons. From these facts it is evident that Abraham Sampson had two wives, one of whom was the daughter of Lieut. Nash and the mother of Samuel Sampson, oldest son of Abraham Sampson. The writer has no information concerning Abraham Sampson's second wife.

Abraham Sampson, supposed to have been a brother of Henry; came from England some time after Henry, it is not known in what year, but probably in 1629 or 1630; and settled at Duxbury. He was on the list of persons in Duxbury "able to bear arms," in 1643. that list included all able-bodied males between the ages of sixteen and sixty. he was one of the fifty-four original grantees of Bridgewater, 645, all of whom then resided in Duxbury. He was surveyor of highways, 1648; constable, 1653; and was admitted freeman of Plymouth Colony in 1654. He was living in 1686; after which there is no record of him.

His wife, whose baptismal name does not appear, was a daughter of Samuel Nash, the Lieutenant of the Duxbury company. Lieut. Nash was frequently engaged in the military expeditions of the Colony, and was an officer in nearly all of them. He was respected by the people; was frequently honored with civil trusts; and was sheriff or chief marshal of the colony, from 1652, through a period of more than twenty years.

Winsor says that Abraham Sampson had a second wife, but does not give her name.

There is no will of Abraham Sampson, or settlement of his estate, on record. As the records of Duxbury, prior to 1666, were destroyed by fire, we are unable yo make out a full list of his children. We are able, however, to give the names of four sons, who came to maturity, and had families. If there were daughters, and if there were other sons, their memory has perished.

Abraham married ? NASH. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Lieut. Samuel Nash

Notes:

Name:
Samuel Sampson, deceased grandson of Lieut. Samuel Nash, was a son of Abraham Sampson of Duxbury, from which it appears that Samuel Sampson's mother was one of the daughters of Lieut. Nash. Abraham Sampson had sons George, Abraham and Isaac who are not mentioned as Lieut. Nash's grandsons. From these facts it is evident that Abraham Sampson had two wives, one of whom was the daughter of Lieut. Nash and the mother of Samuel Sampson, oldest son of Abraham Sampson. The writer has no information concerning Abraham Sampson's second wife.