James Hawkins of Stafford County, Virginia c.1800

This blog post is going to take a while to make sense.  I am trying to sort through the information about James Hawkins who is found in Stafford County at least from 1797 until 1820.  I have such a mish mash of information that I am going to just start adding it and then sift through what I have.

Why did I get interested in this James Hawkins?

Because my "brick wall" for 20 years or more, Thomas Ross Hawkins, had a daughter named Angelina.  Angelina married James A. Whitlock.  When Angelina died  either her husband or one of her children  filled out the death certificate.  And the person took the time to put in good information in the blanks.  And Thomas Ross Hawkins ....that I had thought for MANY years to have been born in Orange County, Virginia suddenly had a new birth county:  Stafford County.  So suddenly I believed that Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in Stafford County, Virginia.  And then, Phooey....Stafford County is a burned county....not a lot of information ....But I do have an approximate birth date for Thomas R. Hawkins of 1797 based on census information and the following from From the Religious Herald of Richmond, June 18, 1885:

 On the 6th day of April,

1885, at the residence of his son, Rev. E.P. Hawkins of Louisa County, Rev

Thomas Hawkins quietly fell  asleep, being eighty-seven years and seven

months old."

I would then calculate his birth to be Sept 1797.

You can see from Angelina's death certificate that clearly her father was born in Stafford County.  There would have been no reason for husband or child to have made such a thing up....all of the years that they had known him, he lived in Orange County, Virginia.  If they were just guessing, they would have guessed Orange.  They knew he had been born in Stafford.

 

So next I ran my new information by Elaine....and not long after Elaine found a tax record in which James Hawkins was paying taxes for William Ross in Stafford County, Virginia in the right time frame.  These have to be my men right?

Here is the blog post that I wrote at the time I discovered this information so you can see that tax record for yourself:

https://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2019/01/james-hawkins-and-william-ross.html

Timeline for James Hawkins and William Ross in Stafford County:

1783 William Ross and William Ross Jr are both on Stafford County Property list .  There is no Hawkins on the list in this year.

1797  On list B James Hawkins is paying for Wm. Rofs and there is another William Rofs later in the list.  This is approximately the same year in which Thomas R. Hawkins was said to have been born in Stafford County.

1800 Tax List James Hawken 103 acres Pt. Park and William Ross 202 acres Pt. Park   Jerrilyn says: 

"Pt. Park" means part of the Parke tract.

 The 1800 Virginia census was lost so the tax list is our best documentation. There is no Hawkins male listed on the personal property tax list at all in the County (I am using Binns tax list to do this research).  William Ross is on the list with 2 males over the age of 16.  This could be his own son or it could be his son-in-law, James Hawkins.  But there seems to be only one William Ross on the list.  So perhaps  as another theory the father-in-law, William Ross, has already died.  I feel certain that if Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in 1797, his father must have still been living in Stafford Count, but I don't know why he would  not have been on the tax list.

1811 James Hawkins is on the Stafford County personal Property List …on list A.  William Ross is on the same list.

1812 There is no Hawkins on the Stafford County personal Property List.  Killis Hord is listed.

1813  There is no Hawkins on the Stafford County personal Property List.  Killis Hord is listed.  There seems to be only one William Ross on the list.  William Ross is on the list, but I only see one William Ross. (I believe that this is because William Ross the father is deceased)

I looked at a deed book for Fleming County, Ky at the Filson library in May 2019.  There is no Hawkins transaction in the years between 1797 and 1818.

1820 There is a James Hawkins in Stafford County, Virginia in the 1820 census.  It is a large household.  3 sons:  1 under 10, 1 between 10 and 15 and 1 older than 16.  James is 45 or older.  4 daughters under 10 and one older than 16.  His wife was 45 or older.  In 1820 Thomas R. would have been 22-23.  So he could have been the one older son.  He is not yet married....but he could also be in Orange County with Uncle Benjamin.  He is found earlier than that in Orange County…perhaps when he was going to school.  And he has not yet married Matilda.  It is a large family.
  

Is there a will for William Ross?  Are there wills available at all in Stafford County?  

From Olyve:  I don't know where James b. ca 1765 was born. He left Stafford's tax role about 1825 and showed up in Clark CO. KY in 1826.   Other researchers say that James died in Flemming County in 1834.

I need to clarify this and find some documents.

