Documents show that the Rhodes who settled in Rhode RHODES Island emigrated from Yorkshire, England, about 1635. In England the name was originally spelled Rode and later Rhode. In 1566 appears the first record with the letter "s" added to the name. That the name was taken from a place is sho\vn by the following quotation from an old book: "Two Norman warriors who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, 1066, Willelmus and Hugh by name, were granted the moiety of O'Drode (or little Arm de Rode), situated 4% miles S.S.W. of Macklesfield, Chester county, England. That the name was adopted from this place is proved by a deed of 44 Henry III., in which Willelmus' descendant, Thomas de Rhode, granted by charter to Margery, daughter of Geoffrey de Lostoc, all his rights to the town of Rode for one pair of white gloves and a halfpenny for all services." The late Cecil John Rhodes, of Kimberley, Africa, and of England, was a descendant of the He-rtfordshire branch of the family.
(I) Zachary Rhodes commences the history of the family in Rhode Island. He was born in 1603, and settled in Rehoboth in 1643. In 1644, with other settlers, he signed an agreement forming a town government. In 1646 he left Rehoboth, crossed the river and bay to Rhode Island, and with others settled at Pawtuxet, where he became a large owner of land. His reason for leaving Massachusetts appears to have been of a religious nature, as records show that he refused to comply with the Massachusetts la\v which sought to compel him to contribute for the support of preaching. In religious sentiment he was an Independent, or Baptist. Without doubt he was banished from the colony because of his peculiar views, but he became a man of strength and influence in the community, in Rhode Island. From 1664 until 1665 he was treasurer of the town of Providence, and at the same time was a member of the town council. In 1658 he was admitted a freeman. He was a member of the general court at Portsmouth in August, 1659, and in 1662-63. In 1661 he attended as commissioner from Providence the general court at Newport, and was appointed member of a committee to adjust difiiculties existing between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and was also appointed, with Roger Williams and others, to draw up and sign an address to His Majesty, King Charles II. In March, 1663-64, as deputy from Providence, he attended the general assembly of Rhode Island, held at Newport, and also in 1665. In 1653 he, with five others, signed an address to the court assembled in Boston, asking that Pawtuxet might be dismissed from the government of the Massachusetts colony. He made his will in 1662 and died in 1665. In 1646, Zachary (or Zachariah) Rhodes married Joanna Arnold, born February 27, 1617, died in 1692. Children: Jeremiah, born June 24, 1647; Malachi; Zachariah; Elizabeth; Mary; Rebecca; John, of further mention; Peleg.
(II) John, fourth son and seventh child of Zachary and Joanna (Arnold) Rhodes, was born in 1658, and died August 14, 1716. He was admitted a freeman in 1681, at a meeting of the general assembly at Newport, at which time he was a resident of Warwick. In 1700, at a meeting of the general assembly held at Newport, he was elected general attorney for the colony of Rhode Island. In 1702-03-04 he was a deputy from Warwick to the general assembly, and in 1707 he was elected clerk of the general assembly. He married (first) February 12, 1685, Waite Waterman, born in 1668, died in 1711. He married (second) Sarah , born 1653, died March 30, 1730. Children: Zachariah, born at Scituate, Rhode Island, November 5, 1687, married (first) Mary Randall, (second) Mary Sheldon; John, of further mention, Mercy, bor n November 20, 1691, twin of John; Joseph, born September 25, 1693, at Providence, married Mary Arnold; William, born July 14, 1695, married Mary Sheldon; Phebe, bor n November 30, 1698, married (first) Anthony Holden, (second) Samuel Aborn; Resolved, bor n May 22, 1702, married Mary Greene; Wait, born December 16, 1703, married Abraham Sheldon.
