Charles Rountree, father of Thomas Rountree (1733-1805)

 

We have two clues to the background of the immigrant Thomas Rountree.

  • First, his youngest son Joseph Rountree wrote in his 1867 statement that his father Thomas Rountree “was the son of Charles and Lydia Rountree” and his mother was “Eva Sturgis, daughter of Andrew and Rachel Sturgis.”  He also wrote that his father emigrated from Ireland and related a family legend of his ancestry that seems mostly fantasy.
  • Second, we know that Thomas Rountree was from the vicinity of Mulladry in County Armagh, Ulster. According to a 1760 Belfast newspaper notice, Thomas Rountree and John Sturgis of Rich-hill, County Armagh were scheduled to sail from Londonderry, Ireland on 15 June 1760 in the ship Willey, bound for Philadelphia and New Castle.1. The village of Richhill is today, and presumably was then, just a brisk walk from Mulladry in County Armagh.

Early Rountrees in County Armagh

The earliest record of Rountrees in County Armagh is the presence of “Widdow Rowntry” and “Thomas Rowntry” on the Hearth Tax roll of 1664, as two of the five housekeepers in Mullaghdreene (as Mulladry was then styled.)2

Almost all early records for Armagh were destroyed, mainly in the Four Courts Fire of 1922, including the records for its Kilmore parish.   So we know nothing of the relationships of the Rountrees living there.   However, a handful of fortuitously preserved records provide a few tantalizing clues.

We know, for instance, that a William Rountree leased 120 acres in Mulladry in 1693.3  He moved roughly 40 miles southwest into Cavan County about 1709, where on 6 February 1709/10 William Rowntree “formerly of Mulladry in the parish of Killmore and County of Ardmagh” leased 106 acres in Shercock, County Cavan.4  A few years later on 6 February 1715/6 he gifted that land to his son William Rountree Junior in a deed witnessed by his daughter Lettice Rountree.5  About the same time William Rountree Senior married a widow named Anne Rountree.  On 9 March 1715/6, in accordance with a marriage agreement, he placed the 120 acres in Mulladry, County Armagh in trust with a Charles Rountree “of Lattuan in the County of Monaghan, Gent.” for Anne Rountree in the event that she survived him and in lieu of her dower interest in his other property.6.

How this William Rountree might have been related to the other Rountrees of Armagh is unknown, but he appears to have been the first Rountree to settle in County Cavan.

Charles Rountree, father of Thomas Rountree

Charles Rountree was enumerated in 1737 as a freeholder leasing 56 acres on the townland of Derryhale adjoining Mulladry, Armagh with a three-lives lease “for ye lives of John, Tho’s & Wm. Rountree sons of ye sd Charles.”7  The same document lists an earlier three-lives lease to Charles Rountree for 36½ acres in the adjacent townland of Mulladry for the lives of himself, his wife “Lidy” and his son John — a lease evidently made before the births of Thomas and William.  They lived on the Mulladry land, as the land in Derryhale did not include a house.

Not far away in Mulladry was Thomas Rountree’s eventual father-in-law Andrew Sturgis, leasing 25 acres for the lives of himself and his sons John and Thomas.8

The only other Rountree in County Armagh in the 1737 poll list was a Thomas Rountree, who was leasing 46 acres in Mulladry for the lives of his sons John and Richard, and the life of Francis, son of William Rountree.9  Thomas Rountree, perhaps the father or brother of Charles Rountree, had witnessed a deed in Armagh in 1726.10  Thomas bought land in Markethill, just south of Richhill, in 1742 as Thomas Rountree “the elder”, witnessed by Richard Rountree, presumably his son.11

The 1753 Armagh Poll Book listed Charles Rowntree still with both properties.12   John Rowntree (Rowntry), perhaps his son, was listed consecutively.  Thomas Rowntree and Richard Rowntree, both in Mulladry, were the only other Rountrees in the county.13   Andrew Sturgis was listed elsewhere in Kilmore parish.14 Both Charles Rountree and John Rountree were later listed as overseers of roads in the Kilmore parish of Mulladry in 1771.15

There are almost no surviving records that might shed further light on this family. A Charles Rowntree was leasing a house in Markethill, about six miles south of Richhill, in 1768.16  And on 1 January 1780 a Charles Rountree witnessed a deed of gift from a widow named Ann Jackson to her son John Jackson of Mullatra.17

Charles Rountree apparently lived until 1782.  A Charles Rountree of Mulladry left a will in County Armagh dated 5 November 1781 and proved in 1782.18  Unfortunately, the will itself no longer exists.  Only the entry in an index survives.  Probably his son John Rountree, identified as of Derryhale, left a will probated in 1801 which was also lost.19 Same page.)

