Tuesday, September 28, 2010

William Haden [ca 1751 - 1819]

William Haden, born in Goochland County, VA, circa 1751, to John Haden and Jean Moseley, was my husband's direct ancestor.  William was a grandson of Anthony & Margaret Haden and probably the fourth child, third son, of John and Jean.  He may have been named for his maternal grandmother's father - there is an old family letter by Socrates Haden, a great grand nephew, that refers to William as William Douglas Haden, although no other reference to a middle name, or initial, has been found by me.  The definitive book on the family of John Haden, John Haden of Virginia, by Dorothy K. Haden, did not have a lot to say about William and his family.  She concentrated instead on the Hadens that remained in Virginia.

William is thought to have had a brief first marriage to a Judith Moorman, probably a daughter of Achilles Moorman and Elizabeth Adams.  Both the Haden and Moorman families have the tradition of this marriage, but there is no formal proof.  The tradition is that Judith died, either in pregnancy, or childbirth, with her first child.  There is a possibility that the oldest of the children of William Haden, a daughter Sarah "Sally", may have been Judith's child that did indeed survive.

William Haden married Ann "Nancy" Johson, 31 Oct 1775, Goochland County as recorded in The Douglas Register.  Her birth, 21 Nov 1757, and baptism, 25 Mar 1758, were also recorded in The Douglas Register -  she was the daughter of Joseph Johnson and Sarah Harris.  William and Ann had at least nine recorded children, or ten - depending on whether or not the eldest child was born to Judith Moorman.  I will list them in a separate post.

William Haden served in the Revolution.
Historical Register of Virginias in the Revolution; John H. Gwathmey:
Haden, William, Fluvanna Militia, oath as Ensign 6 Nov 1777; oath as 1st Lt. 2 Apr 1779. 
He served along with his elder brothers, Anthony and John Moseley Haden, and younger brother Joseph. 
Haden, Anthony, Fluvanna Militia. Rec. as Ensign 4 Sep 1777; took oath as Captain 2 Apr 1779. 
Haden, John Moseley, Fluvanna Militia. rec. & qualified as Ensign 2 Apr 1779; oath as 1st Lt. 4 Sep 1777 [same day his brothers Anthony & Joseph were made Captains]Haden, Joseph, Fluvanna Militia. Took oath as Captain on 4 Sep 1777.

A century later, in 1878, a first cousin once removed, George Douglas Blakey, wrote a newspaper article about William Haden, referring to him as Captain - whether he actually obtained that rank is doubful.

On 7 August 1777, John Haden of Fluvanna Co, VA, had sold to his son William Haden, 400 acres on Cunngham Creek.  In May of 1784, William sold this property back to his parents.  This is likely the approximate time his family removed to Kentucky.   His father John divided his properties among his children living in the Virginia area in 1795, and did not include William.  An article in History of Kentucky,Illustrated by Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, states that William Haden left Virginia as early as 1778, settling near Lexington, but I believe that date to be an error - I believe 1788 would have been a closer estimate.

Finding William Haden in Kentucky prior to a tax list in Logan County in 1797 proved to be a bit of a challenge.  Lexington is located in Fayette County which lost most of its records in a fire in 1803 and there was a man of similar name - William Haydon, a descendant of Thomas Haydon of Spotsylvania Co VA, also living in the Lexington area.  Two of William Haden's oldest children married before the families' arrival in Logan County and both the families they married into also were said to have come to Logan County from Fayette.  One of these families, that of William Morton, had members of the family that remained in Lexington, adding credence to the traditions.  There are fragments of burnt records from Fayette Co that were filmed by LDS, #2111044-2111046.  These records are truly fragments of deeds, but from the fragments I was able to decipher a great deal.  Enough to prove that William Haydon actually lived in Lexington and owned considerable property and was a very different person.  William Haden, and Thomas Proctor who married William's eldest daughter, lived on land that bordered William Peaches' Military Survey, on or near the South Elkhorn River.  Other neighbors included Robert O'Neal, the father of Thomas Proctor's first wife, and Aquilla Gilbert and his son Charles who was married to Jenny Haden, William's first cousin.  Most of the deeds that had undamaged dates were from  1790-1795.