Then I pulled out notes from a lady that I had communicated with for many years.  Her James Hawkins was from Stafford County and died in Fleming County, Kentucky.  There seems to be only one James Hawkins in Stafford County in the right time period....why would my James Hawkins move to Kentucky...and leave children in Virginia?  

So I started looking at Ancestry trees ....and there is more than one that looks  like the following:

This James Hawkins has wife, Margaret, born 1769 in Virginia and died in Fleming County, Ky 1834.    

And James is given dates that are similar as you can see from the above.  

So what is wrong with this picture?  James is about 26 when his first child is born and his wife is about 21.  That seems normal enough.....but then....they have three children that make sense for the age...and then don't have any more for 16 years. After 16 years they suddenly have six more children at ages 35 to 53.  It is absolutely not impossible.  But there almost has to be more to the story.  

Especially when you factor in that my Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in 1797.  And that he has sisters, Mary and Elizabeth and brothers, Moses and Benjamin.  I think it possible that Moses joined the family in moving to Kentucky.  But Mary and Elizabeth and Thomas Ross stayed behind in Virginia.  I don't know much about Benjamin but I do find a Benjamin Hawkins in Orange County who is of the right age.  These children stayed behind in Virginia with Uncle Benjamin and Aunt Mary/Polly...perhaps because of their age?  Don't know yet.

So was there a first wife?  And when she died, did James remarry ....and then his older children joined him in moving to Kentucky while his teenagers stayed behind...and James moved his baby, Moses, with him and with his new wife?  It would seem that all of James' children were born in Stafford County.  If the dates on the Ancestry tree are correct.  

So I guess the first question I'll start with tomorrow is:  When did James move his family to Fleming County, Kentucky?  And did he first move to Clark County, Ky?

Ok, I am still looking at trees tonight.  Walter R. is said to have been born in Stafford County so they are still in Virginia in 1817.  I am using Walter R. to search the trees.  He has wife Angeline Snedegar.  Here are some of the facts that I am finding on various Ancestry trees:

James Hawkins' wife is Margaret Jane Morton

James and Margaret's marriage was in Culpeper in 1790.  My best guess is that this researcher used the date of the first born child to come up with this information.  I have looked the Culpeper, Spotsylvania, and Orange County marriage books and while there are a number of Hawkins marriages, this one is not listed.  I have also checked Theresa A. Fisher's book for marriages between 1722 and 1850 that includes City of Fredericksburg, Orange, Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties.  I find no marriage between James Hawkins and Margaret Jane Morton.  Nor do I find a marriage between James Hawkins and any woman with last name Ross.  Stafford County is a "burned" county and the records are scarce.

Again from Ancestry trees, all of James' children are said to have been born in Virginia.  The last child named is Sally Ann born in 1819....so they did not move until after 1819 to Kentucky.

Many of the Ancestry trees say that this James is the son of William and Elizabeth Bourne Hawkins.  I would like this to be true if it is my James.  However, Elizabeth is certainly dead by 1819.  My notes say that William is still alive and probably living in Jessamine County, Kentucky at this time since he died in Jessamine in 1836.  Why did James not move to Jessamine County instead of Fleming?  Perhaps he and his wife moved to an area where her family lived? 

While I was looking for a deed for Sandi, I found the following map that I had worked on several years ago.  I have added it to the blog in two sizes to make looking at it easier.  Note that Clark County is much closer to Jessamine County than is Fleming.  I need to work on these ideas a bit.  And look how close Madison County is to Jessamine and the other Counties of interest in this time period!

The below map can be manipulated to read smaller parts better.

 

Then I have to make the fact that the father of my Thomas Ross Hawkins had a brother named Benjamin work for William and Elizabeth Bourne.  Uncle Benjamin has to fit into the family.  William and Elizabeth Bourne did indeed have sons named both James and Benjamin: 

Deed Book B. Pg 328 John, Benjamin, and James Hawkins, Polly Barnett, Willis Hawkins, and Sally Hawkins children of Elizabeth Hawkins daug of Andrew Bourne of Culpeper Co, VA to our brother Moses Hawkins P of A to recover slaves left us by our grandfather, Andr. Bourne: Feb 1808 s and ack. by John Barnett and Willis and Sally Hawkins only and rec. same.”

 So far nothing to absolutely rule this theory out totally.  Just need to work on it a bit.