[Repeated here is a series of excerpts from "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges" by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig, Washington D.C. , November 1988, quoted and posted on the HEDGES Biographies/Vital Statistics GenConnect board in 1999 by permission of the author]:

No genealogical investigation is ever finished. The following material is collected from materials thus far examined. Future inquiry may resolve many of the unanswered questions. The author can report, however, that much of what has been published about the Hedges family of New Castle county is erroneous. They were unrelated to the descendants of Samuel Hedge who resided across the river in Salem County or William Hedge and his sister Dorcas Cox who migrated from New England to Salem County NJ in the 1690s. In the preparation of this report the author is indebted to many correspondents, particularly John P. Dern, Redwood City, CA.

William and Mary Hedges, presumably English, are first found in New Castle County, Delaware, on 3 January 1677/8 when the New Castle Court granted him a lot in the town:

"Upon the Request of Will: hedges the Court doe grant him Liberty to take upp a Lott within this Towne of New Castle hee building & improoveing the same according to the Governor's orders." (Records of the Court of New Castle [hereafter NCR], 1:173)

On the same day this newcomer also sat on a jury in the New Castle Court in the case of John Moll v. John Roode. (NCR, 1:174)

Before the year was out, however, William Hedges had died, probably during the month of December 1678.

The New Castle Court sat monthly, its December session being held on Tuesday, 3 December 1678. (NCR, 1:251). At the end of the January sitting (8-9 January 1678/9), the court records show

"Mary the Late Widdow of William Hodges deceased this day apeared in Court whoe declared to have putt out hur son Charles hodges of about 5 Jeares of adge, unto Thomas Jacobs of Bread & Cheese Ysland for the full space and terme of Twelve Jears now next Ensuing, Thomas Jacobs Lykewyse apearing in Court did aknowledge to have taken the said Chyld for the abovesaid terme of 12 years; during which tyme hee doth promisse & Ingage to find the said boy with sufficient meat drink apparill washing and Lodgeing, and att the end of the 12 Jears to give to the boy a Cowe and Calfe, and doth further promis to Instruct him (if hee the said Jacobs Lives and that the boy is Capable of itt) in the trade of a wheele Right, and that his son Oele Tomas shall Larne the said boy to Reed as much as hee can teach him." (NCR, 1:285-86)

The quoted transcription uses the spelling of "Hodges" although "Hedges" was undoubtedly intended. In the 17th century script the "e" is often mistaken as an "o."

Bread & Cheese Island, still known by that name, is located on the Christina River in New Castle County, immediately to the east of the place where Red Clay Creek joins the Christina River and is so named because it is mostly surrounded by water.

Thomas Jacobsson, who accepted responsibility for Charles Hedges, was a Finnish Swede who had arrived in former new Sweden … in 1656 with his wife [and] three children…. Thomas Jacobsson's name last appeared in New Castle County court records in the above-quoted excerpt. He presumably died shortly thereafter. He was no longer living in February 1682/3 when his son, Olle Thomasson [but not Thomas Jacobsson], pledged allegiance to the new government of William Penn. (NCR, 2:37)

The minutes of the New Castle Court report on 5 March 1678/9:

"Mary the widdow & Relict of William Hodges, shew by Peticon that the Estate of Walter Wharton deceased is debtor unto hur the sum of one hundred gilders … and therefore desiering that shee might have an order against the said Estate for the payment of the said sume of 100 gilders, one of the first according to the desire of the said deceased.

"The Court having Examined the premises doe grant the Peticoner hur Request." (NCR, 1:309)

On 3 November 1680, the New Castle court heard the case of Mary Hedges v. Annettie Ollesdotter in a case of slander. [It had been alleged that Mary "had Layne with one Jan Cornelis" [John Corneliusson].] "The Court ordered that the defendant shall make publicq aknowledgment in Court that shee has falsly defamed the plaintiff & pay the Costs. (NCR, 1:434-35)

At the New Castle Court held 5 January 1680/1, the following report was entered:

"Upon the Peticon preferred in behalfe of Mary the Widdow of Will: hodges, The Court does Grant hur to take up a Lott within this Towne of ne Castle; on the west syde …." (NCR, 1:448)

On 1 November 1681, John Smith the carpenter, another newcomer to New Castle (not to be confused with another John Smith, formerly of West Jersey…) was granted a vacant lot in New Castle…. Nevertheless, the tax lists for New Castle town for 1683/4, a684/5, 1685/6 and 1687/8 show John Smith owning two lots in New Castle. (NCR, 2:80, 97, 121, 168). The reason soon becomes obvious: He had married the widow of William Hedges.

