Joseph Haden was given land by his father in January of 1756. Anthony's habit seemed to have been to give land to his sons about the time they married, so we can estimate that Joseph was born mid 1730's. He may have been older than his sister Rachel. Some of the Haden genealogies make him several years younger, but that seems unlikely given the gift of land and apparent ages of his children.
There are gray areas surrounding Joseph's life as a young man. His first recorded marriage was to Elizabeth Hundley [also seen as Hendley and Handley, but it was a Hundley family that appears in the area of Virginia where the Hadens lived.] The date of the marriage isn't known, as the union is stated by the Rev. Douglas when their daughter Elizabeth was born and baptized in 1764. There were daughters that appear to have been older than Elizabeth, and in fact only two of their children were baptized by Douglas. Joseph did live in Albemarle Co, not Goochland where Douglas's St. Northam Parish was located. I believe it is this "implied" marriage in The Douglas Register that has found it's way into genealogies and led researchers astray regarding Joseph's probable age.
Some believe Joseph had a brief early marriage, but I have found no proof, nor have I been able to substantiate his wife Elizabeth's age. Joseph moved to Rowan Co, NC to join his brother William. In March of 1777, Joseph and wife Elizabeth sold land in Albemarle Co. VA and by November of the same year, Joseph purchased a tract next to his brother in North Carolina. Sometime during the passage of about the next five years, Elizabeth died and Joseph married Margaret Maxwell, daughter of Thomas Maxwell, a Rowan Co neighbor. Thomas Maxwell named his daughter as "Margaret Haden, wife of Joseph Haden" in his will dated 1800. Joseph Haden died in February of 1803, and his will makes plain which of his children were the children of his first wife and which were those of his present wife. Some of the children of Joseph and Margaret were still minors at the time of Joseph's death which has helped to estimate their ages.
Children of Joseph by Elizabeth Hundley are likely:
1. Sarah Haden. This apparent daughter of Joseph cannot be proved directly. Some have thought she was the child of the "early first wife". And that's possible provided there really was such a marriage. Recorded in The Douglas Register is the marriage of Sarah Haden to Richmond Pearson, 5 Nov 1772, both of Albemarle Co, which is where their families were living at that time. Sarah was likely at least 15-16 years old at her marriage. She doesn't fit well into any other Haden family in the area at that time, and she and her husband also moved to Rowan Co NC where both are very closely associated with Joseph Haden. In fact they were witnesses to the deed in November of 1777 when Joseph made his first purchase of land in North Carolina. Richmond Pearson was quite well-to-do for the times - he and Sarah had probably five children, but on 3 Oct 1791, Richmond married again to Eliza Mumford, in Orange Co, NC. Apparently Sarah had died. The problem is that when Joseph Haden made out his will in October of 1802, he did not mention a daughter Sarah, nor did he mention any heirs of a deceased daughter. The children of Sarah and Richmond Pearson continue to be closely associated with Haden descendants in the next generation. A will, of course, does not have to name every child, and Richmond Pearson had been remarried for some years when Joseph died - perhaps Pearson could provide adequately for his own children given his status in the community, or Sarah had received her portion many years previously.
2. Ann "Nancy" Haden was obviously a daughter - named as Ann Wyatt in Joseph's will. She is believed to have been married to Francis Wyatt, but no marriage record has been found, therefore, where or when the marriage took place is another of those gray areas. Wyatt family research, found so far, seems to be very confused - there were multiple men named Francis Wyatt. Some have ascribed other marriages to Ann's Francis - some have thought Ann and Nancy were two different women. Some have said that the child Elizabeth, baptized in Goochland, was really Elizabeth Ann and is this daughter. Some have attributed a marriage to this man that was in reality the marriage of his son of the same name. My response is, I don't think so - my research suggests that this particular Francis Wyatt was always married to Ann "Nancy" Haden and that she was the mother of about twelve children. Francis Wyatt's will is recorded in Montgomery Co, KY in 1824 and he is probably the Frank Wyatt there in the census in 1820, a census that reveals there was no lady of the age to be his spouse in the household. The will shows children with good Haden names such as Anthony, Douglas, Joseph, even a Haden Wyatt. Anney Haden also witnessed the first deed of Joseph Haden in 1777 in Rowan Co, so she was at least age 14, probably born before 1763, and older than the baptized daughter Elizabeth.
3. Ritta Haden still carried the name Haden when mention in her father's will. She was apparently a child of the former wife as she is listed with them. She was given a slave, while her full siblings received only 20 shillings, having previously received their inheritance. No other record has been found.
4. Elizabeth Haden. The entry as transcribed in the printed form of The Douglas Register is: "Joseph Haden & Elizabeth Handley, a Daughter named Elizabeth born Feb 3, 1764. Baptized Apr 22 1764". No other record appears for such a daughter, nor is she named in Joseph Haden's will. I can only surmise she died young.
5. Joseph Haden was born probably about 1765, named of course for his father. Joseph married his first cousin, Jenny Haden, daughter of William and Unity Haden, 8 Jan 1783, Rowan Co NC. They raised a large family of at least ten children. They named one of their sons Joseph, so after the death of his father in 1803, his records refer to this man as Joseph "Sr" when he had previously been Joseph "Jr". Joseph died in 1820 - Davidson Co was formed out the part of Rowan Co where the family lived shortly after, so many of the settlement records of his estate, including his will, were filed in Davidson Co. The documents in the estate files of this man and his father have been confused in the North Carolina Archives - probably because of the name and location.
