The Rounsavells, part two

This is a continuation of my study of the Cook Proprietary Tract, this time focusing on the southern half of the tract that was purchased by Richard Rounsavell in the mid 18^th century. (See Rounsavells of Amwell.)

When Richard Rounsavell (ii) wrote his will in 1773, he left half his plantation to his wife Ann, 100 acres to his son Henry, and the remainder to his son Richard (iii), who wrote his own will in 1777 and died shortly thereafter, leaving his real and personal estate to his wife Rachel. It is the children of Richard and Rachel Stout Rounsavell who carried on the family’s connection with the original Rounsavell farm.

Richard Rounsavell, Jr. (iii) was only 43 when he died in 1777. As things turned out, his farm in Amwell was divided between sons Freegift and Isaac. But he had other sons, i.e., Andrew, Richard and Nathaniel. They did not find homes on the original farmstead.

After the Revolution and following the death of his first wife (name unknown), son Andrew (1761-1826) moved to Alexandria, Virginia and married Elizabeth West. Son Richard (1767-1839) married Ann Goddard and moved through Virginia to Kentucky and eventually to Indiana where he died. Youngest son Nathaniel (1769-1837) remained in Hunterdon County, marrying Elizabeth Dalrymple about 1791, and acquiring land in Alexandria Township.

The Will of Richard Rounsavell, Jr.

Just to review—I described the contents of the will, which was dated January 20, 1777, in the previous article “The Rounsavells of Amwell.” The most relevant provisions were the naming of executors, i.e., the widow Rachel Stout, and her brother Isaac Stout. The real estate was left to the widow during her lifetime, and then to the children, as was typical. Rachel remarried in 1779, becoming Rachel Godown, wife of Evan Godown.

It is a question who was living in the old stone house on Yard Road after Richard’s death in 1777. Rachel may have stayed there for a short time after Richard’s death, but she probably moved in with Evan Godown after they married. His home was located on the southwest corner of Buchanan Road and Sandy Ridge Road, a farm later owned by John Hunt. Godown himself had been a widower for only a few years. It is known that his wife was Abigail Roberts, but I have been unable to find a record of when she died. Clearly it was some time before 1779. Evan and Abigail Godown had a daughter Hannah in 1773, who married Joseph Mattison in Kingwood in 1796.

The 1780 tax ratables for Amwell Township are no help at all. The only Rounsavell who was taxed was Henry Rounsavell, Richard’s brother. And Evan Godown was only taxed on his 95 acres. It appears that no one was taxed on the Richard Rounsavell property in 1780.

Freegift Rounsavell

Following the deaths of Richard Rounsavell Sr. (ii) and Jr. (iii), the farm with the old stone house on Yard Road passed to Richard Jr.’s son Freegift Rounsavell, born September 9, 1759. Two years after his father’s death, he married Allemina Godown on September 19, 1779, when he was just 20 years old. The ceremony was held at St. Andrews Church, with Rev. William Frazer presiding.¹ Freegift and Allemina (or Araminah or Minon) had seven children, from 1780 to 1794.

In addition to being husband and wife, Freegift and Allemina had a close family connection. Allemina’s brother was the same Evan Godown who married Freegift’s mother, the widow Rachel Stout Rounsavell on September 23^rd, only four days after Allemina and Freegift were married in 1779. Rachel Rounsavell had only been a widow for seven months. I wonder what the family thought of this.

Rachel Stout Rounsavell Godown, became a widow again in 1790 when Evans Godown died intestate, age only 45. It must have been an accident of some kind. Rachel probably had to move in with her son Freegift Rounsavell after that, until her own death not long afterwards. The exact date is not known, but it is known that she had died prior to May 1787, when her brother as surviving executor conveyed part of the Rounsavell property to Isaac Rounsavell.²

The map above shows the division of Richard Rounsavell’s farm between his sons Isaac and Freegift. The farms straddle Yard Road in Delaware Township, between Sandbrook-Headquarters Road and County Route 579.

