| Notes |
- Joseph Hedges (1675-1732). Although positive proof is lacking, it would appear from their [i.e., Charles and Joseph] parallel lives, that Joseph Hedges was also bound out at a young age to a Swedish family in Christiana Hundred. His name first appears on 8 Sept. 1702 when the following entry appears on the minutes of the Pennsylvania Board of Property:
"Joseph Hedges of N. C. Coun., requests 100 acres, at the head of the Tract formerly taken up by Geo. Hogg on new Rent, and now entred upon by some Dutch Men, Situate upon Redclay Creek, for which he agreed to pay £20 upon Confirmation. Rent 1 Shilling per 100; lst 11 mo. (Pa.Arch.2d Ser., 19:323)"
Although a patent for this land was issued in 1714, it had to be resurveyed 17 March 1714/15 because it was found to overlap the land of Charles Springer. On resurvey it was found to contain 108 acres.
By lease and release dated 13-14 march 1722/23, Joseph Hedges purchased 200 acres of land in London Grove township, Chester County, PA., from Tobias Collet & Co. (Cope Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, H:95)
As of 7 February 1723/4, Joseph Hedges still owned his property at Red Clay Creek as is shown by the following minute of the Pennsylvania Board of Property (Pa,Arch.2d Ser., 19:420): "Stephen Cornelius requests a small Vacancy between his Land, Joseph Hedges' and Jos. Barker's Land, at Redclay Creek."
By 1725, however, Joseph and [his wife] Catherine Hedges had moved to London Grove township, Chester County, Pa. On 17 Aug, 1725, they executed a deed, signed by their marks and witnessed by George Hogg and James Robinson, reciting that they were of London Grove township, Chester County, and quitclaiming for 500 bushels of wheat to Nicholas Bishop of Mill Creek Hundred their interest in the 100-acre tract patented 10 April 1714. (New Castle Deeds, G-1:524).
On 1 July 1730, a tract of 258 acres (later to be known as "Hedge Hogg") was surveyed for Joseph Hedges on the Monocacy River in Prince Georges (later Frederick) County, Maryland. A patent for this land was issued 25 August 1732. (John P. Dern, Pioneers of old Monocacy, 106)
[Hedges died the next month. His will has already been discussed. See the HEDGES wills/deeds board.] The will was signed by his mark. The inventory of his estate by Robert Jones and Henry Ballenger was signed by Thomas and Mary Douthitt as near of kin and showed personal property of £216.3.0, including two bonds of £95, a note £8 and cash of £7.10.0. (Prince Georges Inventories, Hall of Records, 17:67-69)
The Joseph Project
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hedges/joseph/life.htm
[Repeated here is a series of excerpts from "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges" by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig, Washington D.C. , November 1988, quoted and posted on the HEDGES Biographies/Vital Statistics GenConnect board in 1999 by permission of the author]
[3]
- Joseph's children
[This is the eighth and last of the excerpts from "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges" by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig, Washington D.C. , November 1988, quoted by permission of the author. We have previously learned what happened to Joseph Hedges (1675-1732) and his siblings following the death of their father William in New Castle, Delaware in 1678. We conclude now with Dr. Craig's summary of the children born to Catharine and Joseph Hedges of Monocacy.]
Joseph and Catherine Hedges had the following children:
21. Solomon Hedges, born c.1710; m. Rebecca Van Metre c.1735
22. Charles Hedges, born c.1712, m. Mary Stille 1736, Isabella Wirk 1769
23. Joshua Hedges, born 1715, m. Elizabeth Chaplin, 1743
24. Jonas Hedges, born c.1717, m. Agnes Powelson c.1737
25. Joseph Hedges, born c.1719, m. Mary ___ c.1750
26. Samuel Hedges, born c.1721; never married
2A. Ruth Hedges, born c.1723; m. Abraham Van Metre c.1742
2B. Catherine Hedges, born c.1725; m. Jacob Julian c.1744, Joseph Wood c.1747
2C. Dorcas Hedges, born 1727; never married.
