Philip ROUNSEVELL

Philip ROUNSEVELL

Male 1677 - 1763  (86 years)

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  • Name Philip ROUNSEVELL  [1
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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.)
      [1]
    Birth 1 May 1677  Devon, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Death 6 Nov 1763  Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Burial Rounsevell Cemetery, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Person ID I79589  Main Tree
    Last Modified 22 Oct 2015 

    Family 1 Mary HOWLAND,   b. 1673   d. 8 May 1744, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 71 years) 
    Children 
    +1. William ROUNSEVELL,   b. 10 Oct 1705, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 31 Jan 1744, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 38 years)  [Birth]
    Family ID F32025  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 22 Oct 2015 

    Family 2 Rachel PARKER,   b. 1679, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 15 Sep 1745, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 66 years) 
    Family ID F32027  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 22 Oct 2015 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 1 May 1677 - Devon, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 6 Nov 1763 - Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBurial - - Rounsevell Cemetery, Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Headstones
    Philip Rounsevell Headstone
    Philip Rounsevell Headstone
    Philip Rounsevell is the husband of (1) Mary Howland and (2) Rachel Parker. He is buried in the Rounsevell Cemetery in Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts.

    Maintained by: InMemory
    Originally Created by: jtb

  • Sources 
    1. [S02329] Find A Grave Website.