Thanks to Torey for this data,
(), if you have further information or are related to any listed on this page contact Torey, or my self Carl Rhodes at:
.
William
Rhodes, born 1765, Fairfax County, VA, died 14 Feb 1828,
Georgetown, Washington, DC
married
in 1787 to Rosanna Clarke, b: 1769 in VA, d 22 Oct 1823
Nancy
Rhodes, b: abt 1787 in Alexandria, VA d 6 Sep 1860 in PA
William,
Jr. b: abt 1800
Maria
W. Rhodes, b: 1796 in Alexandria, VA, died aft 1870 in Washington, DC
Rosanna
L. b: abt 1806 in Georgetown, Washington DC, died in Indiana
(Sources
for William:
Church Register 1801-1807, Archives of
Trinity United Methodist Church, Alexandria, Virginia;
"Old Families of Louisiana, p 163; various articles in
2. Nancy
Rhodes, b: abt 1787 in Alexandria, VA, died 6 Sep 1860 in
PA
married
on 21 Apr 1804 to Rev. Joseph Rowan b: Dorchester Co., MD 19 Jan 1770
d. 31 May 1838
They
had children but I've found nothing definite.
(
Sources for Nancy:
source: Church Register
1801-1807,
Archives of Trinity United Methodist Church, Alexandria, Virginia
2.
William Jr. Nothing is known for certain about William,
Jr. including whether or not he is actually William and Rosanna's
son, but given the fact that he appears on the Trinity United
Methodist Church rolls along with William, Rosanna and the other
children and is referred to as William, junior, it is a reasonable
conclusion.
I've also found a
pension form for a William Rhodes, married to Sarah unknown, who d
1866 in Washington, DC .
(Source
for William Jr. source: Church Register 1801-1807, Archives of
Trinity United Methodist Church, Alexandria, Virginia)
William
Rhodes, Jr., binds self for 4 years 5 months to William Ward to learn
trade of merchandize 19 Nov 1814
source:,
District of Columbia Indentures of Apprenticeship, 1801-1893
p. 71 (Lovettsville, Va.: Willow Bend Books, 1998).
3. Maria
W. Rhodes b: 1796 in Alexandria, VA, died aft 1872 but bef 1891 in
Washington, DC
married
Gideon Davis b: 1789 Queen Anne's Co, MD d: 1833 Washington,
DC
married
Rezin Orme b: 1790 in Prince George's Co, MD d: bef 1870
Washington, DC
It
is likely Maria had children but none appear to have survived to
adulthood.
(Sources
for Maria: Church Register 1801-1807, Archives of Trinity United
Methodist Church, Alexandria, Virginia
4.
Rosanna L. Rhodes b. 1806 in Georgetown, Washington, DC, d.
unknown
Confusion
over whom she married, although the date is known to be 7 Feb 1833
in Washington, DC
The
marriage record says 'Jefferson Copely' but it is more
likely Jefferson Cosby, either Jefferson J. Cosby or Thomas Jefferson
Cosby. There is a Rosanna Rhodes married to Jefferson Cosby, living
in Maryland through 1840, listed on the LDS site. Her sons follow
the Rhodes naming pattern of first-born being William and second born
son being John. She appear to have died before the 1850 census
Church
Register 1801-1807, Archives of Trinity United Methodist Church,
Alexandria, Virginia
Notes
on William:
Lived in
Alexandria, Fairfax County until at least 1810. A merchant and
councilman through most of the 1800-1810 period. Got into financial
trouble and needed to sell business. Then got into deeper financial
trouble in the early 1820 regarding a secured bank loan. Moved to
Georgetown area of DC.
source:
"Artisans and Merchants of Alexandria" by Michael
Miller, several references. Alexandria Gazette, Genealogy
Bank
Notice:
William Rhodes having some time since declined business, &
intending to leave this city in a few days, is desirous to clsoe his
late business; for settlement call on Mr J S & W Clarke, previous
to the 14th.
Mon
7 Apr 1823, p. 331
source:
National Intelligencer Newspaper Abstracts, 1821-1823 (Bowie,
Md.: Heritage Books, 1999).
