Individual Details

29 August 1758. (Uncle) William Rochester was appointed by the Westmoreland Co Court as the guardian of the five children of John Rochester, deceased - all were presumably under the age of 14. A commission was appointed to settle the accounts of John Rochester's estate for the benefit of the widow now married to Thomas Critcher and each of the children.

Granville County Kinfolks, p.52, Deed Book O, p. 131
9 Dec 1780. Esther Critcher, Samuel Morse, Nathaniel Rochester and Thomas Critcher, exrs of the will of Thomas Critcher, dec'd, made deed to Joseph Taylor and Phillip Voss, tenants in common.

SAR Application: Nathaniel Rochester was paymaster for the NC Militia, 1775-6; Col of NC Militia and Commissary General of Military Stores in NC, May 1776-1781.


10,000 Vital Records of Central New York
Rochester, Nathaniel (Col.), founder of Rochester, d. 5/17/31 "at an advanced age"

Find A Grave Memorial # 6181
Founder of the City of Rochester New York. His father passed two years after Nathaniel's birth and his mother remarried and the family moved to North Carolina when he was seven. In 1783 he began the " manufacture of flour, rope, and nails" at Hagerstown, Maryland. Rochester became active in local politics and in 1808 he was chosen a presidential elector, and voted for James Madison. In 1800 he first visited the "Genesee country," where he had previously bought 640 acres, and in September of that year he made large purchases of land in Livingston county, New York further up the Genesee River. In 1802 he purchased the "100-acre or Allan Mill tract," in Falls Town (now Rochester), and in May 1810, he moved from Hagerstown and settled near Dansville, where he remained five years, building a paper-mill. In 1815 he moved to Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York and in April 1818, took up his residence in Rochesterville, which had been named for him. In 1817 Rochester served on a committee to petition the state to build the Erie Canal. He petitioned the state to create a county around Rochesterville and in 1821 Monroe County, which Rochester named after the President, was created. He was the first clerk of the new county, and its first representative in the state legislature of 1821 to 1822. Nathaniel was one of the founders of St. Luke's Episcopal Church and formed the Bank of Rochester. He married Sophia Beatty in 1788 and they had twelve children. The Rochesters were originally interned in Downtown Rochester but were moved to Mount Hope to make room for the first hospital. (bio by: Paul G. Healy)

http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/rochester/329/
I have an article in my possession that was published in "Rochester History" January 1962, that is a nice bio of Nathaniel.
Nathaniel Rochester was born February 21, 1752, in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, VA,married Sophia Beatty, daughter of Col. William Beatty of Frederick, Maryland, January 25, 1768; he died on May 17, 1831, in Rochester, NY and is buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery (in 1938 the bodies were transfered from the Buffalo Cemetery). He was one of the founders of Rochester, NY. He and Sophia had 12 children.
1. William Beatty Rochester
2. Nancy Barbara Rochester
3. John Cornelius Rochester
4. Sophia Eliza Rochester
5. Nancy Elinor Rochester
6. Thomas Hart Rochester
7. Catherine Kimball Rochester
8. Nathaniel Thrift Rochester
9. Anna Barbara Rochester
10. Henry Elie Rochester
11. Ann Cornelia Rochester
12. Lousia Lucinda Rochester


Obituary of daughter Ann Cornelia
Boston Herald, Monday Jan 2, 1893, p.2
Mrs. Ann Cornelia Gates.
AMHERST, Jan 1., 1893. Mrs. Ann Cornelia Gates died Saturday at the home of President Gates of Amherst College, at the age of 84 years.
She was born in Hagerstown, MD., Feb 5, 1808. She removed to the city of Rochester, NY which is named after her father, Col. Nathan Rochester.
In 1851 she married Hon. William S. Bishop of Rochester, who was the father of three children by his first wife - Rev. George S. Bishop, D.D. of Orange, NJ, James L. Bishop of New York City and Mary C. Bishop, now Mrs. Merrill E. Gates of Amherst.
Her husband died in 1863 and in 1867 she married Hon. Seth Gates of Warsaw, NY. Of her second husband's children but three will be able to attend the funeral - Mrs. William J. Milne of Albany, NY, Lewis E. Gates of the faculty of Harvard University, and President Gates of Amherst.
Since the death of her second husband, in 1877, she has been a member of the household of his son, Merrill E. Gates, then of Albany, NY who had married in 1873 Miss Mary Bishop.
A double tie thus bound her to the family in which she has found a home for the last 15 years.
The funeral services will be held Tuesday afternoon at the house of President Gates.

Birth	21 Feb 1752	Westmoreland County Virginia
Marriage	Abt 1788	Sophia Beatty
Death	17 May 1831	Rochester, Monroe County, New York

Spouse	Sophia Beatty (1768 - 1845)
Child	Henry Eli Rochester (1806 - 1889)

Father	John Rochester (1708 - 1754)
Mother	ESTHER Thrift (1726 - 1784)
Sibling	William Rochester (1745 - 1748)
Sibling	John Rochester (1746 - 1794)
Sibling	Ann Rochester (1747 - 1843)
Sibling	Phillis Rochester (1750 - 1822)
Sibling	Hester Rochester (1753 - 1812)

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