On 26 February 1684 (1683/4?), John smith of New Castle, who had married Mary, the widow of William Hedges, was appointed administrator of the estate of William Hedges, who had died intestate. (New Castle Wills, A:6). Thus, he became the owner of record of her double lot. [Not long after, John and Mary Smith sold their lots to Justus Anderson, an innkeeper]. The property was described as 120 feet broad with a new dwelling house, an old house and a cowe house. (New Castle Deeds). In exchange, John and Mary Smith acquired from Justus Anderson a lot in New Castle … described as six lots, which Justus Anderson had earlier acquired from john White. (New Castle Deeds, B1:79).

[There is further reference to John Smith in October 1688, but otherwise] the later fate of John Smith and his wife Mary has not been determined. The last discovered reference to him is a tax list for New Castle dated 1 January 1696/7 which lists him as taxable. (MS, Historical Society of Pennsylvania).

It is unknown whether [Mary] had children by her second marriage to John Smith, the New Castle carpenter.

The children of William and Mary Hedges were as follows:

1. Charles Hedges, born c. 1673; m. Elizabeth
2. Joseph Hedges, born c. 1675; m. Catherine
A.Mary Hedges, born c. 1677; m. Thomas Douthitt

[At this juncture Dr. Craig begins to recite subsequent family history for each of the three siblings: Charles, Joseph (of Monocacy), and Mary Hedges. We will provide summaries of what he has to say about Charles and Mary before moving on to Joseph of Monocacy. Here we deal with Charles.]

1. Charles Hedges (1673-1743). When indentured for 12 years to Thomas Jacobsson … in 1679, he was only five years old. It is likely that relatively soon thereafter, with the death of Thomas Jacobsson, he moved to another Swedish home in the western part of Christiana Hundred along the east side of Red Clay Creek. It was here that he and his brother Joseph Hedges established long-standing relationships with several inter-related Swedish families and it was probably here that they both found Swedish wives soon after 1700.

The families were those of John Hedrickson, Charles Springer, John Anderson Cock (brother of Justus Anderson of New Castle) and Stephen Corneliusson. [Some of these and other names the author now introduces have appeared in various theories about who it was that Joseph of Monocacy married; but the author uses the information to show how those theories do not stand up to the facts.]

On Midsummer's Day 1699, Charles Hedge was assigned a pew in the new Holy Trinity Church at Christina [Wilmington]. (Horace Burr, Records of Holy Trinity (old Swedes) Church, 63) He had volunteered 15-1/2 days of work on the church and, in addition, had been paid £1.15.0 for cutting stone for one month during its construction. (ID, 47, 48)

On 17 August 1704, Charles Hedges purchased 96 acres of land in Mill Creek Hundred (on the west side of Red Clay Creek) from William Guest. (New Castle Deeds, L-4:341). He probably married soon thereafter. On 10 May 1711, there was surveyed for him another 170 acres above his land in William Penn's Manor on branches of the Elk River.

The surviving baptism records of Holy Trinity Church start in 1713. They show that Charles Hedges or his wife twice journeyed to Christina (present Wilmington) to be a baptismal sponsor.

On August 1723, Charles Hedges of Mill Creek Hundred, yeoman, acquired [17 more acres nearby]. Soon, however, his thoughts turned to moving further inland.

On 25 November 1724, the Pennsylvania Board of Property included the following entry in its minutes (Pa.Arch.2d Ser, 19:724): "Edward Robertson [Robinson] requests the grant of 500 acres of Land on the Head of the further Branch of Elk River. Charles hedge desires about the like Quantity about a mile to the Northward of the Indian Town, between the Head of Elk river and Octoraro."

A year later, on 29 October 1725, this plea was repeated (Id., 19:733): "Edward Robinson and Charles Hedge request the Grant of two parcells of Land on the Head of Elk River for 2 settlements for their sons." The move apparently took place, as is shown by [a] quotation dated 26 Jan. 1730/31 supplied by John Dern (source not identified).

On 17 February 1730/31, Charles Hedges and his wife Elizabeth of Notingham township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, for £70 and one peppercorn if demanded, sold their three tracts in Mill Creek Hundred, New Castle county, to Thomas Gray of Mill Creek Hundred. (New Castle Deeds, L-4,341) Simon Hadley and Charles Sprnger delivered the deed to Gray.