Waite (Waterman) Rhodes was a daughter of Resolved and Mercy (Williams) Waterman. Richard, the American progenitor of the Waterman family was born in England in 1590, came to America in 1629, and was of Salem, Mass. He was one of the seven persons to whom Roger Williams deeded land in Providence, and in 1639 was one of the original twelve members of the First Baptist Church. He was one among those who signed an agreement in 1640 for a form of government. In 1655 he was made a freeman and served respectively as commissioner, juryman and warden. He died in 1673, and his wife Bethia in 1680. Their children were: Mehitabel, \Vaite, Nathaniel and Resolved. Resolved, son of Richard and Bethia Waterman, was born in 1638 and died in 1670. He served as deputy to the general court in 1667. He married, in 1659, Mercy Williams, born in 1640, remarried after the death of her first husband, and died in 1705. Children: Richard, born in June, 1660; Mercy, 1662; John, 1666; Resolved, 1667; Waite, who married John Rhodes, as above mentioned. Roger Williams, father of Mercy (VVilliams) Waterman, and grandfather of Waite (Waterman) Rhodes, founded the colony of Rhode Island in 1636. He was born in South Wales, about 1598, and was a son of William Williams, of Conwyl parish. He died at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1683. He married, in 1632, Mary Warnard. who died in 1676. Children: Mary, born in 1633; Freeborn, 1635; Providence, 1638; Mercy, who became Mrs. Waterman; Daniel, born in 1642; Joseph, 1643
(III) John, son of John and VVaite (Waterman) Rhodes, was born in Warwick, November 20, 1691, and died in 1776. He held a commission as major in the colonial militia. In 1716 he was admitted a freeman, and in 1731-35-42-43-44 and in 1751 and 1753 he was deputy in the general assembly from Warwick. He married (first) January 29, 1714, Catherine, who died July 25, 1731, a daughter of Lieutenant Charles and Catherine (Green) Holden; he married (second) Mary Whipple. Children: Waite, born December 29, 1714; John, May 5, 1716; Catherine, August 1, 1717; Charles, September 29, 1719; Mercy, February 29, 1720-21, died, February, 1723-24; Anthony, born May 29, 1722; Joseph, August 22, 1723; Zachariah, September 8, 1727; Holden, May 3o, 1731.
(IV) Records deficient.
(V) William Rhodes, the next in line, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, March 18, 1749. He must have come to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, prior to 1774, as he was married there in that year. He was a Whig in political opinion. He married, January 29, 1774, Elizabeth Maginn.
(VI) William, son of William and Elizabeth (Maginn) Rhodes, was bor n January 10, 1778, and died April 17, 1853. His entire life was spent in Beaver county, where he was active among the pioneer settlers of that section. His death occurred in what is now Chippewa township. He owned about one hundred acres of land, a large portion of which he cleared, and in 1826 he served in the ofiice of overseer of the poor of Chippewa township, as is stated in a document now in the possession of his grandson, Robert J. Rhodes. He married, January 1, 1806, Margaret, born April 2, 1781, died May 25, 1855, a daughter of Andrew and Catharine Elizabeth (Mercer) Eberhardt and a niece of General Hugh Mercer, of revolutionary fame. Children: Jonathan; Margaret Ann; Robert Mann; Milton J.; William, of further mention; Smiley; Joseph Andrew; Robert Mann.
(VII) William, son of William and Margaret (Eberhardt) Rhodes, was born in Beaver county, September 25, 1814, and died November 28, 1883. He was educated in the early district schools, and followed the occupation of a farmer all his life. He was a man of prominence and influence in the community, and filled a number of township ofiices. He married (first) November 22, 1836, Mary Maria Baird, who died September 6. 1852. He married (second) October 6, 1853, Eliza Isabel McMillan, who died July 23, 1855. He married (third) April 5, 1856, Mary Jane Whann. Children by first marriage: Margaret Ann, married William Bradshaw Hunter; Bradford, married Caroline Augusta Fuller; three who died in infancy. Child by second marriage: Joseph William, married Margaret Moore. Children by third marriage: Elizabeth Jane, married John Louthan; Robert James, of further mention; Jonathan Pearson Finley, married (first) Jane Oskey, (second) Isabel Whitten ; Thomas Josiah, married Ella Thomson; Elmer Elsworth, married Amy Dinsmore; Nancy Isabel, married Ambrose Fombelle; Ira Hillis, married Nettie Dausmann; Nettie Jane, married Stephen S. Smith; Norris Odley, married Myrtle Barnes.
(VIII) Robert James, son of William and Mary Jane (Whann) Rhodes, was born in Chippewa township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in 1860. He received an excellent education in the public schools of Chippewa township and at the Darlington Academy, and then engaged in the occupation of teaching. He followed this profession four years in the schools of Beaver county and five years in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, after which he became actively identified with mercantile pursuits. For a period of two years he held a clerkship in Beaver, then became a commercial traveler, and for the past six years has been a resident at College Hill, Beaver Falls. He has been frequently solicited to accept public ofiice, but until recently, refused. Now, however, he is filling the ofiice of a school director of College Hill Borough.
Mr. Rhodes married Laura Anna Taylor. During the past nine years he has been an active worker in the interests of the Masonic fraternity, and is a member of blue lodge and chapter. He is a member of the College Hill Presbyterian Church, and ever ready to do what he can for the success of the church and Sunday school, and the welfare of all connected therewith.
Title: Genealogical and Personal History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Volume 2
Editor: John Woolf Jordan
Publisher: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1914