The Joseph Project
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hedges/joseph/life.htm
[Repeated here is a series of excerpts from "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges" by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig, Washington D.C. , November 1988, quoted and posted on the HEDGES Biographies/Vital Statistics GenConnect board in 1999 by permission of the author]
[3]
- Will of Joseph Hedges of Monocacy. dated 6 September 1732.
I, Joseph Hedges of Manaquicy in Prince Georges County in Maryland do recommend my soul into the hands of God and profess faith in full and free pardon of his sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I order my body be decently buried at the discretion of the Executor, and all my debts be paid in convenient time after my decease by my Executor.
I give and bequeath to my well beloved son Solomon Hedges whom I likewise constitute make and ordain Executor of this my Last Will and Testament a certain tract of land computed to be 250 acres lying up Manaquicy Creek on the West side of said Creek. [There is a fold across the last digit of 250; it could be 258, 256, or just 25. The only way to tell for sure is to check other land records for that piece of property.]
I give unto Charles Hedges and Joshua Hedges, my 2 sons, each of them, two hundred acres of land at Opeckon to be cleared and paid for out of my estate and effects.
[A blot over the second "o" in "Opeckon" could be a filled-in "e".]
My will is that my Executors Solomon Hedges and Charles Hedges shall purchase 400 acres of land at Opecken which shall be equally divided between my two sons Jonas Hedges and Joseph.
My Will is that my Executors above named do purchase one hundred and ninety acres on Manaquicy out of my estate and effects for my son Samuel Hedges.
I give unto my Daughter Ruth my gray mair and colt and to my Daughter Cathren a young brown mear and to my daughter Dorcas a young sorrel mear and to my son Joseph a dark bay mear and colt. I give to my son Samuel by brown mear and colt.
And my will is that what remains of my estate stock and effects with household goods and furniture be equally divided amongst my children and wife.
The will was signed by his mark. Witnesses were Chidly Mathews, Thomas Hillard and John Hilliard.
The will was probated before the court of Prince George's County, November 29, 1732. Childly Matthews made an oath that he saw and heard Joseph Hedges sign, and publish the will. "The other subscribing witances to this will are dangerously ill and could not attend.".
[Mathews' name appears twice on the document, witness as "Chidly" and appearing in court as "Childly"]
The original of the will is now located at Annapolis, Maryland and is recorded as Wills 20:468.
[This copy of the will has been transcribed and conformed to the original]
https://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hedges/joseph/joseph_will.htm
[4]
- Pioneers of Old Monocacy, The Early Settlement of Frederick County, Maryland, 1721-1743, by Grace L. Tracey & John P. Dern (1987), pages 106 -110 - The Hedges Family -
A number of the early settlers along the Monocacy came originally from the upper reaches of today's New Castle County Delaware or from neighboring Chester County in Pennsylvania. Typically representative of these was the family of Joseph Hedges. Joseph Hedges was English, but-- notwithstanding elaborate claims to the contrary-- no substantiated tie has ever been established to a marriage in England or to his antecedents there. He first appears in American records in a warrant dated September 8, 1702 and its certificate of survey of April 4, 1703 for 100 acres located on Red Clay Creek in Mill Creek Hundred, New Castle County. Some fifteen or twenty years later [1717-1722] he and his wife Catherine moved to the London Tract in London Grove Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
- Joseph Hedges
http://mosesrawlings.freeservers.com/hedges.html
Then although now well advanced in years and with a family nearly grown, Joseph Hedges on April 22, 1730 sold his Pennsylvania land and moved on to Maryland. On July 1, 1730 Joseph Hedges had 258 acres surveyed in Maryland on the Monocacy River some five miles north of today's downtown Frederick. The land bordered the river, extending north and west from what was soon to be known as Biggs Ford. It also supposedly bordered the northeastern line of "Tasker's Chance.".
