Upon further investigation, it appears to me that there must have been a Roper property at the northern end of Roper Church Road near Stage Road.

Although I am NOT aware of any Roper patents or deed descibring this parcel, it is implicitly located by the property description of Edward Hix's patent of 11 Jan 1804. This patent is online at:

http://lvaimage.lib.va.us/LONN/LO-3/118/118_0163.tif

The tract is described as "lying and being in the County of New Kent in Blisslan parish ... Beginning at a dogwood corner of Samuel Tylor, from thence North forty seven degrees east seventy poles to a gum, corner to Mrs. Elizabeth Jones, north forty two degrees east forty poles to an oak on Wm. Jones' line, north fifty-one degrees east sixty poles to a pine standing on the south side of the stage road, corner to John Roper and Wm. Jones, from thence up the stage road north thirty two degrees west thirty eight poles to an oak on said Ropers line, north two degrees west fifty poles to an oak standing on the edge of Warren I. Swamp, John Ropers line, thence down said swamp to a maple corner to Hix and Tylor thence south thirty five and a half degrees east fifty poles to the beginning ..."

Clearly, Warren I. Swamp is what is now known as "Wahrani Swamp". There must have once been a "Warren Island", possibly before the Diascund Creek Reservoir was created, as there is a Warren Mills nearby in James City County.

There is currently a "Stage Road" probably exactly where the old Stage Road was located.

Roper Chuch Road seems to run roughly parallel to the Wahrani Swamp at just over one half mile distance.

The Edward Hix Traxt is oriented from Southwest to Northeast with Wahrani Swamp furnishing the West border to the property. Samuel Tyler's porperty is adjacent to the Southwest, sharing a boundary of 55 poles (907.5 feet). Two Jones properties lie to the East probably between the Hix tract and what is now Roper's Church Road. Elizabeth Jones Property is apparently to the south and William Jones' property is to the north.

We are told that one corner of the Edward Hix, John Roper and William Jones property is situated at a pine standing on the South side of the "stage road". And John Roper's property seems to continue along this road for at least 38 poles (627 feet). Thereafter, Roper's property line heads north and reaches the Wahrani Swamp.

John Roper's property would therefore appear to be immediately to the north of the Stage Road at least at the point where it joins the Hix and Jones properties. If the "Roper Church" was on the old John Roper property, it may have then been at the END of Roper Church Road where it meets Stage Road.

It appears that the Hix property extended from Stage Road southwest to a point just beyond the Sothern edge of the Interstate 64 right-of-way.

There is no way of ascertaining the other dimensions or size of the John Roper from this patent.

Here is the area of the property as it appears in the USGS maps:

http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.asp?S=11&T=...

Here is the satellite image:

http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.asp?T=1&S=1...

The Edward Hix Patent is truly remarkable and may be a "Rosetta Stone" for Roper family history research. Dr. William Jones is the name of a witness to the Will of Thomas Roper of Anne Arundel, Maryland, in 1677.

"Hix" is a variant on the name "Hext". William Roper (d 14 Feb 1772) of Charleston on 5 Sep 1745 married Grace Hext, daughter of David Hext, of Charleston.

Here we find John Roper's New Kent County property adjacent to those of Jones and Hix in 1804.

This property is also in Blissland parish, which is highly suggestive that it might have been the ORIGINAL Roper property in New Kent County, given that we know that there was a John Roper who was on the verstry of Blissland Parish before St. Peter's Parish was formed.

>"Hix" is a variant on the name "Hext". William Roper (d 14 Feb 1772) of Charleston on 5 Sep 1745 married Grace Hext, daughter of David Hext, of Charleston<

What you say may be true but John Hix the actual owner of the Warranty Swamp patent might take exception to your thoughts about his name. He lived next to the Preston's patent and married his daughter. In addition he served with him as a Doorkeeper for the house of Burgess. Hix is a well used name in Europe.
Robert N. Hix

There is also Wahrani property on RT. 33, in Eltham as you go toward West Point. The property belonged to Ches. Corp. until they gave it to the county for a walking trail

I apologize for taking so long in replying!

