THE ROSS FAMILY
The following are excerpts from a July 1998 letter from Sharon Sheldon, descendant of James Barefoot, eldest son of Benjamin and Rebecca (Ross) Barefoot, to Hazel Fuller Kreinheder, Corrections Genealogist for the he National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Note: Federal census records beginning in 1790 only listed the names of the head of household until 1850, when every person living in the household was named.
Re: Corrections
Request to Patriots George Ross, Esq. (1730-1779) and
Col. James Ross (1753-1808) via Rebecca Ross and Mary Ann
Ross
Dear Hazel:
In April of this year my cousin Becky Barefoot and I had
the opportunity to meet and discuss with you the errors as found in the lineage
of our distant grandmother, Rebecca (Ross) Barefoot. Approved DAR membership applications, both recent and from years
back, have implied that Rebecca Ross was the daughter of Col. James Ross of
Lancaster, PA, who in turn was the son of George Ross, Esq., (1730-1779) one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence. During the past year research has indicated that this lineage
link of Rebecca to James is in error.
It has been documented by many sources that the above
referenced Col. James Ross of Lancaster had four children only: George, James,
Catherine and Maria….
We feel preponderance of the evidence in hand shows our
Rebecca Ross to be one of four children, and that their parents were James and
Ruth (Robison/Robinson) Ross of Morgantown, Caernarvon Twp., Berks Co., PA. The marriage record of James Ross and Ruth
Robinson is found in the St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster City,
Lancaster, PA. They married 10 December
1767. In May 1768 Ruth’s father, William
Robison/Robinson, died, and in his will left 45 acres of land in Morgantown,
Caernarvon Twp., Berks Co., PA to his daughter, Ruth Ross. Ruth and James farmed the land and were on
the tax duplicates for this location from 1770-1778. The following children were born: Rebecca, b. 22 Dec 1768;
Margaret b. ca 1770; William b. 14 Oct 1772, and Mary Ann b. 11 Jun 1776. By at least 1777 this James Ross was
involved in the Revolution as evidenced by records of his oath of allegiance
and as one of two court-martial men in the 5th Battalion, Southern
Section, 8th Company, Caernarvon Twp., Berks Co. (source
Pennsylvania Archives). His commander
was Capt. David Morgan. By April 1779
James Ross was dead as evidenced by intestate papers on file in Berks Co.,
PA. While it’s possible that his death
was war-related (no grave for James has been found at this point), we have been
unable to determine what his Battalion would have been doing during this time
frame. There was an additional
accounting of the estate of James Ross in 1798 which shows the following: “The accountants charge themselves with the
balance specified in their first account being $1298.10.11 in continental money
exchange at 75 for one, equal to $17.6.2 ½, with a balance due the accountants
of $6.16.2 ½.” Other researchers
familiar with depreciation pay indicate that this entry reflects the exchange
of continental money or scrip paid for service in the Revolution. There is no widow’s pension file for our
James Ross, and his estate does not reference children by name….While we were
hoping to find guardianship papers for James’ minor children (a procedure
common for the times to protect minor children who were left fatherless) , we
were disappointed that there were none.
Perhaps this was due to Ruth’s brother John Robinson being named
co-administrator of James Ross’ estate, or the fact that Ruth appeared to have
been more than capable of providing for her children, as evidenced by later tax
lists. She never remarried. The Berks courthouse does not have a file on
the estate of Ruth Robinson Ross (died 1815), which assuredly would have listed
her children and possibly their respective spouses.
Copies of pages out of the Bible owned by Rebecca Ross
show her marriage to Benjamin Barefoot in 1787 and the subsequent births of
their five children. Baptism records for
their three middle children were located at St. Gabriel’s Church in Berks Co.,
but an examination of the records show that the baptisms actually occurred at
St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Morgantown, PA.
Further examination of St. Thomas Church records show that two of
Rebecca’s siblings were buried in its cemetery years later: William Ross, who
died in 1818, and Mary Ann (Ross) Brinley, who died in 1834.
We feel the absence of any document explicitly naming
James and Ruth as the parents of our Rebecca and the others can be overcome by
facts that place these four Ross children right in Morgantown and its environs
during most of their lives, and that James and Ruth Ross were the only people
carrying the Ross surname in that location during this time frame. During the years 1779-92 the widow Ruth Ross
is in the tax records in Caernarvon Twp., Berks Co., and in 1794-99, William
Ross takes Ruth’s place on the Caernarvon Twp. tax duplicates as head of
household. We had been unable to locate
the whereabouts of our Rebecca Barefoot and her children in 1800 as her husband
Benjamin Barefoot was on the 1800 census in Fayette Co., by himself… it is
probable that Rebecca and her children were indeed living with family in 1800:
William Ross has the following people in his household at the time of the
census:
2
males under 10 (to be precise, this would need to be 3 boys under 10 to account
for ALL the Barefoot boys, but perhaps 2-year-old Job wasn’t obvious to the
enumerator)
1 male 10-16 (James Barefoot, age 12)
1 male 26-45 (William Ross, age 28)
1 female under 10 (Isabella Barefoot, age 5)
1 female 16-26 (Mary Ann Ross, age 24)
1 female 26-45 (Rebecca Ross Barefoot, age 31)
1 female over 45 (Ruth Robinson Ross)
Both William and Mary Ann Ross were still unmarried at
this time, so the younger children could not have been theirs. We know Rebecca and Benjamin (or at the very
least, Rebecca and the children) were in the Morgantown area in 1797 as per the
baptism records mentioned above. A
search of other family members did not turn up anyone else who would have had
the children referenced in those categories.
In 1809 Rebecca Ross Barefoot’s name appears on the
payroll ledger at Joanna Furnace which was an iron works in Berks Co., not far
from Morgantown. In 1810 the Caernarvon
Twp. census shows Rebecca Barefoot as head of a household surrounded by family,
as evidenced by the order of households on that census: John Brindle (a variation of the spelling –
this is Mary Ann Ross’ family), and two doors down, William Robinson (possibly
a relative but not proven at this point).
In speaking with Robert Brinley (a descendant of Mary Ann
Ross and author of “The Brinleys in PA” book, which is on file at the DAR
Library) about his Ross relatives, he knew nothing other than the father of his
Mary Ann Ross served under a Captain Morgan in the Revolutionary War. The above referenced James Ross who died in
1779 did just that.
The primary proof in this file came from William Ross’
estate. William had moved to Uwchlan
Twp., Chester Co. and died there in 1818.
His estate papers include a request to partition his real estate
holdings as he and his wife were childless.
The petition…states that William Ross was survived by three sisters:
Mary Ann Brinley, Margaret Wells and Rebecca Barefoot.
In summary, we believe we have conclusively proven that
Rebecca Ross was the daughter of James Ross of Berks Co., not James Ross of
Lancaster Co. While both men were
patriots named James Ross, it is our honor to request that our ancestor be
linked to her real family…
Very sincerely yours,
Sharon Sheldon