Questionable Internet Family Trees

Internet family trees, none of which provide sources, claim that Charles Rountree was born in 1681, married Lydia McMann in 1712 and died about 1759.   These dates, which appear to be guesses, seem at least a decade or two too early for the facts we know.   And they don’t account for Charles Rountree’s seeming presence in Mulladry in 1768, 1771 or 1780.  Nor do they mention that Charles had sons named John and William.

These dates seem not to be based on facts, but rather to have been chosen in order to force Charles Rountree to be the son left behind when his father and older siblings emigrated to Nansemond County, Virginia — based on a literal interpretation of Joseph Rountree’s 1867 family legend and a cursory view of records in Nansemond and Chowan counties.   These internet trees for Charles Rountree should be viewed as hypothetical rather than as serious genealogy.   That is, they are not based on recorded fact, but rather are the result of an attempt to make Charles the son who remained in Ireland — a claim that Joseph Rountree’s legend did not explicitly make.

The legend itself has inconsistencies that make portions of it unlikely, which I’ve covered elsewhere.

Most of these internet trees also suggest that Charles Rountree’s father was Francis Rountree, apparently based on the supposition published in Joseph G. Rountree II’s 1959 book and a very cursory glance at the Nansemond and Chowan county records.  In fact, there is persuasive evidence that Francis Rountree was not the immigrant father of legend, but rather a son of that immigrant father and brother to Robert, John and Thomas Rountree.  Indeed, Francis Rountree’s will named numerous children, none of them named Charles.  There is no evidence in Virginia or North Carolina records that any of the Rountree immigrants to Nansemond County left a relative behind.  Nor, for that matter, is there any evidence that the Nansemond Rountrees came from Ireland.

Further, modern DNA results for Rountree descendants suggest that Thomas Rountree (and therefore his father Charles) was more closely related to the Rountrees who settled in New Kent County, Virginia than to the Rountrees of Nansemond County.

  1. Belfast News-Letter, issue of 27 May 1760, page 3, column 1. Also in issues of 20 May and 13 June. [↩]
  2. Archivium Hibernicum, Vol. 8 (1941), p.195. See also Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1958), p.138. [↩]
  3. Referenced in Memorial No. 7617, Transcripts of Memorials of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 15, p317. [↩]
  4. Memorial No. 518, Transcripts of Memorials of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 2, p377. [↩]
  5. Memorial No. 7293, Transcripts of Memorials of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 15, p221. [↩]
  6. Memorial No. 7617, Transcripts of Memorials of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 15, p317. [↩]
  7. Ulster Freeholders, Vol. 23, p101.  Men who held land for a lifetime were eligible to vote. These are records of those eligible to vote in 1737/8. [↩]
  8. Ulster Freeholders, Vol. 23, p115. [↩]
  9. Ulster Freeholders, Vol. 23, p101. [↩]
  10. Transcripts of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 80, p306. [↩]
  11. Transcripts of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 192, p150. [↩]
  12. Ulster Freeholders Vol. 121, p17. [↩]
  13. Ulster Freeholders Vol. 121, p32 and Vol. 24, p25 respectively. [↩]
  14. Ulster Freeholders Vol. 121, p14, listed in the townland of Drumnahunshin. [↩]
  15. Record courtesy of Fred Rountree. [↩]
  16. Transcripts of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 272, p593.  A lease to George McCann for a house in Markethill with an “adjoining house now in the possession of Charles Rowntree… (bordered by) a ditch enclosing Charles Rountree’s holding.” [↩]
  17. Irish Transcripts of Deeds, Conveyances and Wills, Vol. 332, p197. [↩]
  18. Armagh Diocesan Wills Index, FHL FIlm 007246594, image 129 of 240. [↩]
  19. Listed directly below the entry for Charles Rountree. [↩]