On 12 October 1743, Charles Hedges of Londonderry township, Chester County, Pa., yeoman, being "very sick and weak", signed his will by his mark, a "C". No wife is named in the will, suggesting that Elizabeth had died. (Chester Co., #865) [Children and grandchildren are named in the will, but none of that detail seems to have an immediate bearing on The Joseph Project.]

3. Mary Hedges (c.1677-17xx) is presumed to be a daughter of William and Mary Hedges and to have married a Thomas Douthitt. This is inferred from the fact that on 27 Feb 1732/33 Thomas Douthitt and his wife Mary signed, as near of kin, the Prince Georges County inventory of Joseph Hedges. (Prince Georges Co. Inventories, 17:67-69)

Both Thomas Douthitt (Dowthit) and John Douthitt, presumably his son, were listed as taxable in Monocacy Hundred in 1733. (Dern, Pioneers of Old Monocacy, 368) In 1735, Thomas Douthitt (Doudith), being incapable of duty was replaced by Solomon Hedges [eldest son of Joseph of Monocacy] as constable of Monocacy Hundred. (Dern, 108, 238) This writer has not further traced this family.

1. Joseph Hedges (1675-1732). Although positive proof is lacking, it would appear from their [i.e., Charles and Joseph] parallel lives, that Joseph Hedges was also bound out at a young age to a Swedish family in Christiana Hundred. His name first appears on 8 Sept. 1702 when the following entry appears on the minutes of the Pennsylvania Board of Property:

"Joseph Hedges of N. C. Coun., requests 100 acres, at the head of the Tract formerly taken up by Geo. Hogg on new Rent, and now entred upon by some Dutch Men, Situate upon Redclay Creek, for which he agreed to pay £20 upon Confirmation. Rent 1 Shilling per 100; lst 11 mo. (Pa.Arch.2d Ser., 19:323)"

Although a patent for this land was issued in 1714, it had to be resurveyed 17 March 1714/15 because it was found to overlap the land of Charles Springer. On resurvey it was found to contain 108 acres.

By lease and release dated 13-14 march 1722/23, Joseph Hedges purchased 200 acres of land in London Grove township, Chester County, PA., from Tobias Collet & Co. (Cope Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, H:95)

As of 7 February 1723/4, Joseph Hedges still owned his property at Red Clay Creek as is shown by the following minute of the Pennsylvania Board of Property (Pa,Arch.2d Ser., 19:420): "Stephen Cornelius requests a small Vacancy between his Land, Joseph Hedges' and Jos. Barker's Land, at Redclay Creek."

By 1725, however, Joseph and [his wife] Catherine Hedges had moved to London Grove township, Chester County, Pa. On 17 Aug, 1725, they executed a deed, signed by their marks and witnessed by George Hogg and James Robinson, reciting that they were of London Grove township, Chester County, and quitclaiming for 500 bushels of wheat to Nicholas Bishop of Mill Creek Hundred their interest in the 100-acre tract patented 10 April 1714. (New Castle Deeds, G-1:524).

On 1 July 1730, a tract of 258 acres (later to be known as "Hedge Hogg") was surveyed for Joseph Hedges on the Monocacy River in Prince Georges (later Frederick) County, Maryland. A patent for this land was issued 25 August 1732. (John P. Dern, Pioneers of old Monocacy, 106)

[Hedges died the next month. His will has already been discussed. See the HEDGES wills/deeds board.] The will was signed by his mark. The inventory of his estate by Robert Jones and Henry Ballenger was signed by Thomas and Mary Douthitt as near of kin and showed personal property of £216.3.0, including two bonds of £95, a note £8 and cash of £7.10.0. (Prince Georges Inventories, Hall of Records, 17:67-69)

It has long been claimed that Joseph Hedges' wife Catharine was the daughter of John and Annika [Erickson] Stalcop. This claim appears to date back to a document entitled THE HEDGES ESTATE, a report by Hon. Thomas A. Logan (1884), p.43, which stated:

"There is a tradition in the [Hedges] family which runs as follows: Catherine Stallcup dreamed that a young man called at her father's house for lodging and was informed that he could be provided for, but that they had no stabling for his horse, but at the stranger's suggestion his horse was turned into the cow pasture. In the morning when Catherine went to milk she found the horse in the cow pasture and on going to the house learned that the young man of whom she had dreamed was a guest in the house, and that her dream had actually transpired in the manner it had appeared to her in sleep. The young man proved to be Joseph Hedges the emigrant, and he and Catherine were subsequently married.

"Unfortunately the tradition does not give the time and place of this very romantic meeting and wedding, but it has been handed down as an occurrence between my grandparents (correspondent unknown)."

