Gilliam In-Laws: The Hildreths, Part 2

Gilliam In-Laws: The Hildreths, Part 2



In the immediately preceding blog post, we reviewed the first three generations of Hildreth ancestors (and the families they married into) in North America. After short stays in Massachusetts and Connecticut, three generations of Hildreth ancestors helped settle the eastern tip of Long Island, New York, in and surrounding the town of Southampton. We pick up the Hildreths’ story in this post with the next Hildreth in our direct line, Joseph.

My generation’s 5th great-grandfather, Joseph Hildreth (1720-1792), was the eldest son of John Hildreth and Phebe Squire. He was born in Orange County, New York in about 1720, shortly after his parents moved there from Southampton. Located on the west bank of the Hudson River, Orange County was on the edge of the frontier. In his adulthood in the years leading up to the Revolution, Joseph became a prominent citizen in Orange County. He was named to some local colonial commissions and was a signee to a pledge of loyalty to an opposition government in 1774, two years prior to the Declaration of Independence. This patriotic service qualifies his descendants for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (Ancestor Number A207152) and the Sons of the American Revolution (Patriot Number P332447). In the documents he signed, he is identified as a resident of the Precinct of Cornwall. That precinct was located in Orange County and surrounds what is now the United States Military Academy at West Point, on the west bank of the Hudson River.

 

The record of whom Joseph married is inconclusive. Some genealogists believe he was married to Sarah (Sally) Jagger, based primarily on the fact that she was identified in her father’s will as “Sarah Hildreth”. The Hildreth Family Association does accept that his wife was named “Sally” but does not yet accept the research linking Joseph and Sarah Jagger. In any event, Sally Jagger was a descendant of the Jagger and Cross families of Connecticut and Long Island. Both the Jagger and Cross families had ties to the earliest days of the Connecticut colony and Sally's direct ancestors fought in the 1637 Pequot War, one of the first extended hostilities between English settlers and Native Americans.

The genealogy accepted by the Sons of the American Revolution identifies Joseph Hildreth’s wife as Abigail Hill. However, I believe the SAR research confuses our Joseph Hildreth with a Joseph Hildreth from Massachusetts (likely a descendant of the Richard Hildreth family that settled in Massachusetts at the time Thomas Hildreth settled in Long Island). For purposes of filling out my family tree, I have decided to tentatively accept the research that Sally Jagger was married to Joseph Hildreth.

In 1778, after the start of the Revolution, Joseph and Sally Hildreth left Orange County, New York with their family to settle what was then the edge of the frontier, Montgomery County, Virginia (it is now Wythe County, Virginia). According to the Hildreth Family Association, Joseph and Sally purchased 226 acres there. Wythe County is located in the southwest corner of Virginia, near the borders of North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky as shown on this map from 1814:

The Hildreth Family Association accepts the evidence that Joseph and Sally had ten children: John, Abigail, Sarah, Anna, Jeffrey (my generation’s 4th great-grandfather), Polly (Mary), Squire, Ketturah, Ruth and Phebey (there is also evidence of an 11th child: Joseph). Joseph and Sally Hildreth died and were buried in Wythe County, Virginia in about 1792.

In 1785, seven years prior to Joseph and Sally Hildreth’s death, sons John, Squire and Joseph Hildreth left southwest Virginia and moved even further into the frontier over the Cumberland Mountains. In 1790, all three signed petitions to have the Virginia Assembly recognize the new boundaries of Bourbon County, and in 1792, the area became the State of Kentucky.

Joseph and Sally Hildreth’s son Jeffrey (sometimes identified as Jefferson) is the fifth generation of Hildreths in our direct line and my generation’s 4th great-grandfather. Born in Cornwall, Orange County, New York in about 1755 (the Hildreth Family Association says 1767), Jeffrey was part of the family move to Virginia in 1778. On 17 May 1785, Jeffrey married Lily Bowen in Washington County, Virginia and they settled in Wythe County, Virginia. The Bowen family occupies a significant role in the history of Virginia and the United States which requires at least one separate post on those stories. We will come back to the Bowens soon.

Jeffrey and Lily Bowen Hildreth had nine children before Lily’s death in about 1800: Abigail, William, Joseph, Rees Bowen, John, Henry, Jonathan, Jesse and Lily. In 1799, Jeffrey was named a Captain in the Virginia Militia. According to the Hildreth Family Association, he amassed over 1200 acres of land in Wythe County.

After Lily Bowen Hildreth’s death, Jeffrey married Rachel McCarty in Washington County, Virginia in 1802. Jeffrey had six more children with Rachel: Mariah, McCarty, Eliza, Sally, Levisa and Elonder.

Sometime between 1814 and 1818, Jeffrey sold his holdings in Virginia and with most of his adult children, joined his brothers in Bourbon County, Kentucky. He died in 1820 and is buried in the Hildreth family cemetery, located a few miles east of Paris, Kentucky as shown on this Google satellite map:

After Jeffrey’s death in 1820, the next generation of Hildreth’s began scattering further west. Of the children from his marriage to Lily Bowen, only William Hildreth and Lily Hildreth would remain in Virginia. Joseph, John and Jonathan would remain in Bourbon County, Kentucky until their deaths. Abigail Hildreth would migrate to Fentress County, Tennessee. Henry Hildreth would join her in Fentress County, Tennessee after first migrating to Rush County, Indiana. Jesse would make it all the way to Southern California after first migrating to Missouri. My generation’s 3rd great-grandfather, Rees Bowen Hildreth, would migrate to Indiana and Iowa. Jeffrey’s second wife and children would migrate to DeWitt County, Illinois.

In our next installment, we will spend some time on the rich history of the Bowen branch of the family tree. When we pick up on the Hildreths, we will explore the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Rees Bowen Hildreth, the Civil War service of his son, Rees Hildreth, and follow the Hildreths as they make their way to Oklahoma.