6. Douglas Register:" Joseph Haden & Eliz. Hundley a daughter named Judith born May 19, 1772. Baptized Nov 5, 1772". I believe Judith was one of the younger children by Elizabeth Hundley. Called "Judah Hughs" in her father's will, she married Sargent Hughes, 3 Nov 1788, Rowan Co NC. They had six children. Her husband died about 1803 and Judith Hughes can be found as head of household in Rowan Co in 1810. By 1820, she had gone to Lincoln Co, TN with some of her adult children. One of the sons, Richmond Pearson Hughes, served in the War of 1812. His name is another reason for believing Sarah Haden who married Richmond Pearson belongs in this family.
Children of Joseph Haden and Margaret Maxwell.
7. Margaret is said to be the eldest female child of Joseph's present wife in his will. She married Jeduthan Marr, 30 Dec 1803 in Rowan Co. Some have tried to attribute her widowed mother's marriage to William Brown in August of 1804, to this daughter. I have court records showing that Margaret Maxwell Haden had married Brown, not her daughter. A deed of young Margaret's brother William in 1845, refers to his sister as Margaret Marr.
8. Robert Gillespie Haden was the eldest son of Joseph's "present wife". He is the only child in the family that seems to have a middle name - there must be some story behind the name. In an 1807 court case, it was stated that Robert Gillespie Haden was age 18 when his father died in 1803, so Robert was born 1785. There was a mixup after his father's death because Joseph gave this son land that had previously been given to Joseph Jr - the courts had to settle the dispute and Robert did have to deed the land to his older half-brother. Robert married Mary Leonard Fisher probaly about 1805-1806 and they had nine or ten children. Their family moved to Alabama, what is now Clarke County - then Mississippi Territory - about 1815 - and Robert G. and his sons can be found there in Clarke Co in 1830, then Macon Co, AL in 1840. Sometime between 1840 and 1850, most, of not all, the family moved to Desoto Parish, Louisiana. Robert G. Haden can be found in the mortality census in 1850 - he died in May of that year. Mary survived him.
One curious thing about the family of Robert Gillespie - one of his sons was named George Green Haden. George G. Haden received a land patent in Macon Co, AL in 1844, near Robert G. Haden, and then he can be found in Desoto Parish, LA in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. I found a small self-published book in the Birmingham, AL, public Library in which another George Haden had been erronously placed here in this family. There was a George S. Haden, born in Georgia, that was close to the same age and lived in Jefferson Co, AL in 1840 and 1850, in Blount Co, AL in 1860 - a researcher had mistakenly placed the Jefferson Co George as Robert G. Haden's son. It is not possible for the same man to be in two places at the same time. The researcher, not named, had been paid to discover George S. Haden's ancestry and so apparently found a man of similar name and failed to do enough research to discover the error. The lady who had published the book was deceased - I wonder how many people will be led astray and climb the wrong family tree.
9. Joseph and Margaret Maxwell Haden also had a son they named William. He was designated the second son of the present wife in Joseph's will, so he was born sometime after 1785. I had never seen anything further about William in any of the Haden publications, but when I was researching his brother Robert G. in Clarke, Co, AL, there was also present a William Haden of appropriate age. However, William did not stay in Alabama - he returned to Rowan Co NC within a few years, and was closely associated with Billy D. Haden, his first cousin once removed. Eventually I did find deeds linking William to his three full siblings when he was selling land he inherited from his grandfather, Thomas Maxwell. William married, but I have never discovered the name of his first wife - they did have a daughter, Mary Jane Haden, born in 1832. William married again to Henrietta McCulloh, May 15 1838, in Davie Co NC. William died in Davie Co, 28 Oct 1846, Henrietta died in early 1847. Braxton Bailey was appointed guardian of Mary Jane and she was living with his family in the 1850 Davie Co census. Mary J. Haden married John M. Clement 18 Jan 1853, when she was still underage and they had to file suit to get her inheritance, otherwise I might never have discovered this part of the Haden family.
10. Dianna was also a child of Joseph and Margaret Maxwell Haden; she was the youngest daughter. This was another child that seemed forgotten in the Haden publications. I discovered her married name while I was puzzling over the records regarding her brother William. I found the following deed which provided solutions to several research problems. Thomas Maxwell's will contained the unreadable name of one of a daughte - turns out she was Letitia and she married Jenkins. Dianna Haden had married Newton. Thomas Maxwell, the younger, had received 350 acres from his father's will. I believe that young Thomas had also died, without children, and that land was distributed among his siblings or their descendants, which included Margaret Maxwell Haden Brown, and subsequently her Haden children.
Davie Co NC Will and Deed Abstracts: Wills 1836-1900 Deeds 1836-1850
Jo White Linn 1973
p.105 DB 2, p.121 16 Dec 1842
Letitia Jenkins to Peter Seamont 46a on Bear Crk. Adj A. G. Carter, T. S. Parker, John Kellar, Wm Haden, Being that part that descended to her brother Thos. Maxwell dec'd. Also 14a, a lot that descended to Dianna Newton & her sister Margaret Haden, heirs of Thos. Maxwell dec'd. Betsy L. Leach, John Clement.
p.136 DB 2, p.422 3 Jun 1845
Wm Haden to dau Mary Jane for love, 500a where I live adj John Locke decd & Wm F. Kelly on Bear Crk and the lots bought from Robt Haden, Jeduthen Marr & wf Margaret, and Diana Newton and a lot inherited from Thomas Maxwell and 200a in another tract.
I feel that there is still more to discover about the children of both William and Joseph Haden in North Carolina. I think few actual records had been previously consulted.
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