From this anonymous source, Samuel Gordon Smyth in his GENEALOGY OF THE DUKE-SHEPHERD-VAN METRE FAMILY (1909) added the parents as John and Magdalena Erickson Stalcop. Subsequent hedges and Stalcop genealogies rely upon Smyth to make the same claims.

To this writer, there is no substance to this claim. John Stalcop lived at Christina and it was on his land (sold to the church) that Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church was built. He died in 1700. There is no apparent connection between his family and that of Joseph Hedges:

1. The will of John Stalcop (the only evidence of which is a 1735 copy in the records of Holy Trinity Church) mentions four children: Jonas, Israel, Christina and Mary. No Catharina is among them. [Stalcop genealogists surmount this problem by presuming that Christina was Catharina.]
2. The husbands, if any, of Christina and Maria have not been identified.
3. Both Jonas and Israel Stalcop married. Joseph Hedges did not appear as a baptismal sponsor for [any of] their children and they never appeared as a baptismal sponsor for Joseph's children.
4. It was customary at that time for a married couple to name their children after the couple's parents. Joseph and Catherine Hedges had nine known children: none were named John or Anbnika (Anna).
5. John Stalcop's widow married John Giöding; "Catherine Stallcup" had no "father" at the time she allegedly met Joseph Hedges at her "father's house."

In contrast, we do find the name of Joseph Hedges periodically shown in the baptismal records of Holy Trinity Church at Christina. On 2 August 1713 Joseph Hedges was present to be a co-sponsor (with John and Brita Hendrickson) at the baptism of Samuel Hall's daughter Elizabeth. (HTR, 2:22) Samuel Hall's wife was a daughter of Charles Spinger. On 15 May 1715 Joseph Hedges returned to Holy Trinity for the baptism of his own son, Joshua. Baptism sponsors were the pastor Hesselius and his wife, Anders Cock (son of John Anderson Cock) and John Hendrickson's wife Brita. (HTR, 2:53)

[After Joseph Hedges died, his] widow Catherine thereafter appears to have married Isaac Bloomfield, who in 1740 witnessed the transfer of "Hedges Delight" from Solomon to Charles Hedges [sons of Joseph of Monocacy]; witnessed the 1747 will of Jacob Julien (first husband of Joseph Hedges' daughter Catherine); and had died by 1751 when Thomas Douthitt swore for him at probate of this will. Joseph Hedges and Joseph Wood were "near of kin" at the death of Catherine Bloomfield in 1749 and Charles Hedges on settling her estate made payments to Thomas Doouthitt, John Bell, Joseph Wood and Stephen Julian. Among the debts due her estate were debts owed by William and Jonas Hedges. At the 19 Nov 1751 court, Joseph and Charles Hedges, farmers, owed Robert DeButts, executor of Isaac Bloomfield £12.19.8. (Information collected by John P. Dern)

[In his monograph, Dr. Craig rejects Catherine Stalcop as the wife of Joseph of Monocacy, but we are never told who Joseph's wife was, because no clear record has ever been found. For Joseph's marriage, the record simply refers to her as "Catharina"; in his will she is simply his "wife". Ten years after he wrote the monograph, however, Dr. Craig did come to an opinion about Catherine's identity, related here with his permission from "1998 Addendum to Hedges Report: Catharine, Wife of Joseph Hedges" (Joseph of Monocacy).]

After over ten years of research into the identity of Catharine, wife of Joseph Hedges (#2), 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. (Craig Horle, "Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania", 1:727-728) His son-in-law Samuel Land died intestate in New Castle County by 17 March 1686/7 when his widow Dorcas was named administratrix of his estate. (New Castle wills, A:84) She then married George Hogg as his second wife. Dorcas died by 1716 when Hogg married a third time, to Ann Humphreys. (Horle, supra, 1:435-436)

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 Catharine, who became the wife of Joseph Hedges, was her daughter. Joseph and Catharine Hedges named their plantation Hedge Hogg and used the names of Samuel and Dorcas in naming their children.

Dr. Peter S. Craig, F.A.S.G.

[In May 1999 he added, by letter]:

My conclusion that Joseph Hedges' wife was the daughter of Samuel Land and Dorcas Walliam was an insight gleaned from studying Craig Horle's "Lawmaking and Legislators of Pennsylvania," which brought out the connection between the Land family and the Hogg family. John Dern had previously theorized some connection between Joseph Hedges and George Hogg because of the name selected for his Frederick County VA (sic) property - Hedge Hogg. However, research into George Hogg ruled him out as a candidate for being the father of Catharine. My conclusion that George Hogg was Catharine's step-father (not her father) was reached in early 1998 and, of course, was unknown to John Dern before he died in 1995. Had he been alive in 1998, I feel sure that he would have agreed with my conclusion. Indeed, John Dern's notes established the Joseph's mother, Mary, lived next door to Samuel Land in New Castle.

