Joseph Hedges Sr.
Joseph Hedges was the son of Wiliam and Mary (Caldwell) Hedges.
Born: Dec 1675 in Shrivenham, Berkshire, England.
Baptized: 25 Dec 1675 in Shrivenham, Berkshire, England.
Died: 29 Nov 1732 at the age of 56 in Prince George’s County (now Frederick County), Maryland, Colonial America.
Married: 1709 Catherine Land in New Castle, Pennsylvania Colony, (now New Castle, Delaware) Colonial America.
Find A Grave: Memorial #209744205 burial at his farm in Prince George’s County (now Frederick County), Maryland.
Catherine Land daughter of Samuel and Dorcas (Walliam) Land.
Born: About 1680 in New Castle, Colony of New York (changed to Colony of Pennsylvania in 1682 and Colony of Delaware in 1701), Colonial America.
Died: 1749 at the age of 69 in Frederick County, Maryland, Colonial America.
Married 2nd: About 1740 Isaac Bloomfield
Find A Grave: Memorial #209744419 burial details unknown.in
Table of Contents
Joseph and Catherine Hedges
Joseph and Catherine Hedges were the parents of Ruth Hedges, first wife of Abraham Van Metre and the maternal grandparents of several of his children, including Joseph Van Metre, the ancestor I will follow.
There are two opinions on who Catharines parents were as follows:
- According to Samuel Gordon Smyth1 Catherine was the daughter of John Stalcop, an early Swedish settler of Salem County, New Jersey, who afterward removed to New Castle, Pennsylvania (now Delaware). John Stalcop’s wife was Catharine, the daughter of John and Madelina Erickson, who were among the earliest inhabitants in the Swedish settlement at Lucas Point on the Delaware, near Salem, New Jersey. Joseph Hedges was also in New Jersey, afterward in Chester County, Pennsylvania, whence after his marriage eh emigrated to and located on a plantation at Monocacy in the province of Maryland where he died in 1732.
- However, Peter Stebbin Craig, who wrote The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges, maintains that Catherine was not the daughter of John Stalcop, but was the daughter of Samuel Land and Dorcas Land and stepdaughter of George Hogg, who married Samuel Land’s widow about 1688. He wrote:
“After over ten years of research into the identity of Catharine, wife of Joseph Hedges, I am led to the conclusion that she was the daughter of Samuel and Dorcas Land and stepdaughter of George Hogg, who married Samuel Land’s widow about 1688.
Samuel Land, later sheriff of New Castle County, and his wife Dorcas Walliam (daughter of James and Mary Walliam) were living near London in 1675 when they received a patent for land in John Fenwick’s proposed colony in what later became known as Salem County NJ. Dissatisfied with conditions there, they moved with Dorcas’ father to New Castle by 1676. James Walliam died intestate in New Castle in 1693. His son-in-law Samuel Land died intestate in New Castle County by 14 March 1686/7 when his widow Dorcas was named administratrix of his estate. She then married George Hogg as his second wife. Dorcas died by 1716 when Hogg married a third time, to Ann Humphreys.
The will of Dorcas’ mother, Mary Walliam, dated 22 October 1695, named three sons of Dorcas Hogg by her first husband, Samuel Land – Thomas, John and Henry Land, but not her daughters. It seems evident that Catherine, who became the wife of Joseph Hedges, was her daughter. Joseph and Catherine Hedges named their plantation Hedge Hogg and used the names of Samuel and Dorcas in naming their children.”
The Hedges Family
Joseph Hedges was the son of William and Mary Hedges. His father, William, was born circa 1650 in Berkshire, England, christened on 3 Jan 1676 (at the age of about 26). William and Mary immigrated to America about 1677. William died before 5 March 1679 (probably December 1678) at the age of about 29 in New Castle County, Delaware [Delaware Colony].
William and Mary Hedges had two sons: Charles and Joseph. Charles when 5 years old was indentured for 12 years to Thomas Jacobson in 1679, his father having died the previous year. Joseph was also possibly indentured. The book “The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges” by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig is worth reading for those interested in this family. There are several excerpts from his book on the Ancestry Boards at:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/surnames.hedges/223 (Accessed 20 April 2013).
The following are excerpts from Pioneers of Old Monocacy 1721-17432
Joseph Hedges 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 he and his wife Catherine moved to the London Tract in London Grove Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. 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 Rive, 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 “Hedge 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. Even more mysterious is the question who or what encouraged Hedges to come to Maryland and why he settled where he did.
[It’s important to insert here that Catherines mother, Dorcas (Walliam) Land, married George Hogg after her husbands death, so he was then Catherines step father and Josephs step-father-in-law.]
Although his residence on “Hedge Hogg” proved to be 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 Manaquicky in prince George’s County” wrote his will. It was probated on November 29th [1732]. In th e wil he named no wife, though she survived him. His eldest son Solomon Hedges was to inherit “the 258 acres on Manacquicy 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 in 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 Manquicy 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.
Hedges Family Land The Old Monocacy, Frederick County, Maryland3
The current location of the Monocacy Battlefield Memorial (Civil War) is the estimated location where John (the Indian Trader) and wife Margaret (Mollenauer) Van Metre settled between 1725 and 1735. This is likely where the families connected, hence the marriages between two sets of their children. The Van Metre properties varied and were called “Metre” and “Meadow” and were later added on to include other parcels. Also, see my posts History of Maryland.
The Hedges are also prominent in the Virginia stories, in what became Berkeley County and Ohio County, West Virginia.
Joseph and Catherine (Land) Hedges Children
- Solomon Hedges (1710-1797) married Rebecca Van Metre (daughter of John Joosten and Margaret (Mollenauer) Van Metre).
- Charles Joseph Hedges (1712-1795) married 1st: Mary Stille; married 2nd Isabella Wirk.
- Joshua Hedges (1715-1789) married Elizabeth Chaplin.
- Jonas Hedges (1716-1804) married Agnes Powelson.
- Joseph Hedges Jr. (1718-1753) married Mary.
- Samuel Hedges (1721-1735).
- Ruth Hedges (1722-1761) married Abraham Van Metre (son of John Joosten and Margaret (Mollenauer) Van Metre)
- Catherine Hedges (1724-1800) married 1st Jacob Julian; married 2nd Joseph Wood.
- Dorcas Hedges (1726-1800).
Citations and Attributes:
- Samuel Gordon Smyth, A Genealogy of the Duke-Shepherd-Van Metre Family, 1909.
- Traceyo, Grace L. and Dern, John P., "Pioneers of Old Monocacy The Early Settlement of Frederick County, Maryland 1721-1743, p106., Accessed online at Ancestry.com Collections: Pioneers of Old Monocacy (Accessed 19 April 2023)
- Hedges Family Land, Old Monocacy, Frederick County, Maryland. Pioneers of Old Monocacy, The Early Settlement of Frederick County, Maryland, 1721-1743 - The Hedges Family, page 107, accessed online at Ancestry.com Collections (Accessed 19 April 2023).