Hedges named his land "Hedges Hogg," and this has puzzled historians ever since. They are unable to ignore the notation that Hedges' first land in New Castle County was "at the head of a tract formerly taken up on new rent by George Hogg" or that when Hedges and his wife Katherine in Chester County sold the New Castle land on August 17, 1725, George Hogg was one of the witnesses to the deed. [A Scottish Hoge/Hogue/Hogg family migrated from New Jersey, eventually settling at Opequan. A George (b.c. 1708) is listed as a member of this family, the grandson of James Hogue (-1682) and MARJORIE LAMBERT, whose son William (, b. 1660, Musselburgh Scotland; d. 1749, Near Winchester, Frederick Co, VA Bur Opequon Cem Kernstown.) came 1682 on "Caledonia"; landed in Perth Amboy, NJ., w/ William Gregg of the Quaker Greggs and w/ Humes. This William had a brother George Hogue who m. Anne. Two other possible sons of James and brothers of William are said to have gone to America: Peter to New York, and Soloman to Pennsylvania then later to Virginia. William Hogue, like the Hedges migrated from Delaware to Nottingham, Chester Co., Pa, and then to Opequan, Va. Some have the Hogues w/ the Hite party, but others say Hogue land was not in the Hite allotment. William married (2?)Barbara Hume, the orphan of James and his wife, who died on the voyage, and who was raised by her Uncle, Dr. Johnson, of Perth Amboy, NJ. One note says that William came to Frederick Co Maryland from Chester Co in 1735, moving on to Opequan Va the same year. He was a tailor. In 1744, he obtained a license to keep an Ordinary. In 1745 William conveyed to the trustees of Opequon Presbyterian church (located at Kernstown) "for five shillings... two acres... near the Presbyterian Meeting house where it now stands on the Land of said William Hogg, Sr...A burying place together with Timber sufficient from any part of the Hoggs Land to repair the Meeting house." He m. 1st Mary, according to some notes. In his will, he refers to himself as a farmer. Eldest son John of William stayed in Chester, eventually moving to Cumberland near Harrisburg and founding Washington, Pa. William married a Quaker and is the main ancestor of the Hoges of Va. and WVa. George moved to North Carolina. Alexander became a lawyer a congressman to the first US congress, and was a rep at Va Constitutional Convention. James became the father of a number of preachers: Moses Hoge of Richmond, Va., and James Hoge 1 of Columbus, Ohio. ]
Even more mysterious is the question who or what encouraged Hedges to come to Maryland and why he settled where he did. Although his residence on "Hedge Hogg" proved to e a focal point for nearby parcels of land surveyed or rented by his children, all of whom came to Maryland with him, his own Maryland chapter ended almost as soon as it began. Joseph Hedges received his patent for "Hedge Hogg" on August 25, 1732. Two weeks later, on September 6, 1732, only two years after his arrival and almost exactly 30 years to the day after his initial warrant for land in Delaware, Joseph Hedges "of Manaquicy in Prince George's County" wrote his will. It was probated on November 29th. In the will he named no wife, though she survived him. His eldest son Solomon Hedges was to inherit "the 258 acres on Manaquicy Creek," while sons Charles and Joshua were each to receive 200 acres at Opeckan in Virginia-- obviously already purchased for them. More significantly, Solomon and Charles as executors, one of whom seemed slated to stay on Maryland while the other was to go to Virginia, were instructed to purchase an
additional 400 acres at Opecken to be divided equally between sons Jonas and Joseph. The executors were also directed to purchase 100 acres at Manaquicy for son Samuel. Personalty was to go to daughters Ruth, Cathren and Dorcas and to sons Joseph and Samuel. All nine children and Joseph's wife were to divide the remainder. Chidley Matthews, Thomas Hillard and John Hillard witnessed the will and on February 27, 1733 Robert Jones and Henry Ballenger inventoried the estate.