[When he wrote "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges" in 1988, Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig was not aware of the (1675) christening records of Charles, William, and Joseph Hedges in Shrivenham, Berkshire that have been posted as part of The Joseph Project. He has however commented by letter (July 1999) which we share with his permission.]:

I remain of the view that the baptism of the father William and the eldest son Charles Hedges occurred after the baptism of Joseph on 25 December 1675; namely on 3 January 1675 (1675/6) [ed: what we would have called 1676 by our calendar, but would have been recorded then as 1675]. The line [on the christening record] denoting the beginning of 1676 baptisms does not occur until after the baptism of 7 March 1675 (1675/6). The new year began on 25 March under the English calendar at that time.

As William Hedges is shown as being of Shrivenham, he apparently already lived in the parish. It looks to me as if the minister, at the baptism of Joseph, discovered that William and Charles had not been baptized yet [presumably the mother had been] and suggested that this should be done at the earliest opportunity.

William Hedges first appears in New Castle, Delaware, records on 3 January 1677/78 when he was issued a warrant to take up a lot in the town. (NCR, 1:175) This leaves a two-year window of opportunity for William Hedges to sail to America and find his way to New Castle. There was no Pennsylvania yet. He either had to have sailed for West Jersey or New York first. If to West Jersey, it would have been under Quaker auspices. (A number of Quakers, dissatisfied with Fenwick's colony, moved across the river to New Castle or to what later became Chester County.)

The absence of any reference to a daughter Mary in the English parish record, or in New Castle County, places in question whether she ever existed. While she could have been born c.1677, her existence has been questioned by George Ely Russell, F.A.S.G., who points out that John Douthit, presumed son of William [Thomas] Douthit and Mary Hedges, reported that he was born at Coolrain, Ireland, 9 May 1709 [and it is unlikely that Mary Hedges would have returned there from America.]

Do not be misled by IGI submissions by LDS faithful, such as the ones identifying William Hedges' wife as Mary Caldwell. This is hearsay baloney, stemming from some imaginative lady who thought Charles Hedges' mark "C" was his middle initial, which she expanded to Caldwell, and assigned that name to Mary, wife of William Hedges. The fact is, however, that the source document shows that "C" was the >mark< of Charles Hedges. A scribe wrote the man's first and last names before and after the mark. He had no middle name. [Craig: March 1998 letter]

[This is the eighth and last of the excerpts from "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges" by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig, Washington D.C. , November 1988, quoted by permission of the author. We have previously learned what happened to Joseph Hedges (1675-1732) and his siblings following the death of their father William in New Castle, Delaware in 1678. We conclude now with Dr. Craig's summary of the children born to Catharine and Joseph Hedges of Monocacy.]

Joseph and Catherine Hedges had the following children:

21. Solomon Hedges, born c.1710; m. Rebecca Van Metre c.1735
22. Charles Hedges, born c.1712, m. Mary Stille 1736, Isabella Wirk 1769
23. Joshua Hedges, born 1715, m. Elizabeth Chaplin, 1743
24. Jonas Hedges, born c.1717, m. Agnes Powelson c.1737
25. Joseph Hedges, born c.1719, m. Mary ___ c.1750
26. Samuel Hedges, born c.1721; never married
2A. Ruth Hedges, born c.1723; m. Abraham Van Metre c.1742
2B. Catherine Hedges, born c.1725; m. Jacob Julian c.1744, Joseph Wood c.1747
2C. Dorcas Hedges, born 1727; never married.

We thank Dr. Peter Stebbings Craig for his kind permission to quote extensively from his monograph, "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges", Washington D.C., November 1988. Copyright reserved. Dr. Craig's paper also provides information about further generations of the Hedges families. Researchers who are working seriously in this field may want to obtain complete copies for their own use.

Dr. Craig tells us, if anyone wants a copy of his report "The Colonial Descendants of William and Mary Hedges". He will honor orders for the report at $20 per copy: Peter S. Craig, 3406 Macomb St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016-3160).

The foregoing information is provided as part of a project to improve information about the life of "Joseph of Monocacy" who died in Frederick MD in 1732 - especially by documenting primary and secondary sources of information. Further submittals are invited.

(22 April 2000)