Showing posts with label Orange County VIrginia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orange County VIrginia. Show all posts

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Land at Mallory's Ford between Orange and Louisa Counties

I am going through some of my Hawkins files.  I have a piece of information from the Diary of Robert Rose that I am trying to figure.  Of course, I can not find my copy of the book this morning to double check that I have copied the information correctly....but it is on my mind and I want to start a blog entry with what I have.  Rev Robert Rose seemed to have moved between  the Northern Neck of Virginia and his home in Albemarle County frequently.  


THE REVEREND ROBERT ROSE DIARY, 1746-1751

MS 1941.9
part of 1 vol., [116] pp.
Diary of the Rev. Robert Rose (1704-1751), minister of St. Anne's Parish, Essex County, Va., 1727-1748, where he succeeded the Rev. John Bagge, and of St. Anne's Parish, Albemarle County, Va., 1748-1751. The fact that Rose was named an executor of his estate by lieutenant governor Alexander Spotswood adds to the impression that Rose was a friend, and perhaps a protégé, of the governor.
The diary reveals Rose as a planter, businessman, surveyor, doctor, and lawyer, as well as a minister and a frequent traveler between Albemarle and Essex counties. In making these trips he passed through Stafford, Spotsylvania, Louisa, Orange, and Culpeper counties, visiting the leading families and sometimes preaching, performing marriages, or baptizing. He visited
friends in western Virginia, going as far as the Cow Pasture River, sleeping out in cold weather, and drinking "wretched" whiskey for want of something better. There are three entries for visits to Williamsburg. Most of the entries are brief, but there is a long exposition, dated August 28, 1750, on the curing of tobacco.
The diary fills the second half of the volume which also contains the Edmund Bagge Account Book.
Ralph Emmet Fall, ed. The Diary of Robert Rose: A View of Virginia by a Scottish Colonial Parson, 1746-1751 (Verona, Va., 1977).
Microfilm (M-47), photostat (PH/02/10), and transcript (TR/26) copies available.

From the Colonial Williamsburg site:
http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Special_Collections/SpecialCollectionsDocs/RobertRoseDiary.cfm





The next information is from an old e-mail I had sent to the Hawkins mail list in 2006:


Milly Farmer in her book Bits and Pieces of the Hawkins Puzzle
mentions the Diary of Robert Rose in her bibliography.
At the bottom of page 46 she says:
There were several men named Nicholas Hawkins in early Virginia.
One owned an Ordinary on the Orange County side of Mallory's Ford
where a road crossed the North Anna River.  The road cleared between
the Orange Court House and the Green Springs area of Lousia
County, Virginia.  The Hawkins Tavern was still recorded in 1860.  This 
information from the Diary of Robert Rose.  
Milly Farmer adds to this information:  One of Thomas Hawkins' 
daughters said that she was born near Springfield which is located 
close to the Edwards family.  This was the granddaughter of Nicholas
Hawkins, Jr. [a note later:  This may have been Springfield near Louisville, Ky that was the boyhood home of Zachary Taylor and have nothing to do with the Mallory Ford land]

What makes this particularly interesting to me is that my 2-gr-grandfather, Thomas R. Hawkins lived on Mallory's Ford, . You can see on map above Izard map from Library of Congress Collection where Thomas and Martha Bibb Hawkins lived in Orange County as it is marked as Hawkin's tannery.  Thomas R. Hawkins was a tanner as is shown in census enumerations.  This map is circa Civil War in time period.  This land


T.R.Hawkins' second wife, Martha Bibb, used money that she had inherited from her father to obtain land that I believe would have been just where Nicholas Hawkins' ordinary would have been.  If you read the below do you interpret this to mean that MY Thomas Hawkins had used land that he owned as collateral for a loan and not repaid?  Thomas and family were living near Barboursville before the death of Matilda Pinkard Hawkins (first wife).  After his marriage to Martha Bibb (second wife) he and his family lived at Mallory's Ford.  Martha Hawkins paid property taxes on the land until she sold the land to Thomas after many years of marriage. 

