A Roper Family in West Virginia

L. David Roper (roperld@vt.edu)
(www.roperld.com)

See http://nicholasroper.com/ .

Nicholas Roper (b 20 Dec 1738 Thrandeston, Suffolk, England d 13 Jan 1817 Jefferson Co. WV) came to northwest Virginia c1780. He was the caretaker for the lands of the Ferdinando Fairfax (1692-1782), who wrote in his will: "...it is my particular desire that Nicholas Roper should be continued as steward or manager of my farms as long as he may choose; since his honesty & unusal attention to his employers interest whould render his Services cheeper at high wages than those of almost any other that I know of at the lowest." Nicholas accumulated about 1100 acres of his own on the west bank of the Shenandoah River near Charles Town WV just north of the Berryville Monastery.

The data for the descendants of Nicholas Roper can be obtained from me.

It appears that Nicholas' parents are James Roper bc1700 and Hannah Osborne (m 6 May 1729 in Norwich, Norfolk, England).

Two members of this family have participated in the Roper male-line Y-chromosome project: Howard Stephen Roper and Anthony Wayne Roper. Two Englishmen, Ian Thomas Roper of Herts/London and Clifford Roper of Ickburgh Norfolk, also test as being in the same family. The 25 markers for this family are:

Location (prefix DYS): 393 390 19
(394)
391 385a 385b 426 388 439 389-1 392 389-2
HSR/AWR/ITR 14 22 15 10 14 14 11 13 11 12 11 31
Location (prefix DYS): 458 459a 459b 455 454 447 437 448 449 464a 464b 464c 464d
HSR/AWR/ITR 16 9 9 11 11 23 16 21 34 12 13 13 14

See http://www.roperld.com/RoperConnect.htm#WV.

In recent years the family reunion has been held at Crums United Methodist Church, 2832 Crums Church Road, Berryville VA 22611. Contact Amie Kay Roper Comer.

Previously t his family held an annual reunion the first weekend of August at the farm lands of Nicholas Roper on the banks of the Shenandoah River:

Since we do not know how Ian Thomas Roper of England is related to the West Virginia Ropers, here are the known data for Ian's family: RoperIanThomas.pdf

Map of West Virgiia counties