When his father wrote his will, Freegift Rounsavell was too young to receive his bequest, not yet being 25 years of age. He turned 25 in 1784, at which time he inherited two lots in Kingwood of 11 acres that his father had bought from John Rounsavel. But Freegift never lived there. He stayed at his parents’ house near Sand Brook. Freegift Rounsavell was taxed in Amwell Township in 1784, 1789 and 1790.³ In 1790, his property in Amwell was listed as 55 acres. It was adjacent to his brother Isaac’s property.⁴

The Amwell property that Freegift Rounsavell was taxed on was the eastern half of the tract bequeathed by his father Richard to his mother Rachel. Isaac lived on the western half.

Freegift never recorded a deed for this Amwell property. And it is possible that he moved away from it when he became an adult. He turned up near his brother Nathaniel in Alexandria Township in 1793 where he was recorded as a member of the Alexandria militia.

As mentioned before, the only Rounsavell to be taxed in Amwell in 1780 was Freegift’s uncle Henry Rounsavell. Henry was taxed on 100 acres that year, and 102 acres in 1786, but that was a separate property from the farm that his brother Richard died owning. Freegift Rounsavell, who started his family in 1780, was taxed on real estate in Amwell in 1784, 1786, 1789 and 1790. Although there is no listing for Freegift Rounsavell in the deed index for Hunterdon County, it is clear that he removed from Amwell to Alexandria Township, and probably did so soon after 1791. He died there in September 1797, as shown in his estate record in NJ Archives, Abstracts of Wills, 1810J.

Freegift Rounsavell was only 38 years old when he died. It must have been an accident, because it was sudden, and he had not written a will. On September 25, 1797, administration of his estate was granted to his brother Nathaniel Rounsavell and his brother-in-law Jacob Godown, with fellowbondsmen James Larrason of Alexandria Township and brother Isaac Rounsavell of Amwell Township. Two days earlier, the widow “Araminah” declined to administer the estate. This was witnessed by Elizabeth Rounsavell, wife of Freegift’s brother Nathaniel Rounsavell. On September 19^th , the Inventory of Freegift’s estate was made by James Larason and William Boss, amounting to only £23 and book debts of £20. When the administrators submitted their account of the estate in October 1798, it amounted to £215.

This was probably due to an influx of cash from the sale of the property on Yard Road. On May 1, 1798, Isaac Stout, surviving administrator of Richard Rounsavell’s estate, sold the 55 acres (more or less) to Jacob Godown, one of the Administrators of Freegift Rounsavell.⁵ This seems a little murky. It seems to suggest that Freegift never had title to the property in Amwell. Unfortunately, the actual deed from Isaac Stout to Jacob Godown is not recorded.

The rest of Freegift’s property was dealt with in a more orderly way. In May 1799, his Administrators petitioned the Orphans Court to allow them to sell some of his real estate to settle his accounts. Property in Alexandria bought by Freegift Rounsavell from James Parker on August 1, 1794 was sold by the administrators in 1801 to John Bilbee.⁶ Then on August 6, 1807, a second account by Administrators totaled £1016.

In 1807, Freegift’s daughter Sarah, wife of Malcolm Fleming, petitioned for a division of his remaining real estate in Alexandria Township, which “the children of said Rounsavell hold in common as they are under age.”⁷ In 1809, the Administrators sold more of his property to sons-in-law Thomas Bowman and Malcolm Fleming.⁸ Some of this was located in Alexandria Township, but some was also in Amwell. In 1815, more land was sold to “Malcholm” Fleming.⁹

Only one of Freegift and Allemina’s children remained in Amwell (later Delaware) Township, and that was Richard F. Rounsavell (1789-1865). He married his first wife Rebecca about 1820/21 and had with her three children. After Rebecca died in 1837, he married second Sarah Ann McKinney in 1840. After she died in 1843, he married third Elizabeth Case (1806-1875), daughter of Mathias Case and Mary Howell. He had no more children after Rebecca’s death. Judging from the deeds recorded for Richard Rounsavell, and I have not checked them all, he appears to have acquired land near the D&R Canal in Lambertville, some distance away from the original Rounsavell homestead, as he and his first wife are buried in the First Presbyterian Church Courtyard in Lambertville.

Isaac Rounsavell (1764-1839)

As mentioned above, part of the property of Richard Rounsavell dec’d was conveyed to his son Isaac by a deed dated May 16, 1797, in which it stated that the widow of Richard Rounsavell, i.e., Rachel Godown, had “departed this life.”