Snce the 2002 of my original post, we have made a great deal of progress in sorting out the origins of several ROPER families. One of the breakthroughs was the ascription of William ROPER (d 14 Feb 1772) of Charleston as the SON of a Thomas ROPER, Cutler, of London. More recent DNA evidence shows that the Charleston ROPER family is actually genetically UNRELATED to the Majority USA ROPER family found in Colonial Massachusetts, Virginia and North Carolina.

I had once been fascinated by what I perceived to be possible connections between the Virginia and South Carolina ROPER families. And it was on the basis of a series of weak inferences drawn upon several coincidences, that I noted the adjacency of ROPER and HIX and the intermarriage of ROPER and HEXT.

I have NO OTHER BASIS to suggest that HIX and HEXT might be the SAME family and given that my previous speculation of a family connection between the Virginia and South Carolina families has been DISPROVEN, I AGREE with your assessment.

I have actually posted quite a bit of subsequent information regarding the South Carolina ROPER family on ROPER message boards, but hadn't remembered to come back to the New Kent message board to correct past speculative posts.

Hopefully, some of the information showing boundaries and adjacencies will still prove helpful!

Dave:

I believe that I have located the PRECISE location of the ROPER Church on the ROPER Church Road in New Kent! This church seeems to be shown on the CSA map described as "Map of New Kent, Charles City, James City and York counties." produced by Confederate States of America. Army. Dept. of Northern Virginia. Chief Engineer's Office. in 1863. This map is viewable ONLINE at the Library of Congress website. [Map F232 N3 1863:1] The original seems to be in the Virginia Historical Society, P.O. Box 7311, Richmond, VA 23221-0311 USA.

The location seems to be on the East side of ROPER Church Road just South of Old Stage Road. It appears that the church is immediatetly OPPOSITE the point where Wedgewood Drive intersects with ROPER Church Road. This location is CONSISTENT with the apparent location of the John ROPER property implicitly located by the HIX deed.

Here is a USGS view of the location. The church would seem to have been located just to thee right of the marker shown on the USGS map as "621" (ROPER Church Road).

The CSA map shows a draw coming North off of Barnes Swamp and forking to the South and East of the church location. The road on the USGS map with the row of houses is Wedgewood Drive.

The John ROPER properety seems to have been to the North of Old Stage Road between Dr. JONES and Warini (Wahrini) Swamp.

As you know, this was a very early METHODIST Church.

Perhaps we should contact the property owners to see if we can look for grave markers near the church ruins!

I will e-mail you a map extract. You can download the entire map from the LOC!

I believe that this map also shows the precise location of the ancient Blissland parish church! It would be interesting to look for grave markers there, as well!

W.A.

I would be very interested in this ROPER Church...as it's in the area of my ROSSER's and in their time frame.

Would you please contact me...off the boards??

I'm the list manager for ROSSER@rootsweb.com. *S*

Many thanks,

Lisa

Are you still researching the STOTTS surname in Natchez District, MS and thereabouts in late 18th and early 19th century time periods? We believe our ancestor was Sylvester STOTTS, father of Lydia STOTTS (b.20 Oct 1800 in Wilkinson, MS) who married Nathaniel Kinnison, Jr. on 10 Oct 1817 in Franklin, MS. We are intrigued by the possible connection to Abraham STOTTS as referenced in postings by you and others. I have mtDNA results from a saliva sample I submitted last year for my maternal line back to Lydia (?) STOTTS and her mother, her mother's mother, and so on. Someday, maybe those DNA results will help solve the mysteries of Lydia's ancestry.

If anyone wants pictures of the area, let me know. I also have pictures of the two tombstones at the "ancient Blissland parrish church".

Are you speaking of Roper tombstones at the Blisland parish? If so, I certainly would like to have pictures!

Dave Roper roperld@vt.edu

Though I have seen a depiction of the location of the ancient Blissland Parish Church on the New Kent County Historical Society's map of New Kent, that map is NOT precisely to scale.

Do you have a Lat Long grind coordinate of the precise location of the Blissland Church? Is it on private or public property? Do you have any photos of ruins of the old church?

Like Dave, I WOULD like to have photos of any ROPER tombstones. Given the historical significance of the church, I would like to see images of any other tombstones you found there, too.

You are the first person I have encountered who claims to have located the precise location of this church.

I think that it would also be fascinating to see where it is located in reference to the old contemporaneous Virginia patents of New Kent.