Rodney family of Delaware


The Rodney family of Delaware was a prominent family of farmers and politicians in Kent County and Sussex County, Delaware. It includes a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, a member of the Continental Congress, three Governors of Delaware, a United States Senator, and two United States Representatives.
William Rodney came to Philadelphia soon after William Penn and having settled at St. Jones Hundred, near what later became Dover, Delaware, was foreman of a Kent County jury in December 1681. The eldest of six children, he was baptized in Bristol, England on December 14, 1660. His father worked as a Royal prosecutor and surveyor of customs in New York, dying on Long Island Sound in 1679, while returning from the West Indies.