Died:
yesterday, after a short illness, in his 63rd yr, Mr Wm
Rhodes, a native of Fairfax Co, Va & for many years a resident of
Alexandria, and latterly of Georgetown DC. Funeral from his late
dwelling on Bridge Street, Georgetown, this morning. p. 176 Thu 14
Feb 1828
Mon,
Mar 10 1828
Administrators'
sale, order of Orphans Court of Washington County DC: personal estate
of Wm Rhodes, deceased, will be sold at his late residence, in
Foxall's Row, Bridge Street, on Mar 11: furniture, etc; also a
negro woman & child, the woman has to serve until Sep 25, 1832
and the child, now about 6 months old, to serve until it arrives at
the age of 25 yrs. Gideon Davis, administrator; Thomas C. Wright,
auctioneer. P. 188
source:
National Intelligencer Newspaper Abstracts, 1827-1829
.
William
Rhodes coffin purchased 2/13 1828 from William King: mahogany
source:
William King's Mortality Book, vol 1, JBD transcription
married
to Rosanna Clarke, b: abt 1769, d: 10/22/1823 Daughter of
Rosanna Clarke, d: 1784 in Alexandria. One sister, Anne Clarke, b: abt 1757, d 1802. (Turns out she was on the Trinity Church records as well.)
married John O'Daniel abt 1775, two children: Mary
O'Daniel b: 1776 who married Abel Blakeney, and James O'Daniel
b 1778. Anne then married Absalom Wroe, b: 1755 d 1834 of Alexandria,
four children: Samuel b: 1782, Richard b: 1784, Everett, b: 1786 and
Elizabeth 'Betsey', b: 1788. Betsey married Amos
Alexander, Jr.
Died:
on Fri last, Mrs Rosanna Rhodes, aged 54 yrs, consort of Wm Rhodes of
Alexandria, upwards of 40 yrs she ornamented the Christian character.
Wed
22 Oct 1823, p. 434source: National Intelligencer Newspaper
Abstracts, 1821-1823 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1999).
notes
on Nancy Rhodes
married
Rev. Joseph Rowan. Joseph was a major Methodist revival preacher in
the northeast, as evidenced by the fact Joseph and Nancy were married
by the top Methodist of his day, Rev. William Watters.
Notes on
Rev. Rowan:
born
Dorchester County MD 1/19/1770 to Anglican parents
age 17
converted to Methodist (August 1787) p264
Sept 1792 became
itinerant on Montgomery Circuit, 1799
died 5/31/1838 in
Washington City p265
source: Hedges, J.W. Crowned
Victors: The Memoirs of Over Four Hundred Methodist Preachers.
Methodist Episcopal Book Depository, Baltimore
Worked
in Philadelphia and Baltimore Conferences. Itinerant for 40
years.
source: "Memoir," Mins of Annl
Confs of MEC, Vol II, 1829-39 (NY: Mason & Lane, 1840.)
notes
on Maria W. Rhodes
married
Gideon Davis b: 1789, Maryland d: 1833 Washington, DC on 23 Feb 1821.
Married by sister Nancy's husband Rev. Joseph Rowan. Gideon
Davis died in 1833 in the cholera epidemic raging through Washington
at the time.
married
Rezin Orme, b: 1790 d bef 1870
Married:
on Feb 20, by Rev Mr Rowan, in Alexandria, Gideon Davis, of GT, to
Miss Maria W. Rhodes, d/o Wm Rhodes of the former place. Fri 23 Feb
1821, p. 20., Source: National Intelligencer Newspaper Abstracts,
1821-1823 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1998.)
Ladies
with letters in the Wash City Post Office, 1 April 1816 included
Maria W. Rhodes Thu 4 Apr 1816, p. 184; also on 1 Oct 1817, letter
for Mrs M W D Davis p. 318 Tue 7 Oct 1817source:
National
Intelligencer & Washington Advertiser Newspaper Abstracts,
1814-1817
(Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc.,
1997).
1860
and 1870 censuses place Maria in Washington, DC. A claim for damages
in Civil War indicate Maria was alive in 1872. A piece of land was
willed to her cousin Samuel Austin Wroe and action was taken to claim
this land in 1891, so Maria must have died before this point.
on
Gideon Davis and Rezin Orme:
Gideon's
first wife was Anne Maria Emory, also of Queen Anne's County, Md.
