Learning the Ropers If you thought the Chew history was confusing, brace yourself. The problem with the Roper history is that all the early immigrants and also the ancestors from England were mostly named John. And there were a few Williams, Davids or Thomases along the way. Sorting them out is almost impossible.

Several people over many years have been working on it and the best they can do with certainty is take our line to 1660 in Virginia. Most likely these Colonists came from England and it appears that a number of the Roper immigrants were from Kent County, England. But that's about as close as we can get.

The picture to the right is Roper Gate, which was the entry to a sixteenth century Roper Home in England. The gate is all that remains. If you want to know more about Ropers in England, click the Roper England link to the right. We are related to the author of that website back about six or eight generations. And just like with the Chew line, the only way we were able to track our Addison (Atison) Roper route was via a few unique names that Jessie Roper Frantz had recorded for posterity. More on that later.

Roper, Ropere, Rooper, Rousper . . . Lets begin again with the name and what it might mean. Here is one discussion of the Roper name taken from a book written in 1904 by Ella E. Roper, The Ropers of Sterling and Rutland:

"The name of Roper has been evolved from a somewhat fantastic origin. ... our first known ancestor, one Musard, (probably of Norman descent) becomes Hasculphus. His grandson, William of Miserden, Gloucester County, assumed the title De Rubra Spatha, or Red Sheath, in the time of Henry III [1216-1272]. This was shortened into Rospeare and passed through the various stages of Rousper, Rooper, Ropere and Roper, to the last of which the family has held." Click the 'Roper Name' link to see another version of the Roper name history.

Ever on the Go It seems the Ropers were as mobile as the Chews once they landed in Virginia. Our branch made its way from Virginia (1660) to North Carolina (1748) then South Carolina (1800), Arkansas (1845) and then Oklahoma (1900s), following the expansion of the territories. Others went into Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas then throughout the new lands.

While we can go back to 1660 with John Roper Jr., we don't know where he was born, whether in Virginia or in England. It is possible he is a descendant of a Capt. William Roper who was a shipping merchant in Virginia and was in the House of Burgesses, but many records were burned in a fire so tracing his descendants is difficult. The Capt. William Roper house in Viriginia is still in use today and you can see it if you click the house to the right.

Even though many records were burned, information still remains on two marriages for John Roper in St. Peter's Parrish, New Kent County, Virginia. Click the church photo for a larger view of how it looks today today.

There were seven children from John Roper's first marriage to Susannah and four from the second marriage to Mary, which was in 1728. John Roper died in Charles City, Virginia, around 1759. The birth we are interested in for our line was Meredith Roper who was born in 1730 to John Roper and his second wife Mary in St. Peter's Parrish.

More Name Confusion Over the years Meredith Roper had a number of different spellings: Meredith, Meridith, Meredeth, Merideth, Meriday, Merriday and even Morriday. No wonder it is so hard to track this guy and our ancestors.

Meredith seems to be the epitome of the pioneer because he alone has been tracked in three states: VA, NC, and SC. One relative has called him "The Mysterious Meredith Roper" because of his constant movement and various spellings of his name. It seems he was a surveyor and moved with the push into the territories. In 1778 it looks like he did settle because there is a record for a land grant to Meredith Roper for 'Roper's Cabbin' in North Carolina.

Aaron Timothy Roper (1784-1855) While in North Carolina Meredith had seven children, six of them sons. One son, Aaron Timothy Roper (1784-1855), was our relative. But by 1800 Meredith appeared on the move again and landed in the South Carolina census with his family in the Greenville-Pickens area. He died there around 1830.

Meredith's son Aaron married, strangely enough, Rachel Meredith (1790 to about 1855) and they had 12 children, with eight of them sons. As a matter of fact, four of Aaron's five brothers moved to or settled Pickens, SC. That's a lot of Ropers populating one small corner of South Carolina in a short period of time. Well over 1/3 of them (that we know of) are direct descendants from Meredith Roper. The real number is probably higher, but we don't know all the later children's names or the names of the married daughters. To see a list of all 95 Ropers in just the Pickens 1860 census, click the link to the right.

There is still a Roper House Complex historical building in Pickens, SC that was built in 1856 and a Roper Hospital in Charleston that was started by a Roper philanthropist and possibly a distant relative. You can click the 'Roper House Complex' link to learn more about it and the hospital building to see a larger view.

Aaron's son Markus (1833-1869) The seventh son of Aaron was Markus Roper, born around 1833 in Pickens, South Carolina. Markus actually went against the grain and stayed in one place his entire life. He married a local girl, Susan Hendricks (1823-?) and was buried in Pickens in 1869. Markus and Susan had 11 children and, fortunately for us, chose some unusual names for some of them. These were the names recorded by Jessie Roper Frantz that allowed us to find our Roper roots.

Click the 'Continue Story' link below to follow the Ropers on to Arkansas.

Roper Gate

Roper Hospital
Charleston, SC

Continue Roper Story