Robert Peelle II (abt. 1657 - bef. 1749)

Born about 1657 in Lower Norfolk County, Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Jarrat) Peelle — married 1680 in Nansemond County, Virginia

Descendants

Died before 1749 before about age 92 in Sleepy Hole, Nansemond County, Virginia

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Robert was a Friend (Quaker)

Biography

Robert Peelle was born about 1657 on his father's land on the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River but moved with his father to Nansemond County, Virginia in 1663. He married Sarah Jarrat about 1678, widow of Thomas Jarrat.

After the marriage, Robert moved to this wife's property barely two miles west from his father's plantation. Sarah had inherited 134 acres located on the bank of the Nansemond River near Sleepy Hole.

It is recorded in Virginia law that a ferry operated from Sleepy Hole, crossing the Nansemond River to Colefield Point. In 1702, as recorded in the Virginia Law books, the fare was a six pence for a man and a shilling for a man with a horse. In 1748 the fare to cross the river was still six pence for a man and a shilling for a man with a horse.

Robert and Sarah raised at least four sons. (It is not known if they had any daughters.) Robert and Sarah's four sons were William-1679, Robert-1681, Ephraim-1685, and Joseph-1687. All were born in the Lower Parish, but all moved upstream to the Upper Parish in the area south of Suffolk, where they raised their families and died.

Robert-1657 is listed by many researchers as dying in 1703, but there are records of his living until at least 1749, making him about 92 years of age.

Researcher Notes

Source: Lawrence, Etc. Volume 11 – Issue 2 - 2011 Written by Horace Peele
On 24 April 1703, Robert-1657 and his wife Sarah renewed the patent to the 134 acres of land that had been left to Sarah by her first husband, Thomas Jarrat. The records do not explain why the deed was recorded in 1703 and not earlier when she and Thomas got married. It was not unusual in those days not to register property until there was some reason. For example, in many wills there is a phrase similar to "I leave my son the land on which he now lives," telling us that the son had already gotten married and settled on some part of his father's land which was not yet been registered in the son's name prior to the death of the father, and in most cases the son may have already raised a large family while living on his father's land.

Sarah's inherited land was located in the Lower Parish of Nansemond County near Sleepy Hole on the eastern bank of the Nansemond River just west of Bennett's Creek. An extract of the patent to re-register the leand reads:
"On 24 April 1703, Robert Peelle was granted a patent to 134 acres in the Lower Parish of Nansemond County, VA on the East side of Nansemond River; beginning at a Catwood tree by the river side near Sleepy Hole; adjoining John Peters, in Belson’s line; which was granted to Richard Russell on 27 August 1653 who sold it to Edward Dence from whom it was escheated & was granted to Thomas Jarrat on 6 April 1671, who bequeathed it to his wife Sarah, who intermarried with said Peale."
(Virginia Department of Archives, Patent Book 9, Page 512.)
The land was two miles west from his father's plantation on The Mill Run. A road by the name of Sleepy Hole Road is still there today, and the Kings Highway Bridge crosses the river in the vicinity of this land.

Sources

• Family records
• The First Peelle Family in America
• "Lawrence, Etc. Volume 11 – Issue 2 - 2011" Written by Horace Peele
• The First PEELLE Family in America Since 1602 "Peelle Chronicles", written by Horace Peelle; Publisher date 2016.