Deed Book 47 page 245 [This land transaction describes very well where they live];
This deed made this twentieth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three between
Martha P. Hawkins formerly Martha P. Bibb of the first part, Robert Collins who by an order of the County Court of Louisa County has been appointed a substitute as trustee in the place of John Ellis in a deed of marriage settlement between the
Said Martha P. and Thomas R. Hawkins her present husband bearing date the 21st day of February 1839 and recorded in
the Clerks Office of the County court of Louisa County of the second part and Thomas R. Hawkins of the third part. Where
as the said Martha P. Hawkins with the approval and consent of the said Robert Collins trustee as aforesaid has agreed to sell and convey to the said Thomas R. Hawkins a tract of land lying and being in the Counties of Orange and Louisa near
Mallory's Ford on both sides of the North anna River on which the said Thomas R. Hawkins and Martha P. his wife now
reside containing about one hundred acres, seventy of which lies in the County of Louisa and the residue in the County of Orange, it being the same tract or parcel of land sold under a deed of Trust executed by the said Thomas R. Hawkins to
John Scott to secure a debt to the late John Heaston and purchased by John Ellis as trustee under the said marriage
settlement for the benefit of the said Martha P. Hawkins and conveyed by deed bearing the date the 18th day of March
1847 duly recorded in the Clerk's office of Orange County Court by John Scott trustee as aforesaid the said John Ellis for
the use and benefit of the said Martha P. Hawkins and paid for out of the funds secured to her, by the said settlement.
Now this deed witneseth that the said Martha P. Hawkins by virtue of the power retained and vested in her by the said
marriage settlement and the said Robert Collins the acting trustee therein at her instance and request for and in
consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars to be paid to her trustee personal representative or assigns after
the death of the survivor of the said Thomas R. hawkins and Martha P. Hawkins, without interest on the sum of one dollar paid to the said Martha P. Hawkins and Robert Collins trustee as far said by the said Thomas R. Hawkins the receipt
whereof is hereby acknowledged have granted bargained and convey all their right title and interest both at law
and in equity in the said tract or parcel of land under the said deeds of marriage settlement and from John Scott as
trustee and the order of the County of Louisa aforesaid appointing Robert Collins as trustee in the place and stead of
John Ellis to him the said Thomas R. Hwkins his heirs and assigns forever, reserving to the said Martha P. Hawkins a life
estate therein for her use and benefit and the power to dispose of the said sum of five hundred dollars for the purchase
of said land either by deed or will, as is given and reserved to her under the provision of the said marriage
settlement.



This land is located on the below modern map.  It would have been where Mallorys Ford Road crosses the North Anna River:  


There is a bridge located at Mallory's Ford now.  However, I have chatted with a man on a mail list who remembers no bridge in his lifetime.  It was just a place in the river that was shallow enough to cross.  He remembered that in his young days people would drive their car into the ford to wash the car. However, it has always been a crossing for the road that ran from Orange Courthouse to Louisa County and beyond.

To put this in better perspective, I add a modern map below showing Mallory's Ford Road, and Doctor's Road in relationship to Gordonsville and to the Forest Hill Baptist Church whose location is shown by red marker.  This is the church that Thomas R. Hawkins and his son, Edward Pinkard Hawkins were involved with for much of their lives.  You may need to click on the map to see it better.  Mallorys Ford Road will be in the top right quadrant of the map while Forest Hill Baptist Church will be in the middle and Gordonsville in the upper left quadrant.  The town of Louisa would be off the map from the bottom right quadrant. 


I will add photos of Forest Hill Baptist Church and also photos of E.P and T.R. but I want to get back to the subject that I began on. 


Deed book M. Spotsylvania Jan 1, 1790.  Nicholas Hawkins, Sr. Deed of gift to his son, Thos.  Hawkins 133 a in Spts. Co. whereon sd Nicholas Hawkins now lives, etc.  Geo. Cammack, Henry Gatewood,sr. Richd Todd  July 6, 179

Here is the what I found about Springfield notation by Milly Farmer:


Oh, wait, I see another possibility for Springfield:

Boyhood Home, Springfield, Louisville, Kentucky
As an infant, Zachary Taylor first came with his family to “Springfield,” the 400 acre Taylor family farm, in the Beargrass Creek region near Louisville, Kentucky, in the spring of 1785. His father, Colonel, Richard Taylor, originally came to this region in the late fall of 1784. The Springfield property was located in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and was east of the Louisville city limits.

