Peter Rosell & John Rossell Signers of a 1796 Albermarle, Virginia Petition

From John Bunnell:

Here's a petition from Albemarle County (24 Nov 1786) signed by the Rossells?  This probably indicates the whole gang was still in Albemarle County as of this date, although we know they showed up on the Rockbridge tax rolls the following year.  

From George Farris:

I searched petitions in all of the relevant counties  - but mostly just "group" petitions such as "Citizen's Petitions."  There are a lot of individual petitions and it's possible that one of the people we are searching signed one of those as a witness.  I looked at some of those but it looked like most were for large landholders and not something that the Bunnells would be involved with. 

I did see the 1786 petition signed by Peter and John Rossell in Albemarle- and a few others in the following years.  

However, we know from Rossell researchers that Peter and most of the Rossells remained in Albemarle for many years and the Bunnells separated from them there.  

In fact the absence of William Bunnell's name on the 1786 petition indicates to me that they had already moved on by that time.  The only one of the Rossell family that seems to have lived near the Bunnells in later years was Nehemiah, the oldest son of Peter and Anna (Gray) Rossell.   Nehemiah's son, Peter, married Sarah Wright in Botetourt County.  It appears that Ann Wright (widow of Jacob) and her daughter Sarah moved with the Bunnells, since Ann was remarried in Rockbridge and Sarah married in Botetourt at the time that the Bunnells were in those counties.  Peter Rossell seems to have remained near his son John in later years in Albemarle and ultimately seems to have been near John when John lived in Fayette County, KY. Peter died near there in Mercer Co. KY in April 1802 (from the Shawnee Run Baptist Church records).

Regarding further research of the petitions, it would really be looking for a needle in a haystack (as Marjorie put it) - but might turn up another hit somewhere. I've already searched through all of the Citizen's Petitions in the counties where we know the Bunnells lived - and also in a few others. 

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