Oddly enough, it seems that Isaac Rounsavell already had rights to the property, judging by the fact that he got a mortgage on 81 acres in Amwell in 1791 from Daniel Taylor of Solebury, PA. The property description stated that it was bordered by Freegift Rounsavell, John Young, John Sine, and the widow Dansdill.¹⁰

What is intriguing about the 81 acres is that it included that part of the property that had been occupied by Freegift Rounsavell. This seems to push back the date when Freegift left Amwell for Alexandria Township. If you go back to the map above of the two properties and combine them into one, but eliminate the small lot numbered 17, you will have a picture of the Rounsavell 81 acres.

Isaac Rounsavell married Catharine Larew sometime before 1790. She was the daughter of Abraham Larew and Mary Thatcher who lived near the Covered Bridge. The Rounsavells had four children: Mary, born about 1790, married John Case and died age 46 in 1836; Mahlon, born about 1795, died before 1839; Abraham, born 1796, died unmarried in 1863; and Stout, born about 1800, married Elizabeth Thompson, also died before 1839.

Isaac Rounsavell served in the Amwell Militia in 1792. In the 1790s and early 1800s, he witnessed the wills of his neighbors and made their inventories. We do not have any census information to tell us about his work, but it is clear he was a farmer, thanks to this item in the local paper:

“Isaac Rounsavell lately delivered a Hog at the store of D. & P. Brewer, Head Quarters, in this township, which was about 20 months old, and weighed 680 lbs. He measured 6 feet 7½ inches in the girt before he was slaughtered, and 7 feet 11½ inches from the end of the nose to the root of the tail.” Hunterdon Gazette, Jan 7, 1829.

Stout Rounsavell and the Thompson-Fulper Family

Isaac and Catharine Rounsavell must have had a difficult time. Their eldest son, Mahlon, enlisted in the army in 1814 as a private in Capt. J. D. Hayden’s infantry company. He was described as age 25, with dark eyes, hair and complexion. He was present at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor in 1819, and after the war was given a land grant for 160 acres in Pulaski, Arkansas. But no record of his death has been found. The land grant was received by his heirs, however. Many decades later, his nephew Harrison mentioned it in his will.

The next son in the family was Abraham, who was apparently afflicted with Downs Syndrome or some other mental disability. Despite this, he managed to survive to the age of 67.

The third son, Stout Rounsavell, born in 1796, married the daughter of an Irish immigrant. She was Elizabeth Thompson. Her father Matthew came from Ireland and got work on the farm of Peter Fulper. Fulper owned a large tract of land up the hill from Sandbrook. Fulper’s daughter Elizabeth must have been charmed by young Matthew. They were married on October 2, 1798 by David Bishop, J.P. ¹¹ Their daughter Elizabeth was born three days later, according to her gravestone. There must be a story there.

Following the death of Peter Fulper in 1804, Matthew and Elizabeth spent their inheritance on a lot in Flemington of 6.84 acres.¹² And three years later, on Dec. 22, 1808, they bought the Flemington tavern lot of Dr. William Geary.¹³ Unfortunately, Thompson was unable to make a go of it and was sued for debts in 1811. The Sheriff seized his properties and sold them at public auction. ¹⁴

Matthew and Elizabeth Thompson had two children: Elizabeth, mentioned above, born Oct. 5, 1798, who married Stout Rounsavell, and Peter, born September 16, 1803, who married Catharine Smith.

Stout & Elizabeth were married on November 3, 1819 by Rev. Charles Bartolette. They had three children, although I have information on only one of them—their son Harrison, born on August 29, 1820. In the 1830 census, Isaac Rounsavell was listed, but Stout was not, which makes me suspect that Stout and Elizabeth were sharing the Rounsavell homestead that year. What happened to Stout Rounsavell is a mystery. I found no record of his death or burial. But, like his brother Mahlon, he died sometime before his father wrote his will in 1839.

Following his father’s death, Harrison and his mother were taken in by Isaac and Catharine Rounsavell.¹⁵ Over the years, it appears that Harrison became a replacement for the sons that Isaac had lost. When he wrote his will on January 14, 1839, he named his grandson Harrison one of the executors. The other executor was John Huffman, husband of Isaac’s sister Rebecca Rounsavell who had died in 1835.¹⁶

Isaac’s will left the residue of his personal and real estate to grandson Harrison, $1200 to the children of deceased daughter Mary Case; a legacy to Elizabeth, widow of Stout Rounsavell; and one to his niece Deborah Rounsavell, wife of Richard Shepherd. She was the daughter of Isaac’s brother Nathaniel. Isaac also made provision for his son.