Don't know....need to give it up for the day. Maybe someone who has more ideas 
can add to my thoughts.  contact me at mosesm@earthlink.net



Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Hawkins in Orange and Culpeper Counties near Chestnut Mountain in early 1700's and mid 1700's

This blog entry is about the children of John and Elizabeth Hawkins.  This couple died in Richmond County, Virginia c. 1715-16.  They left six orphans.  The three oldest sons were Benjamin, William, and John (not necessarily in that order of age).  In the will, James and Richard Butler were asked to raise five of the children while Henry Wood was asked to apprentice the oldest son, William,  to learn the trade of plasterer.  James Butler died soon after the death of John Hawkins and Richard Butler was the man who then raised the five youngest Hawkins children.  It is somewhat likely that Elizabeth's maiden name had been Butler.

See my post of Nov 27 for more information on this will.  Also see Janet Shahmiri's blog:  http://jaceychasinghistory.blogspot.com/search?q=John+Hawkins

The geographical area that I refer to in the title of this blog post is found in Orange and Culpeper Counties.  It is not known exactly when or why these sons of John and Elizabeth Hawkins moved to this area, but they and their families are found in the area near Chestnut Mountain in the mid to late 1700's.

The son that I know the most about is Benjamin.  Many of the Hawkins DNA matches to group #1 believe that they descend from this son who married Sarah Willis.  Sarah's mother was Sarah Rosser Willis Wood Hudson Turberville.  It is possible that Sarah married to Benjamin Hawkins had father Wood instead of Willis.  I have never seen definite proof of Sarah's father.  However, in the Hawkins research it has become customary to call her Sarah Willis.  But almost certainly it is Sarah Rosser Willis Wood's husband, Henry Wood, who is asked to take William Hawkins as apprentice to learn the trade of plasterer.  And it is almost certainly a fact that Sarah would have been living in that household at that time period.  She was probably very young.

So I take this blog entry up with a statement made by another researcher that the sons of John Hawkins are found living in the Chestnut Mountain area of Orange County.

"When Benjamin and brothers show up later in Orange Co. -- Benj is married to Sarah Willis, living near by his mother-in-law, brother-in-law and his brothers. Interesting thing also is that Wm that everybody likes to attach Benjamin to as his father is I suspect his big brother Wm b. 1697 -- who has sons Benjamin, John, and James. I also think they may have attached Wm's other brother James onto him as a son possibly- less sure on this one. Wm lives also lives near Benjamin in Chestnut Mt area in Orange Co."

So this is the statement that I will be working on today.  I will start by adding a map of the area.  But in order to make this fit better on this page, I will explain first how I came to decide that what is now called Clark Mountain was once Chestnut Mountain.  For this I will turn to a book called The History and People of Clark Mountain Orange County, Virginia by Patricia J. Hurst.  I viewed this book several years ago on a trip to Orange County, Virginia to research MY Hawkins line which I do not yet know if there is a connection to this family or not.  The DNA says yes, but it is possible that the connection will be a generation earlier or even several generations earlier.  I have looked at Benjamin and Sarah Willis Hawkins' lines very closely and see no easy connection.  But at this time I have not looked at the lines of William and James as well.  

From Ms Hurst's book:  Chestnut Mountain was included in a ridge of hills that were known as the Southwest Mountains or Little Mountains in the eighteenth century.  .....She shows on page 3 a plat that was leased to Robert Boston in 1746 by Alexander Spotswood...Alexander Spotswood and later his son John owned the main Chestnut Mountain properties until Alexander Waugh purchased 224 acres December 6, 1757, from John Spotswood.  On April 13, 1767, Alexander Waugh purchased 413 acres from the estate of John Spotswood. ....There is more information on page 3 explaining about the Waugh family selling land to the Clark family in the mid to late 1700's. ....Mount Pleasant was the name of John Clark's property on Chestnut Mountain.  So that is the explanation of how it became to be known as Clark's Mountain today.  