It would appear that a move to Virginia was contemplated for at least some of the family almost before roots could be established in Maryland. Presumably none of the children was yet married, and Joshua was only seventeen years of age. The purchase of Virginia land, both actual and contemplated, was being made by Joseph Hedges himself for, but not by his children. Thus the Question is posed, how permanent did he view his family's stay in Maryland? Unless we are plagued by positive hindsight which he did not have, why also would he want his family to desert an area where all about him lay good choice land almost theirs for the asking? It was not a wholesale commitment, however. He did provide for two of his children to stay in Maryland. And so our curiosity turns to how the future actually did unfold.
At first the family seems to have stayed put. In the year after his father died, Solomon Hedges had "Hedges Delight" surveyed-- 192 acres near Tuscarora Creek some three miles southwest of "Hedge Hogg" and near the Monocacy road which was soon to carry the bulk of those settlers going to Virginia. In 1733 he was listed as a taxable in Monocacy Hundred, and in the June Court of 1734 Solomon declared that he had paid Robert Jones and John Tredane a debt of 15 pounds for Flower Swift. who had been a Constable for Monocacy Hundred with John van Metre in 1732. Also in 1734 Solomon's name appeared on the list of those not burning their tobacco properly, and in 1735 he himself was named Constable for Monocacy Hundred, replacing Thomas Doudith, possibly a relative, who was incapable of duty. About this time Solomon married John van Metre's daughter Rebecca, and the connection with that family made it only a matter of time before they joined the move to Virginia. This occurred about 1738. They sold their farm animals, which they had purchased from Rebecca's father, to John House and moved to Patterson Creek near present-day Keyser, West Virginia. This area was then a part of Orange County, Virginia, where the November 2, 1739 bill of sale for livestock showed Solomon Hedges was then residing. George Washington in 1748 at the age of 16 "traveled up ye Creek to Solomon Hedges, Esq., one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for ye County of Frederick." The family was still there in 1753 when Hampshire County was formed, but by 1778 had moved on to Buffalo Creek in Ohio County in the [West] Virginia panhandle. There Solomon Hedges is alleged to have lived and died after the turn of the century at an age over one hundred.
Jonas and Joshua Hedges settled next to each other on Tulisses Branch in today's Berkeley County, West Virginia. Jonas married Agnes Powelson about 1738, and in 1743 Joshua married Elizabeth Chapline. The fate of Samuel Hedges is unknown. Presumably he died shortly after his father, sometime in the 1730's still in the Monocacy area and probably unmarried. What became of his has sister Dorcas is also unknown. But Ruth Hedges married Abraham van Metre brother of Solomon Hedges wife and they, too, moved to [West] Virginia, settling in Berkeley County.
This leaves Charles and Joseph Hedges, both of whom according to their father's will were destined to go to Virginia. Neither did. Nor did their sister Catherine, who stayed on in the Monocacy area with her two husbands, Jacob Julien and Joseph Wood. Joseph Hedges became a tenant on the Monocacy Manor, married and had but a single child Rebecca before he died in 1753. His widow Mary, later the wife of John Wilson, and his brother Charles Hedges were Joseph's executors. Joseph's will provided that. should his daughter Rebecca die before coming of age, half his land should go to the children of his brother Charles Hedges. She did not die, but was raised by Charles Hedges and in storybook fashion married her first cousin Charles Hedges Jr.. As a result, they together inherited the 150-acre lease to Lot No. 10 on Monocacy Manor! So it was that Charles Hedges, alone among the nine children who came to Maryland with their parents, continued the Hedges story in Frederick Coaunty With his brothers Solomon and Joshua, he was listed as a taxable in Monocacy Hundred in 1733. In 1736 he journeyed all the way back to New Castle County where at Old Swedes Church in Wilmington on February 12th he married a Mary Stilley, The daughter of Jacob Stilley. In the same year he was appointed by the Prince George's County Court as overseer of the road from Mill Branch to Monocacy Manor. On may 8, 1740 he purchased "Hedges Delight" for fifty pounds from Solomon and Rebecca Hedges, who then were residents in Virginia. On the same day Solomon and Rebecca transferred title to "Hedge Hogg' to Jacob Nafe (Neff), blacksmith, for #127/10 "for his own use and no other purpose." Charles Hedges witnessed this deed and collected the alienation fine of 10sh 3d. The amount paid for the land at a time when land was free or only a few pennies an acre probably indicates that considerable improvements had been made by the Hedges family after their arrival in Maryland. For a blacksmith, its location must also have been important, suggesting considerable growth in the neighborhood and the importance of the road junctions nearby.