She died in DC quite young, at the age of 22. There was no
mention of a child in the obituaries, so don't know whether she died
in childbirth or of disease. And then he married Maria.
Gideon
Davis was a major figure in the Methodist Reform movement that
resulted in a schism in 1830, and the creation of the Methodist
Protestant denomination. The Methodist Protestants were deeply
influenced by the Andrew Jackson "rise of the common man"
ideology. Their bust up with the Methodist Episcopal Church was
over church government -- the MPs thought the bishops and clergy had
way too much power, which was inconsistent with American
democracy.
Anyway, Gideon was simultaneously involved in a schism in their local
Methodist congregation in Georgetown (neighborhood in DC), and Gideon
and others left their church to found the Congress Street Methodist
Protestant Church, a few blocks away. Gideon lent the
congregation a great deal of money to buy the land on which they
built their church (which still stands, BTW and is now a Christian
Science church). When he died (probably in the 1832-33 cholera
epidemic), Congress Street church owed him a lot of money -- and
Maria was left pretty destitute. Gideon's business affairs were
a mess. She married Rezin Orme, they moved to Springfield,
Ohio, and they hired an attorney in DC to sue the church to
collect Gideon's debt.
They
also sold a slave, Dorcas, that Gideon had inherited from his first
wife -- but, according to the Methodist rules, Gideon was supposed to
have manumitted the slave, but he never did, so Rezin sold her.
She killed 2 of her children rather than have them sold down south
away from her. Her trial for murder was quite sensational.
This seems to have been the episode that really radicalized John
Quincy Adams on the subject of slavery and turned him into an
abolitionist. "Memoirs of John Quincy Adams" gives
details of this and there is currently a doctoral thesis being
written on this episode
Source:
Jane Donovan, University of West Virginia religious studies
professor, and her book"Many Witnesses."
Comment
from Jane Donovan via email:
Nancy
Rhodes was Maria's sister. I'm very certain of that. And
you see she married a Methodist pastor -- a guy who stayed with the
Methodist Episcopal Church when the Meth Protestants split from it,
so you can imagine that these Methodist issues were a source of great
conflict within the Rhodes family -- perhaps it played some role in
which family members Maria felt close to and which she did not.
Even though she was already married to Gideon, Maria was not one of
the original members of Congress Street. She did not withdraw
her membership in the big moment when Gideon and the rest of the
seceders did, although she did later join him at Congress Street --
but her lawyer, Samuel McKenney, who represented her and Rezin in
their efforts to collect the debt owed to Gideon by the Congress
Street Church was a leading figure in the Montgomery Street
church. Samuel was an outspoken advocate for the Methodist
Episcopal Church and Gideon's chief accuser/tormentor in the events
that led to the schism.
My
speculation based on these findings
Based
on the church records which show John Rhodes and William Rhodes both
attending Trinity Methodist Church from the point records begin in
1802 until John withdraws (moves away) in 1804 :
Based
on deed extracts in Alexandria/Fairfax County which show John Rhodes
as a witness to Absalom Wroe's exchange of deed, indicating
that it is likely John knew William's brother-in-law Absalom:
And
based on the fact that John has sons named William Watters and John
Wesley, indicating both a close link to the strong Methodist community
and following an apparent naming pattern of first son
William, second son John: I
speculate that John Rhodes, b: 1767 and William Rhodes, b: 1765 are
brothers.
Based
on deed extracts in Alexandria which show an exchange of land between
John Rhodes and Ann Rhodes and again, from Ann Rhodes to John Rhodes:
Based
on church rolls and the fact that Ann Rhodes withdraws at the same
time as John Rhodes:
I
speculate that Ann Rhodes is John Rhodes' wife.
Based
on the presence of a deed in Alexandria for John Rhodes, executed in
1765,
I
speculate this may be 'John, Sr.' William and John's
father. Based
on geographical nearness and the naming pattern, also on DNA evidence which places Judy Olson's uncle, a descendant of John Rhodes, b: 1767, within 4 generations of William, the patriot
I further speculate this 'John, Sr.' may be a brother to William Rhodes, the patriot,