Abraham. Isaac ordered that Isaac Huffman would be Abraham’s guardian and would be cared for by the executors. The Will was witnessed by William Sergeant, Charles P. Holcombe, Atkinson J. Holcombe, and Jacob Rake.

The Hunterdon Democrat was in business by this time. On January 8, 1840, this item appeared: “DIED, On the 28th ult., Mr. Isaac Rounsaville, of Delaware township, in the 76th year of his age.” He was buried in the Sutton Burying Ground. His wife Catharine Larew Rounsavell had died previously in 1832.¹⁷ Rounsavell’s will was recorded on January 25, 1840.

With the deaths of Isaac and Catharine Rounsavell, the household consisted of Stout Rounsavell’s widow Elizabeth, who was 42 years old at this time, and her son Harrison, who was 22 years old. Judging by subsequent census records, it also included Abraham Rounsavell, who continued to live with them.

Harrison Rounsavel/Rounsaville

The Census for Delaware Township in 1840 is very interesting. Harrison Rounsavell is listed as the head of household. But in 1840, as in 1830, only the head of the household was named. We are told that a male in his 40s, and a male aged 15 to 19 were living there with a female in her 30s and another female age 10 to 14. Generally speaking, a male in his 40s would be the head of household. But Harrison Rounsavell was born in 1820, which means he must have been the male aged 15 to 19. The male in his 40s was Harrison’s uncle Abraham, who was listed as “insane or idiot.”

Harrison had not married yet, so the only other likely female adult would have been his mother Elizabeth. But she was definitely in her 40s; perhaps she was fibbing. There is no way to know who the young woman aged 10 to 14 (born c.1825-1830) was.

In the fall of 1841, Harrison Rounsavell had a nasty accident, as was reported in the Hunterdon Gazette on Oct. 27, 1841:

On Friday afternoon, a young man named Harrison Rounsavell, engaged in hauling timber near Ringoe’s, had his leg broken below the knee, by the falling of a piece of timber which he was unloading.

How Harrison Rounsavell occupied himself from the time he became head of his family household until his marriage in 1843 is unknown, but I rather suspect he did the same thing as his grandfather Matthew Thompson did—he went to work for a local farmer. This would have been Lambert Bosenbury (1798-1872) of Raritan Township and his wife Amanda Bodine.¹⁸

Lambert and Amanda Bosenbury had a daughter Elizabeth, born August 15, 1821. She was their first child, and almost exactly one year younger than Harrison Rounsavell. You can guess what happened. They were married on October 18, 1843 by Rev. Charles Bartolette, the man who married Harrison’s parents.¹⁹ Sadly, the couple never had any children.

They were counted in the Delaware Township census for 1850 as ages 29 and 28. Harrison Rounsavile [sic] was a farmer with property worth $3700. Living with him and his wife Elizabeth were his uncle Abraham, age 53; and his mother Elizabeth, age 50. Also there was Susan C. Bodine, age 8. She was the daughter of Jacob Bodine and Catharine Fauss. She probably connects with Harrison’s mother-in-law, Amanda/Armende Bodine, wife of Lambert Bosenbury, but I have not been able to identify her family.²⁰

One thing that puzzles me is the Cornell Map of 1851, below:

It seems to show “A. & N. Rounsepher” where Harrison Rounsavell should be living. This is likely a reference to Abraham and nephew Harrison, with the “H” being mistaken for the “N”, and that tells me to be cautious about the names shown on the Cornell Map.

The matter gets clarified with the 1860 Philadelphia map, in which the name shown is clearly A & H Rounsepher.

Despite being of an age to be drafted into the Union Army, there is no evidence that Harrison Rounsavell fought in the Civil War. During the war, his uncle Abraham died at the age of 67. He was buried with his mother’s family, the Larews, in the Pine Hill Cemetery.