Ms. Hurst has what looks like a hand drawn map that is very helpful in interpreting the road orders in this time period:



She has very little about the Hawkins family, but she quotes a road order dated 24 September 1742 which shows that Benjamin Hawkins was indeed living in the area:
"The order for viewing if any other convenient rouling road might be found besides that which goes thro Mr. Jno Taliaferro's land Benj Porter & John Ingram who were appointed viewers having returned that the old road was the convenientest best and nearest way Its ordered that the said old road thro the said Taliaferroes land be kept open and its further ordered that the frances Moore be hereby apointed Overseer of y Same and that Harbin Moore, Tho Petty Junr, John Randale, Luke Thornton, John Wells, John Roberts, Wm Morton, John ffoushee, George Wells, James ffoushee, John Morgin, Benjamin Hawkins, Wm Croucher, Wm Mash, Bartholomew Baker, Thomas Thornton, John Bourn, Henry Bourn, Andrew Bourn, and the tithables of Arjalon Prices Quarter under the said Overseer work on y sd road And that the sd Overseer with the said Tithables keep y said road in repair according to the Law (OB 4:249)


It seems to me that the next thing to look at after identifying the general area is the Octonia Grant.  The book by J. Randolph Grymes, Jr. (1925-1998) has been reprinted by the Orange County Historical Society.  It is available via their website at a very reasonable price.

Mr. Grymes explains:  "The Octonia Grant conveyed an area of land roughly two miles wide and eighteen miles long and had the Rapidan River and its South River tributaries as its northern boundaries.  ....This great land area and its ownership about the time of the American Revolution are the subjects of this paper."  ....

On page 15, Mr. Grymes says:  "Spotsyvania County had been erected from Essex County in 1721.  Orange County was formed from Spotsylvania COunty in 1734.  The whole the Octonia Lands then became a part of the newly formed Orange County.  Greene County was formed from Orange County in 1838  About half of what was originally the 24,000 acre Octonia Lands is now in Orange County and the other half is in Greene County."

The only two Hawkins men mentioned in this book are John and Joseph who I have always assumed were a part of the John and Mary Hawkins line....not the Hawkins/Bourne line that I have been looking at this week.  I need to pull out some more deeds and more information.  I will edit this blog post at a later time.  I think that I have information in my piles and files about where  the land of Benjamin Hawkins married to Sarah Willis was located and also that of his sons.  

So the question is when and to where do these Hawkins men move when they leave Richmond County and why?  I just looked at my Hawkins/Bourne data base and found the following:  

1782, Benjamin Hawkins taxed for 403.6 acres of land in Culpeper County (list of James Jett & Lewis Yancey) 1785 Culpeper Co Land Tax records shows William Hawkins, James Hawkins, Moses Hawkins  all “of Benj. Hawkins” with 135, 134 and 134 acres respectively (=403 acres total).


I found a copy of an e-mail from myself to the Hawkins mail list dated 16 March 2005.  In it there is the information about land being bought by Benjamin Hawkins:

My notes say that this is my own interpretation of the land record that I read in 2004.  
May 28, 1767 a portion of land owned by John Spotswood was seized at his death for repayment of debts.  Guardians of John's son Alexander are selling the seized land for best possible price.  Benjamin Hawkins is buying a part of the said estate lands.

Description:  lying in county of Orange and bounded as follows:  Beginning at a gum and poplar and white oak stump on the Rapidan River Corner to Mrs. Willis thence with her lines South Sixty one degrees East One Hundred and ten poles to a locust thence with Thirty six degree East Forty eight poles is a ....to a corner of said Willis and Waugh.  Thence up that branch with Francis Moore.

So I now believe this Spotswood land to be inside the Octonia Grant that I described above....so did Benjamin Hawkins have land on both sides of the Rapidan?


