This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: waroper Surnames: Roper, Peterson Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.roper/1754.4/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Within Will Book 3 for Brunswick County, VA, is the John PETERSON, of Brunswick County, VA, Dated 16 May 1763, Proved 23 Jan 1769. An abstract of this Will appears within the compilation "Brunswick County Will Books, Vol. I, Will Books 2 and 3 (1739-69 and 1783-85)", abstracted by Dr. Stephen E. BRADLEY, Jr., at page 139. James ROPER is shown to be one of the witnesses to John PETERSON's Will. The Will identifies this John PETERSON's sons as Batt, William, John and Kinchen. Daughters are indicated to be Temperence TAYLOR, Mary PETERSON, Martha PETERSON, Patience PETERSON, Rebecca PETERSON, Betty PETERSON and Lucy PETERSON. William, John and Kinchen are indicated to be under age 21 at the 16 May 1763 date of this Will. Each of the daughters except for the eldest (married) daughter Temperence is given a bequest of four slaves. Mary PETERSON received slaves Joe, Annakey, George and Lucy. This record seems to place a James ROPER near or adjacent to a John PETERSON in Brunswick County at 16 May 1763. In my related post "Sequence and Timing of the Children of James and Mary ROPER, of Anson County, NC " (27 Dec 2012 6:29PM), I suggested that we might reasonably infer these children and approximate birth dates for James and Mary ROPER's children: Martha ROPER (b abt 1767-8 - NC) Lucy ROPER (b abt 1768-71 - NC) Green ROPER (b abt 1772 - SC) Mary ROPER (b abt 1773-9) William ROPER (b abt 1774-80) Susannah ROPER (b abt 1775-81) I subsequently fixed Green ROPER's more precise genealogical information, further strengthening this analysis: Martha ROPER (b abt 1767-8 - NC) Lucy ROPER (b abt 1768-71 - NC) Green ROPER (b 23 Jul 1773 - Anson Co, NC, d 03 Apr 1855 - Hardeman Co., TN) Mary ROPER (b abt 1773-9) William ROPER (b abt 1774-80) Susannah ROPER (b abt 1775-81) We might therefore expect that James ROPER might have married Mary PETERSON about 1766-7. The Mary PETERSON identified in her father John PETERSON's Will is listed second in what is very likely to be birth order of the daughters, immediately following married eldest sister Temperence. This is suggestive that this Mary PETERSON may have been approaching marriageable age at the 16 May 1763 date of her father's Will. We also see amongst James and Mary ROPER's children the names Martha, Lucy and William, each a given name of Mary Peterson ROPER's identified siblings. The PETERSONs were slave owners and John PETERSON bequeathed slaves to each child, as did James ROPER. Since we were already expecting that James ROPER's wife might be a PETERSON, the close conformity of this record to the date of birth of James and Mary ROPER's eldest child, together with James ROPER's presence as a witness seems to support a very strong inference that the wife of James ROPER (d aft 17 Aug 1781 - Anson, NC) was Mary PETERSON, daughter of John PETERSON. When members of this ROPER family get over their fixation with their fraudulent lineage purporting to connect them to New Kent County, perhaps they can carefully check the extant Virginia and North Carolina Personal Property Tax records to better fix remaining details. I suspect that this James ROPER may have been born in Pennsylvania or Maryland. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. <br>