“Downtown Rock Hill, S.C. was surveyed by the Squire for local landowner Mr. Alexander T. Black.”
City Directories and History: SQUIRE JOHN RODDEY
John Roddey was an important figure in the early nineteenth century in eastern York County. He was the son of David Roddey (1755-1822), who had immigrated from Northern Ireland about 1787 and settled in Chester County. There is a family tradition that David Roddey had earlier been to America and had served as a soldier in Col.
Banastre Tarleton’s British Legion. A search in the British National Archives in London failed to document David Roddey on the roster of any unit which fought with Tarleton. David Roddey acquired several tracts of land and eventually moved to the Neely’s Creek area of York County. His home site and place of burial are not known. An excellent summary of the Roddey family was authored by Louise Pettus in 1998 (A Roddey Family).
John Roddey, son of David and his second wife Elizabeth McAteer (sometimes spelled McTeer), was born in 1805. He was a minor when his father died in 1822, but as early as 1830, he received a portion of his father’s Catawba Indian lease. He gradually added to his holdings until his plantation consisted of over 900 acres, including land purchased from W. P. McFadden at Coats’ Tavern. McFadden had built a house in 1843-4 and operated a store, gin, tan yard, and other businesses near the house on an old stage road, now known as Cureton Ferry Road. His home site prior to moving to Coats’ Tavern in 1855 is not known, but his placement in 1850 census files indicates that he was living on one of his tracks near Neely’s Creek Church. In 1828, he married Mary Grier “Polly” Wylie, daughter of Thomas Wylie and Nancy Grier. Both the Wylie and Grier families had lived in the Lands Ford area of Chester County, although the Griers later settled in the Steele Creek area of Mecklenburg County. It is likely that Thomas Wylie and Nancy Grier were cousins. The Wylie home still stands, and was very close to the Roddey home.

Note from the Hutchison Group 2021 – Asking, “Mr. Roddey if he had moved the road himself and helped move the cross road street?” This deals with a lawsuit between Mrs. Ann H. White and many of Rock Hill’s business leaders dealing with the opening of White Street.
John Roddey was widely known as “Squire” Roddey. He served for many years as a magistrate, entitling him to place “Esquire” with his name, and this was shortened to Squire. In addition to farming his large farm, he operated the store and other businesses he purchased from W. P. McFadden at Coats’ Tavern, served as Postmaster, and worked as a surveyor. As one of the leading surveyors in York County, he drew many plats, including a number of those used to describe properties being granted to former owners of Catawba Indian leases after the treaty of 1840. In 1851, he surveyed the original twenty-three lots on Main Street in the new community of Rock Hill for Alexander Templeton Black. He also purchased the second lot sold in Rock Hill from Black. The village was born when a new rail line was placed through eastern York County, and Black was eager to take advantage of the line’s location through his property. A later survey done by Squire Roddey in 1856 extended the original plat and created Church Street, now known as Black Street.
John Roddey and his wife Polly had eight children: Josephine Roddey Miller, Jane Roddey Black, Mattie Roddey Gettys, Sarah Lavinia Roddey Gettys, William Lyle Roddey, Thomas Elihu Roddey, David Clarkson Roddey, and Joseph Wylie Roddey. Squire John Roddey died in 1860, just before the outbreak of the Civil War. His widow Polly Roddey continued to live in the home until her death in 1892. Compiled by Paul Gettys for R&R.com – 2016
With the railroad construction crews getting closer and closer to Rock Hill in 1851, Alexander Templeton Black was determined to take advantage of his position as a principal landowner in the path of the new rail line. He engaged the services of ‘Squire John Roddey of the Coats’ Tavern neighborhood of York District (or County) to survey his lands in the immediate vicinity of the newly erected railroad depot, or warehouse, to be precise, and to lay out such streets and lots as he thought appropriate, looking to the day when this place would develop into a village and then a town and perhaps even a city. The tract in question was that which A.T. Black had acquired from his brother Hamilton Wilson Black in previous years ‘Squire Roddey’s first survey was completed on November 6-7, 1851. He had laid out twenty-three lots along “Main Street” just to the east of the depot. A second survey was done on November 26-27, 1856.
(Along the Landsford Road, by Wm. B. White, Jr. Vol., I – 2008)
*** John Roddey was also the Postmaster of Neely’s Creek P.O. from 1841 – 1845. Courtesy of Harvey Teal’s S.C. Postal History, 1989
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Family lore has it that David Roddey fought under General Cornwallis, though I have no documentation. I’m DR’s great-x4-grandson.
Paul Gettys states, “David Roddey is reported to have fought under Banastre Tarleton. Paul reports he spent a day in the British National Records Center and reviewed all rosters of Tarleton’s troop and failed to find any mention of a Roddey.”