The hypothesis is quite plausible that Catherine Hedges, widow of the original Joseph Hedges and the mother of Charles Hedges sometime after Joseph Hedges' death in late 1732 married Isaac Bloomfield as her second husband. There are no records of surveys or patents in Frederick County for him, but in 1739 he had been a witness to six of Susannah Beatty's deeds. The November Court of 1743 appointed him Constable of Linganore Hundred. He witnessed the will of Jacob Julien, who three years earlier had married Charles Hedges sister Catherine. Isaac Bloomfield died shortly before December 27, 1748, the date of his Inventory as presented by Robert DeButts, his administrator. As administrator, DeButts was sued by Charles Carroll. DeButts in turn sued Joseph and Charles Hedges on November 1751 for a debt of #12/19/8 due from them to Isaac Bloomfield's estate. Catherine Bloomfield died in 1749. Joseph Hedges, Jr. (d 1753) and Joseph Wood signed her Inventory as near of kin. Charles Hedges was her executor and in his administrative account of 1751 accounted for payments to Thomas Douthitt, John Bell, Joseph Wood and Stephen Julien. He also recorded debts due the estate from Allen Farquhar, Daniel Pepinger, Jacob Barton, John Biggs, William Hedges, Jonas Hedges, James Head, Mary Martin and others, all known to have been living in the immediate neighborhood of "Hedge Hogg." In 1751 Thomas Douthitt "swore for Isaac Bloomfield" in the probate of the 1743 will of Jacob Julien. On November 15, 1743 Charles Hedges had a tract surveyed just south of "Hedges Delight" which he called "Charles and Mary." In 1749 by patent he acquired "Whiskey" which had been surveyed for Peter Stille. Its 100 acres lay adjacent to "Hedges Delight." He then followed this on February 18, 1754 with the survey for "Yellow Springs," named for those springs traditionally known to the Indians for their great healing power. Though he now owned four parcels of land well west of the Monocacy River, Charles Hedges apparently tenanted, rather than owned, Lot No. 11 on his Lordship's Monocacy Manor directly across the river from "Hedge Hogg." John Biggs was a near neighbor on the Manor and to the two of them on 1754 Robert McPherson and John Beard mortgaged their livestock and household items. In 1759 Charles Hedges was named Constable for Monocacy Hundred. Charles Hedges' wife died in the mid-1760's. His family was nearly grown. Still, a new wife seemed desirable and in April 1769 Charles Hedges married Isabella Wirk. She was at least 35 years his junior and was destined to outlive him by over 30 years. By an antenupial agreement, in order to bar her rights of dower, Isabella was to receive only one-third of "Yellow Springs." Actually they each received far more, she in property, he in children. To the eight children of his first marriage, six more were added in the second. Altogether they included Jacob, Moses, Joseph, Absalom, Rachel, Susannah, Charles, Shadrack, Isaac, Samuel, Ruth Margaret, Hannah and Dorcas. Some of these, or their immediate families, moved on to the Middletown Valley, Greene and Washington Counties in Pennsylvania, the West Virginia Panhandle, Belmont and Seneca Counties in Ohio and Bourbon County in Kentucky. Though he did not die until December 1795, Charles Hedges wrote his will in 1790. His wife Isabella was to get "Hedges Delight," "Yellow Springs" and "Charles and Mary." After her death these tracts were to be divided equally between Isaac and Samuel Hedges, sons of the second marriage. Later surveys, including "Johnson's Level" (150 acres), "Leddy" ("Leeds" 50 acres) and "Hedges Chance" (50 acres), were to go to son Shadrack Hedges after he made compensatory payments to Charles Hedges Jr. and their four half-sisters from their father's second marriage. The other children had already been provided for, with, for example, the parcel "Whiskey" going to son Jacob Hedges in 1765 before Charles first wife died.