The next map of use to us is the one of Delaware Township printed in the Beers Atlas of 1873. “H. Rounscefer” appears opposite Alexander Higgins’ distillery, on a road that has since been abandoned. The current Yard Road runs east from the Estate of W. Sergeant to the Higgins Distillery, then jogs north then east passing by the Rounsavell property. That section connection Yard Road with what is now Brittain Road on the north is now private. The original road petition of 1841 did not include the east-west part of Yard Road at all, only the part running north-south.²¹ One thing that surprised me was that Harrison Rounsavell did not sign the 1841 petition. Perhaps because he was only 21 years old at the time.

Harrison Rounsavell was a hog farmer like his grandfather Isaac. In 1874, he discovered an oddity in his barn. According to the Trenton State Gazette of May 7, 1874,

“Mr. Harrison Rounsavelle of Sand Brook, Hunterdon county, s the owner of a pig with six legs—four of them being in front. The pig is about one week old, and appears to be healthy, giving promise of making a hog some day.”

That seems like a rather optimistic assessment. I suspect having two extra legs was no help to that poor pig.

On July 20, 1884, Harrison’s mother Elizabeth died at the age of 85. Despite the fact that her husband Stout had died at least 45 years previously, Elizabeth’s gravestone read “Widow of Stout Rounsavell.” She was buried in the Amwell Ridge (Presbyterian) Cemetery.

Four years later, Harrison Rounsavell’s wife Elizabeth died at the age of 66 on May 23, 1888. (Her obituary in the Democrat stated that she was 67.) These losses probably weighed heavily on Harrison. On September 24, 1888, he wrote his will. Since he and Elizabeth had no children of their own, he divided his real estate between the heirs of his aunt Mary Case (sister of Stout Rounsavell) and the heirs of his uncle Peter Thompson (brother of Harrison’s mother Elizabeth).

There were some curious provisions in Harrison’s will. For instance, he ordered executors to have his “tombstone” in the grave yard at Larrison’s corner appropriately lettered, and to pay for it out of his estate. His wife’s brother, Thomas T. Bosenbury, was “to have the bed suitably dressed for either summer or winter, which said bed is the same one that my wife Elizabeth brought here and now stands up stairs in the east room,” and also “my wife’s gold spectacles.” Rounsavell left “a Bureau which belonged to my wife now standing in the east down room” to Christiann Dilts, wife of Martinas C. Dilts.

He left bequests to his wife’s brother John Bosenbury ($50), to his wife’s nieces Amanda Ryers wife of Charles Ryers and Emma Lake wife of Martin H. Lake ($95 each), and also “$95 to each of my three namesakes: Harrison R. Thompson, Harrison R. Bosenbury and Harrison R. Godown.”

He left his “8-day clock which stands in the middle room to my cousin Elizabeth Wilson, wife of Hiram Wilson.” Elizabeth was a daughter of Mary Rounsavell and John Case. He left “an embroydered blanket” with the date 1856 to Amanda Ryers and another with the date 1859 to Emma Lake, sisters and daughters of Thomas T. Bosenbury and Catherine Tiger, which made them nieces of Elizabeth Bosenbury Rounsavell. He left a “bed quilt with Lord’s Prayer design” to Elizabeth Hockenbury, whom I have not identified.

The residue of his estate, both personal and real, was to be sold and divided into two parts. One went to the heirs of his aunt Mary Case (sister of Stout Rounsavell and wife of John Case; she died in 1836, and he died in 1837). The other went to the heirs of Harrison’s uncle Peter Thompson, who died in 1870.²² Madison Case, the children of Joseph Case, Catharine Reading, Elizabeth Wilson, Caroline Conover and the children of Tunis L. Case. The heirs of Peter Thompson were James C. Thompson, Harrison Thompson, Sarah Horne, Elizabeth Fowler, Mary Catharine Holcombe and the children of John Prall Thompson.]

Another interesting bequest was mention of a patent for 160 acres of land which Harrison’s uncle Mahlon had been given for his service during the War of 1812. The way Harrison Rounsavell put it – “in case anything is realized from a Patent for 160 acres of land to my share which said land was secured by my uncle Mahlon Rounsavell, I wish the same to be distributed in the same proportions to the children of my Aunt Mary Case dec’d and in the same manner as the other bequests made to them.

He named as Executors his friends Gideon Moore and Samuel F. Fauss. The will was witnessed by his neighbors Alexander Higgins, Justis L. Moore, and Lewis Cronce.

Harrison Rounsavell’s last days.