Saturday, November 24, 2012

Zion Baptist Church in Orange County, Virginia

My good buddy, Harvey Taylor brought me a pamphlet from the Zion Baptist Church in Orange County, Virginia.  Harvey and I had been working on our mutual Hawkins line.  He took two of his aunts to visit Orange County, and on the last day he called and asked me what they should do for the remaining hours.  I told him to visit the church and they did.  And they brought me the following information from the pamphlet:

The History of Zion Baptist Church (based on oral and written facts)  Birth of Zion Oct 13, 1813

First Pastor, John Churchill Gordon
First Deacon, James Perry
The first members were people of great zeal and determination for the work of the Lord.

On the thirtieth day of October, in the year 1813, seventeen males and an unknown number of females met in the home of Brother Hawkins, about three and a half miles south of Orange.  After a sermon from Elder A. Waller (a nephew of the pioneer John Waller), taken from Job, chapter forty two, verses five and six, a degree of solemnity was visible in the countenances of the audience and the little flock appeared to be duly impressed with the importance of the subject.


Baptist have been organizing.  Until 1734, when Orange County, was settled with the Baptist organizing Blue Run in 1759, North Pamunkey in 1774, Zoar in 1805, and Zion on October 30, 1813

About three and one half miles south of Orange in the home of Brother Hawkins, with James Arnold, Roger Mallory, Nicolas Bickers, Joseph Atkins (clerk), James Perry (Deacon), Killie Hoard, Benjamin Hawkins, Hamlet Sanford, John Rogers (Deacon), William B. Bell, William Mallory, William Hancock, William Embrey, Coleman Marshall (Deacon), Henry Perry, John Churchill Gordon (pastor) and Thomas Hawkins, seventeen in all.....


The first house of worship was built at the forks of Mallory Ford Road, with the Orange and Church Run Roads, about fifty yards above the present colored church.  It was built of hard pine, shed attached with partition of about four feet in height.  It also had a gallery.  It was in this building that Zion hosted the association for the first time in 1829.  When this house was abandoned in 1858, it was sold to Orange to be used as store buildings.


Map from the Library of Congress site:
https://www.loc.gov/item/2002627459/
Orange County, Va. / by Lt. Walter Izard P.E.
This map is from Civil War Map collection.

Benjamin Hawkins was the uncle of my Thomas R. Hawkins.  It is most likely that this meeting took place in the home of Benjamin and his wife, Mary/Polly Bickers Hawkins.  Thomas R. Hawkins would have been about 16 at the time of this meeting.  An article written on his death says:

Bro. Hawkins was converted in the sixteenth year of his age, and was baptized by Rev. Churchwell Gordon, of blessed memory, into the fellowship of old Zion Church, Orange.

I will repeat the names of those in attendance and try to identify as many as possible:

James Arnold
Roger Mallory  information about Mallory family at:  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pbarker/virginia.htm

Nicolas Bickers is the father-in-law of Benjamin Hawkins.  Benjamin was married to Mary/Polly Bickers. Nicholas is also father-in-law to Coleman Marshall.

Joseph Atkins (clerk), James Perry (Deacon), Killie Hoard,

Hamlet Sanford, John Rogers (Deacon), William B. Bell

William Mallory  

The Mallory family had been friends of the Hawkins family for more than one generation:  Hall: "Probably William Hawkins who died 1776 see Orange Co., Will Bk 2 p 501."  That will names wife ELIZABETH and sons John, William and Benjamin.  Witnessed by Uriel Mallory, William Strother and Thomas Brown.  Dated 20 JAN 1776, proved 24 OCT 1776.  [This William Hawkins is likely to have been the brother to Benjamin Hawkins who married Sarah Willis.  One of the orphans of John and Elizabeth Butler(?) Hawkins who died in Ricmond County, Virginia about 1716]  This William Mallory is likely the bondsman for the marriage of Coleman Marshall and Joanna Bickers in 1815.

William Hancock, William Embrey,

Coleman Marshall (Deacon) was brother-in-law of Benjamin Hawkins.  Benjamin's wife, Mary/Polly Bickers, was a sister to Coleman's wife, Joanna Bickers.  Both Coleman Marshall and my Thomas R. Hawkins were tanners.

Henry Perry, John Churchill Gordon (pastor)

Thomas Hawkins was about 16 years old at this time and is my 3-gr-grandfather.