The subsequent history of the original "Hedge Hogg" is clouded with uncertainly. Although the land was transferred to Jacob Neff in the year 1740, there is a question whether he was actually living there when on October 2, 1750 he wrote his will. The language is stilted: Wife Catherine as executrix "is to dispose of this place which I live on and pay my debts now named 'Durnah' and all my goods and chattels."She was to receive 100 acres of land "betwixt mountains which I bough," 50 acres from Daniel Dulany and 50 acres from Nodley Thomas, "for my wife to live on or dispose of." There is no reference to "Hedge Hogg" even though subsequent deeds indicate that the parcel was still known by that name as late as 1809. Yet the witnesses to the will, Stephen Julien, Charles Hedges, Adam Stull and John Stoner, all were living near "Hedge Hogg" at the time, and the estate's inventory, made by Charles Hedges and Adam Stull, included blacksmith tools, indicative of Jacob Neff's trade when he purchased "Hedge Hogg" in 1740. Moreover, the inventory shows Notley Thomas as a creditor. The mystery thickens with the sudden appearance of a William Hedges whose relationship to the first Joseph Hedges has mot been determined. William wrote his will on August 11, 1742 and died relatively young, before its probate on January 29, 1743. Calling himself a farmer of Prince George's County, he provided that his wife Ann should "live on my estate during life of my son" Joseph who was to get to get all of the land unless an expected posthumous fourth child was a son, in which case the two sons were to divide the land equally. Ann was to serve as executrix. Robert Baker and Jacob Neff witnessed the will, but only Robert Baker was present for its probate. Co-sureties on Ann's bond were Charles Hedges and Pilip Kinss. The inventory of March 6, 1743, made by John Middah and Robert Jones, was signed by a single creditor, Jacob Neff, and by kin Charles, Joseph and Andrew Hedges. In none of these documents is the named or otherwise identified. But there are clues to help: Stephen Julien became Ann Hedges' second husband on July 14, 1743 and together they prepared the estate accounts. In the account of June 12, 1747 they took credit for a payment to Jacob Neff on a debt owed by William Hedges but paid by Stephen Julien on bond #22/5/6 plus interest. The posthumous child referred to above did turn out to be a son. He was given the name William Hedges Jr. and, because he was born late in 1742, should have expected to inherit his father's land, whatever it was, when he reached majority in 1763. By then Jacob Neff has died. But our attention is directed to a deed dated March 15, 1763 from his son "Jacob Kneff, heir at law to Jacob Kneff Kneff of Prince Georges County, deceased," which transferred to Joseph and William Hedges, sons and heirs of William Hedges of Prince George's County, a 258-acre parcel called "Hedge Hogg." The conclusion seems obvious: Whatever his origins and whatever his relationship to the other Hedges who preceded him, William Hedges sometime between 1740 and 1742 had Been purchasing "Hedge Hogg" from Jacob Neff. But he died before the transaction could be concluded and it took until the youngest son reached majority for title finally be established. As proof of the pudding, it will be noted that Stephen Julien paid taxes on "Hedge Hogg" from 1753 to 1773 and early in that period was shown as "in possession." In 1772 Joseph and William Hedges divided "Hedge Hogg" between them. Five years later they both died, and their wills were probated on the same day, May 6, 1777. Again there were heirs who had not reached majority. But the land remained in the Hedges family well into the next century. The 1873 Atlas, for example, shows the home of Eneas Hedges (1800-1873) still on "Hedge Hogg." No relationship has been found between Jacob Neff and Johann Henry Neff of "Trasker's Chance," p. 296 below. Jacob's widow Catherine Neff wrote her will in 1776, naming her children as John, Jacob, Henry, Francis, Adam, Margarette and Esther Neff. Peter Bainbridge, Bartholomew Booker and John Arnold were witnesses to he will.
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1674 - 1732 (58 years)
[1, 2] 
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