William and several of the other families - that of Thomas Proctor, Charles Gilbert, William Morton, father-in-law of William's son James - then moved to Logan County.
First evidence in Logan County is the Logan County Tax List revealing that William Haden had 1000 acres first entered by Jonathan Clark on the Gasper River in 1797. By 1800, he is being taxed on over 1600 acres on the Gasper, Red, and Barren rivers and son James has 400 acres on the Gasper. [This is Jonathan Clark, older brother of George Rogers Clark - there is a suit in the estate records of Logan Co filed 3 Jan 1824 by the children of Jonathan, who died Nov 1811, for division of his lands. Equity Box 11, #226. Several deeds of William's and his sons refer to land adjacent Jonathan Clark's Military Survey.]


Logan County records have survived in great shape - tax rolls, deeds, court records, marriage records - so it has been relatively easy to document the family after their move to that county.  The Genealogical Society of Logan County has published a number of abstracts of these records, but caution should be advised.  These are abstracts and quite a bit of essential data including names of some of the parties has been omitted, and there are some interpretive problems as well.  To get the rest of the story, the microfilm is available from LDS.

Sometime after the Hadens arrived in Logan County, William's wife Ann died.  He married again, to Mrs. Sarah "Sally" Johnston/Johnson, on 21 December 1807, in Logan County.  There were second cousins of William's with the surname Johnson in Logan County, and it is possible the widow was known to him from back in Virginia, but even a study of the year by year tax records has not revealed an earlier husband for Sarah Johnston.  There were a number of Johnston/Johnson families in Logan County and the spelling is virtually interchangeable.  William and Sarah had a single daughter born perhaps about 1810 - she was also named Sarah, called "Sally".  Records refer to the child of this last marriage as "Sally the younger".  Now, William's eldest daughter was also named Sally [often called Sally the elder in records of William's estate] and is the child that could have been born of the first wife Judith Moorman.  The elder Sally had died prior to October of 1808, leaving three young children.  One has to be extremely careful in dealing with the records of these three Sarah "Sally" Hadens and in many cases the abstracters of the records have erred - errors that have been picked up and perpetuated by those who did not read the original versions of the records.  William is often seen with only ten children and the younger Sally omitted entirely.

At some point, a lady applied for membership in the DAR, listing a completely different wife for William Haden and a residence in Bedford County, Virginia.  She was accepted for membership, although in the DAR database it now shows that additional proof is needed.  There was a man in Bedford County - his name is found as William Haiden/Hayden/Headen in various records, although Headen occurs most often.  He married a widowed lady named Mary Lemert in 1795, in Bedford County.  He had two sons named John and Joseph, apparently his only children by an earlier unknown wife, as they were grown and on tax lists by 1800 in Bedford County.  This William Headen wrote his will 20 Aug 1815, proved 25 May 1818, in Bedford County, which makes quite clear his only heirs were his present wife Mary who was to keep what she brought to the marriage, and two sons, John and Joseph.  The Bedford county records make quite plain that this family was residing continuously in Bedford county from 1795 through the distribution of the deceased William's property.  This is obviously a very different person - did he serve in the Revolution?  Possibly, but he is most certainly not the William Haden from Fluvanna Co, Virginia and Logan County, Kentucky.

My husband's ancestor William Haden died intestate in Logan County, Kentucky, probably late in the year 1819.  The property of the deceased was appraised, 20 Jan 1820, Logan Co Will Book B, p.280.  James Haden, the eldest son, was granted letters of administration on the estate of Wm Haden, Senr. at the February Term of the Logan County Court, 1820. The 1820 census of Logan County lists the "Exors. of Wm Haiden, dec'd" and 19 slaves. 

Not only did William Haden die without a will, but he owned a great deal of property, both land and slaves, to be divided among his heirs according to law.   Four of his eleven children had already died, all leaving minor heirs.  He had apparently deeded land to several individuals, but the proper documentation had not been completed before his death - there are deeds listing all the heirs and the guardians of the minor heirs.  He left a widow and the minor child, Sally the younger.  His widow Sally died in October of 1822, leaving the young daughter truly orphaned, requiring a guardian other than her mother.  The son James himself died late in 1822, also intestate, leaving much unsettled, from both the estates of his father and stepmother.  This situation required much legal documentation and several lawsuits that resulted in a wealth of detail concerning William Haden's heirs.  The next post will list those heirs.

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