Some Comments on the Origin and Spelling of the name.  I’ve chosen to use “Rountree” except when quoting or abstracting records.

Some early Rountree immigrants to America are listed below.  They probably account for the majority of Rountrees found in early American records.  I’ve somewhat arbitrarily given them labels based on their initial settlement locations.

Nansemond Rountrees

Several Rountrees emigrated to Nansemond County, Virginia in the 1680s.  A Charles Rowntree received a patent for land in Nansemond County in 1685 for transportation of himself, Robert Rountree, and five others.¹   The following year Robert and Francis Roundtree patented land nearby in Nansemond for transportation of, among others, Thomas Roundtree and Elizabeth Roundtree.².  Unfortunately, the early records of Nansemond County, apart from land patents, are nonexistent, denying us the ability to sort out the families of most of these four men.  However, Francis Rountree and Thomas Rountree shortly settled a short distance south in Chowan precinct of Albemaarle County, North Carolina where they each left several records, including their wills.   A significant number of Rountrees of North Carolina in the mid-1700s were apparently children and grandchildren of these immigrants.

• Records of the Nansemond/Chowan Rountrees is an extensive set of abstracted records for these immigrant Rountrees inNansemond County, Virginia and Chowan & Perquimans counties of North Carolina.
• Records in Eastern North Carolina is a compendium of Rountree records in Beaufort, Craven Edgecombe, Johnston, Dobbs, Waye, Pitt and other counties in eastern North Carolina to which the “Nansemond Rountrees” migrated in the mid-1700s.
• Records in and around Barnwell District, South Carolina — chronology of recoreds for a branch of the family that migrated to either side of the Savannah River just before the Revolution.

Note:   A manuscript entitled “Rowntree and Rountree Family History 1521 – 1953”, by Joseph Gustave Rountree II (Privately published, 1959), mentioned elsewhere in these pages, contains an anecdotal history of a few of the Nansemond immigrants supposedly passed down through the family, which is (to say the least) almost entirely fanciful.   Similarly, the legend of a single group of brothers immigrating separately to Nansemond and New Kent appears to be of modern origin, and is obviously an attempt to connect the two sets of immigrants.

New Kent Rountrees   

On 23 April 1681, Charles Turner received a patent for 2400 acres in New Kent [later Hanover] County, Virginia for the importation of 48 persons, among them a Tho. Roundtree and a Wm. Roundtree.³  Perhaps the same William Roundtree appears on a militia roster in New Kent County on 4 July 1702⁴  and on the 1704 Quit Rent list with 100 acres.⁵. A generation later a John Rountree appears in the records of one of New Kent’s parishes.  ((C. G. Chamberlayne, ed., The Vestry Book of Blisland Parish, New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia 1721-1786, pages 21, 33, 37)).    As with Nansemond County, the early records of New Kent County were destroyed, denying us With very few exceptions, the early records of New Kent County were destroyed, denying us the knowledge of how (or whether) these men were related.

A William Rountree (c1700-1765) of New Kent County moved into adjacent Hanover County and then Goochland County, whose records are sufficient to identify his family in some detail, many of whom settled in other colonies and states.

• Records of the New Kent/Hanover/Coochland County, Virginia Rountrees is an extensive set of abstracted records for this Rountree family
• A brief genealogy of William Rountree (c1700 – 1765) of New Kent, Hanover and Goochland counties, Virginia and his family.

Orange County (NC) Rountrees

Thomas Rountree, said to be from Ireland, married Eva Sturgis on a trip back to Ireland, and eventually settled in Orange County, North Carolina sometime in the 1760s or early 1770s.   His children are well documented in the files below.

• Records of the Orange County, North Carolina Rountrees is an extensive set of abstracted records for this Rountree family
• A family tradition and genealogy written by a son of Thomas Rountree in 1867.

Some Additional Rountree Immigrants

• William Rountree (c1722 – ?) of Gloucester County, Virginia
• A few other Miscellaneous Colonial-Era Rountrees who don’t seem to belong to the above families
• Rountree mariners of the 17th and 18th centuries, found in American & British records

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Bob’s own Rountree line

This line begins with William Rountree of New Kent County

• William Rountree (c1700 – 1765) of New Kent, Hanover and Goochland counties, Virginia and his family.
  • Some thoughts on identifying his wife Dorcas
• Richardson Rountree (c1735? – March 1819) of Virginia and South Carolina and his family.
• William Rountree (c1765 – 1836) of South Carolina, Lincoln County, Tennessee and Marshall County, Alabama and his family.
  • Summary of the evidence that William Rountree was the son of Richardson Rountree
  • Some thoughts on identifying his wife Sally Rountree
  • The William Rountree murder case in South Carolina
  • The William Rountree Divorce Case of 1822 in Alabama
  • A lengthy list of records pertaining to William Rountree in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama (under construction)
  • The legend of the William Rountree Pocket Watch
• Seaborn Jones Rountree (11 August 1792 – 1885?) of Lauderdale, Marshall, and Jackson counties, Alabama and Cass County, Texas and his family.

 

1. Virginia Patent Book 7, p487. [↩]
2. Virginia Patent Book 7, p501. [↩]
3. Virginia Patent Book 7, p80. [↩]
4. “County Militia records taken from Public Record office, London” Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, Virginia’s Colonia Soldiers (Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988), p218. [↩]
5. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1923), pp. 215-231. [↩]