Gilliam In-Laws: The Hildreths, Part 1

 

Gilliam In-Laws: The Hildreths, Part 1

The American history of the Hildreth family is as deep and broad as that of the Gilliam family. In the next series of posts, I will trace the Hildreths from their emigration from Britain to the American colonies through their migration across the continent. Hildreths tamed the frontiers, pioneered new territories, fought in our nation’s wars and suffered more than their fair share of tragedies along the way.  

The surname Hildreth is thought to be a variant of Eldridge, a name of Anglo-Saxon origin. It is one of the names of the original ethnic groups of Britain predating the Norman conquest led by William the Conqueror (attentive readers will recall that the surname Gilliam is derived from William and was adopted by many early English in honor of William the Conqueror). In its earliest incarnation, prior to the Norman conquest, the spelling of the name Hildreth/Eldridge was either “Aelfric”, “Aethelric” or “Aethelred”.

Most of the information I am relying on comes from research accepted and published by the Hildreth Family Association (website here). From that information, we can assemble the following family tree starting with the first Hildreth in our direct line to come to the New World:

 

Thomas Hildreth (1611-1657) m. Hannah Horton (1632-1700)

                     \/

Joseph Hildreth (1657-1735) m. Hannah Jessup (1656-1697)

                     \/

John Hildreth (1702-1729) m. Phebe Squire

                     \/

Joseph Hildreth (1720-1792) m. Sarah Jagger

                     \/

Jeffrey Hildreth (1755-1820) m. Lily Bowen (1765-1800)

                     \/

Rees Bowen Hildreth (1790-1849) m. Martha Faurot (1808-1874)

                     \/

Rees Hildreth (1846-1894) m. Rachel Belzer (1850-1945)

                     \/

Annie Lily Hildreth (1882-1975) m. John Gilliam (1873-1943); Martha Hildreth (1882-1971) m. Sam Gilliam (1877-1948)

 

We learn from the First Publication of the Hildreth Family Association that our first Hildreth ancestor to come to America was Thomas Hildreth (1611-1657). He is believed to have been born in the English village of Gainford in 1611. Gainford is located in the County of Durham in the northern part of England near the border with Scotland as shown in this Google map:

There is some evidence to suggest that a Rev. Thomas Shephard recruited about 30 families from that area to emigrate to America sometime around 1635. That group included a Richard Hildreth, whom genealogists believe may have been Thomas Hildreth’s brother. They arrived in Massachusetts, but no record of Thomas Hildreth’s name on a ship passenger list has been found. In 1640, a group of immigrants left Lynn, Massachusetts to settle the town of Southampton on New York’s Long Island, and the name of Thomas Hildreth appears on lists of those settlers.

Thomas Hildreth married Hannah Horton (1632-1700), the daughter of two early Southampton settlers, Barnabas Horton (1600-1680) and his wife, Anne Langton (1611-1698). The Hortons arrived in Massachusetts from England in 1638 and were instrumental in establishing the colony at Southampton.

Barnabas Horton was a direct ancestor of Benjamin Harrison, which makes the Hildreth descendants in my generation 7^th cousins 3 times removed of the 23^rd US president pictured here: 

Thomas and Hannah Hildreth had four children before his death in Southampton in 1657: Joseph, James. Hannah and Peter. Between Thomas’ three sons, there were ten or eleven grandsons to carry on the Hildreth name. The name Hildreth continues to have roots on Long Island to this day. One of the Hildreth Long Island descendants began the Hildreth’s department store in Southampton which has continued in business for over 180 years (web link).

The next Hildreth in our direct line was Joseph Hildreth (1657-1735). Joseph married Hannah Jessup (1656-1697) in Southampton on September 11, 1678, and they remained in Southampton the remainder of their lives. Hannah was the daughter of John Jessup and Mary Sharp. The Jessups and Sharps were English and are believed to have settled briefly in the same area of Holland where the Mayflower Pilgrims began their emigration to America. Upon arriving in New England, they were early settlers of the Connecticut colony and migrated to Long Island from there.

Joseph Hildreth and Hannah Jessup had six children: Ephraim, Nathan, Hannah, James, Samuel, and the next Hildreth in our direct line; John. John Hildreth (1702-1729) was born in Southampton and married Phebe Squire there in about 1720. According to the Hildreth Family Association, John and Phebe migrated to Orange County, New York shortly after their marriage. Orange County is one of the original “upstate” counties in New York, located on the west side of the Hudson River, north of Manhattan.

Phebe Squire was the daughter of John Squire and Ann Edwards. Both the Squire and Edwards families were early Southampton families that also migrated from Connecticut. Before John Hildreth’s death in 1729 (likely before he was 30 years old), he and Phebe had two sons, John and Joseph.

We will pick up the story of the Hildreths in a following blog post with the next Hildreth in our direct line, Joseph. Joseph Hildreth was a successful property owner in Orange County, New York, before migrating with his children to Virginia after the Revolution.