Living without his beloved wife could not have been easy for Harrison Rounsavell. He was counted in the 1900 census for Delaware Township as age 79, a widower, a farmer who owned his own farm mortgage-free. Living with him was his housekeeper, Ann Dalrymple, who was 72 years old, nearly as old as Harrison was, and single. My best guess is that this was Elizabeth Ann Dalrymple, daughter of William S. Dalrymple (1799-1863) and Margaret Heath (1797-1868). She was living with her parents for the 1860 census, and living on her own in 1870.

Also in the Rounsavell household was Simeon Johnson, age 19 (born May 1881), single, who worked as a farm laborer. To my surprise, he turned out to be the son of Holcombe and Susan Prall Johnson, who were tenants on the old Sutton farm, not far north of the Rounsavell farm.²³

On May 9, 1901, this item appeared in the Flemington Democrat-Advertiser:

“Harrison Rounseville, an aged farmer living in Sand Brook vicinity, was stricken with palsy on Thursday last, and is beyond recover. He had visited Sergeantsville on the morning of the same day and seemed in his usual health. Uncle Harrison, as he is familiarly called, has always been noted for his kind and amiable disposition. He has the sympathy of his many friends and neighbors in this great affliction in his old age.” Democrat-Advertiser, 16 May 1901.

The palsy (paralysis with tremors) was fatal. Rounsavell died the next week, on May 14^th. He was buried in the Amwell Ridge Cemetery next to his wife, as he had instructed. His will was recorded on May 31, 1901.²⁴

Postscript: Elizabeth Ann Dalrymple

Elizabeth Ann, usually called Ann, never married. She lived with her parents, Wm. S. Dalrymple and Margaret Heath, until they died, her father in 1863 and her mother in 1868. Ann was living alone in 1870, working as a dressmaker. I could not find her in the 1880 census, but once Harrison Rounsavell became a widower, she moved in with him to take care of his household.

I am somewhat surprised not to find mention of Ms. Dalrymple in Harrison Rounsavell’s will. It was not uncommon for an end-of-life caretaker to have some provision made in the employer’s will. In fact, it was often an inducement from someone to come care for a sick or elderly person. But too often, the inducement was made verbally, and then never materialized. There is no way to know if that was the case here. It was often common for caretakers to sue the heirs in order to obtain some share of the estate. Ms. Dalrymple did not do that.²⁵

After Rounsavell’s death in 1901, I cannot say where she lived, but it is possible she moved in with her sister-in-law Mary Romine Dalrymple and niece Margaret Hoppock in Lambertville. She was 72 in 1900, and died on April 27, 1904, age 76. She was buried in the Sandy Ridge Cemetery, perhaps because she was a member of the Sandy Ridge Baptist Church. Her parents were buried in the Moore Family Burying Ground.

Simeon R. Johnson

Soon after the death of Harrison Rounsavell, Simeon Johnson married Edith R. Abbott. But his life was cut short when he died in 1908 at the young age of 27. His death must have been a terrible accident.²⁶

Figuring out the family history of Simeon Johnson and his wife Edith turned out to be a fascinating hunt for interrelated Hunterdon families. So much so, that I’ve set it aside as a separate article. I will just mention that after Simeon Johnson’s death, his widow Edith married Simeon’s brother Frank Johnson (1877-1953), who became a Stockton grocer. Edith died in 1950, age 66.

Postscript to the Rounsavell Farm

What happened to the Rounsavell farm after Harrison died? On April 1, 1902, his executors, Gideon Moore and Samuel F. Fauss, sold his 81-acre farm to Alexander Higgins for $2,511.²⁷

Alexander Higgins was the very well-known distiller who had gotten his start as a farmer working for Harrison Rounsavell (as shown in the census of 1860). He was born March 2, 1833 to Nicholas Britton Higgins and Hannah Hill. In 1862, he married Christiana Hope and began accumulating considerable real estate in the vicinity of the Rounsavell farm and the Sandbrook area. He died just a short time after Harrison Rounsavell did, on June 14, 1905. His executors sold his property to several people, but given the length of this article, and the fact that we are now in the 20^th century, I think it is time to stop.

Note: On July 14, 2018 I made several additions, concerning Harrison Rounsavell’s bequests, and a couple minor corrections.

Footnotes: