| Notes |
- From FindaGrave:
Philip Rounsevell was born in Honiton, England, whence he came to America before 1704 and settled in Freetown, Massachusetts. He was employed in the cloth dressing mills of Captain Josiah Winslow. Subsequently he purchased a large tract of land at Furnace Village, East Freetown, where he erected a dam and a mill, in which he conducted for many years the business of cloth dressing. (A cloth dresser assembled yarns on a beam and applied a paste to the wrap to smooth down the filaments of yarn and increase stiffness before weaving.) (Gen. & Fam. Hist. of the State of NH, Ezra Stearns, v. 2 p. 904)
Sailing from either Torquay or Topsham in 1698 or 1700, Philip Rounsevell left Honiton, Devonshire, England to live in East Freetown (Assonet Village) Bristol County, Massachusetts. His personality emerges from the historical material as a shrewd businessman, a stubborn, independent thinker and a devoted grandfather. (Avis J. Kirsch, A Rounseville Chronicle)
Philip was by trade a clothier or cloth dresser, remarkably possessed with the faculty of "taking time by the forelock." He gained an enormous estate, completely disproportionate to that of any of his neighbors. His intuitive foresight taught him to go into the wild woods and select just the sites and tracts that became most valuable. One of his favorite plans was to purchase lands which others discarded as worthless. But when mill sites became wanted, Philip Rounsevell was found to hold the key to almost every stream, brook, or rivulet having an available water power, for miles around. Neighbors had laughed at his land that "would starve a grasshopper." In derision, they called his land "Skunk's Misery", and "Beaver's Paradise." But now this same land controlled mighty water supplies. (Ebenezer W. Pierce, The Peirce Family, p. 93-94)
He is the son of William, and a "clothier" or cloth dresser by occupation, came to New England prior to Dec. 25, 1704, the date of a letter from Philip to his father. He later, it is said, removed to the site of the later Malachi Howland house to go into business for himself and built the dam of the "Howland mill." He removed from Freetown about 1721 to near Hunting House Brook in Middleboro and thence to that part of Tiverton which later became East Freetown. He purchased there a large tract of land and built the mill dam at Freetown village, where on the site of the old cloth mill his children erected a blast furnace, a sawmill and gristmill and still later a sash, door and blind factory. (Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts, p. 201.)
Philip's name appears in the following public records:
1708--living in the house of Lieut. Josiah Winslow
1710, Apr 11--Petit Juryman for Freetown
1712, Jan 9--called a cloth worker from Middleboro who bought of Benjamin Durfee of Tiverton, some land in Tiverton (now East Freetown) for 60 pounds.
1727, Sept 7--late of Middleboro, now of Tiverton, a clothier, bought of Joseph Wanton of Tiverton a piece of land for 100 pounds.
1728, March 4--for 220 pounds bought of Benjamin Durfee a tract of land in Tiverton called the Square.
1729, Sept 7--bought of Joseph Wanton of Tiverton a piece of Bolton cedar swamp for 6 pounds current money.
1731, Jan 22--bought of Stephen Blackmar of Rochester half a swamp lot in Tiverton for 12 pounds 10 shillings.
1732, June 14--bought of Joseph Blackmar of Rochester for 13 pounds half the 28th lot in Tiverton.
1735, May 1--bought of Jacob Hathaway of Freetown the other half of 28th lot in Tiverton for 20 pounds.
1736, July 13--bought of Thomas Church, Esq. of Little Compton a piece of land for 100 pounds.
1737, Jan 10--bought of Benjamin Durfee a piece of Bolton cedar swamp for 60 pounds.
Philip lived to an old age in the pursuit of his trade and calling. He was at one time the wealthiest man in Bristol and the largest landholder in the colony. By practice he was a shrewd schemer, and a keen calculator. He was often referred to as "King Philip." He was considered purse proud, arbitrary and overbearing. His children were to keep their good behavior or he would cut them off without a shilling. Philip left a large estate which was divided in 1765 by Capt. John Paul, John Crane, and Capt. Babbitt. In the Rounsevell Cemetary in East Freetown are the gravestones of Philip and his wives.
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1677 - 1763 (86 years)
