The London Origin of Samuel Harding (1692-1732) and Elizabeth Moore of Brunswick County, Virginia
| Document
location and Research: Phyllis Hardin phardin@triad.rr.com Asheboro, NC |
Writing and further research: Travis Hardin (travlane@intelec.us), Huntsville, Ala |
We are excited by this new discovery!
Family Tree DNA in Houston, Texas began surname projects using Y-DNA to trace the male line. They began before 2005. William Clark Hardin (wch1944@gmail.com) was the first Harden/in/ing coordinator and continues in that role with his web site hhhdna.com and on the Hardin page of familytreedna.com. One of the natural goals of Y-DNA genealogy in the Americas is to discover the first immigrant. We have often noted that in the Hardin surname reports sent for publication to Bill Hardin at hhhdna.com/hhh.htm, the oldest ancestor of the I-M253 light green haplogroup has always been Samuel Hardin of Fountain Creek, St. Andrews Parish, Brunswick County, Virginia.
What other explanation, other than Samuel’s being a unique immigrant, would explain the convergence? We see none. Following that reasoning, we are excited to report that Phyllis located a marriage in London dated 6 Apr 1721 between Samuel Hardin, a young widower, and Elizabeth Moore, a young woman. The two were parishioners at St Mary Whitechapel in east central London. Fleshing out that story has convinced us that this is the Samuel and Elizabeth Hardin of Brunswick County, Virginia, where Samuel’s 1732 will gives us checkpoints to compare with the English couple. The palate of names in use in England at that time was narrow. The names we sought were common, and eliminating doubt required every scrap and every hint to be examined.
FINDINGS IN ENGLAND
TREES AND GEDCOMS:
Note: Samuel used HARDING in England and HARDIN in Virginia.
Samuel
Hardin Tree, Box Display (PDF on this site) England through
Samuel's 1732 death in Virginia
Samuel-Harding.ged (by
Travis Hardin) of the above tree, showing characters in England through
Samuel's sons. (Right-click to download.)
The above, posted at Ancestry by Travis
Trav to post: Link to Trav's Ancestry Tree and other links.
To post by Phyllis if she desires: Links to Phyllis' Ancestry trees.
MAP OF PARISHES OF LONDON:
Use a search engine (Parishes of London) or the wiki of
familysearch.org where I found this map with Whitechapel centered. Whitechapel
map at Genuki
Samuel Harding, Parents and Birth
When obtaining a marriage license for his second marriage to Elizabeth Moore,at his home parish of St Marys Whitechapel in London, Samuel Harding stated his age, which corresponded exactly to the year of a baby Samuel Hardin's birth. The baby’s birth date of 16 March 1692 and a baptism date of 19 March 1692 by parents John and Elizabeth Harding confirms Samuel's 1721 statement. We find that Samuel Harding’s baptism was at the parish of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. A second listing for Samuel Harding brought to Saint Martin in the Fields for baptism by John and Elizabeth is on a record page “May 1695" and appears to be a duplicate or a separate couple, and should be disregarded.)
The best possibility in the records for the marriage of Samuel’s parents John and Elizabeth is the 14 June 1688 marriage in Holy Trinity, Knightsbridge, London, Westminster, England, of John Harding to Elizabeth Tomms. The birth of son Samuel was 4 years after that marriage.
A candidate for the birth of John Harding, father of Samuel, was a baptism on May 11, 1660 of John Harding, son of Thomas and Mary Harding, at St Paul Covent Garden, Westminster. These three events -- the baptism of John Harding, the marriage of John Harding to Elizabeth Tomms, and the birth of their son Samuel -- show that during the period 1660-1692 these Hardings lived in Westminster-- provided we have identified the right characters. Ancestors of Samuel Harding beyond the names John and Elizabeth we have not studied.
FIRST WIFE ANN HOLMAN AND THREE CHILDREN
To follow Samuel Harding (our subject), the scene moves to his 1713 home parish, St Mary Whitechapel, just east of central London.
Before settling in Whitechapel Samuel Harding married his first wife, Anne Holman, 4 Dec 1713 at St. Paul, Shadwell, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England. It was down on the Thames a few miles southeast of St Mary Whitechapel. In the handwritten marriage record is the line “Samuel Hardin pastri Cook & bachiloor and Anne Holman Spinster.”
The first wife and mother of the three oldest sons was Anne Holman. She was baptized 2 Mar 1698 at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England. Parents were William Holman of Limehouse, a Mariner, and Elizabeth Holman.
Baptism of children
From the mentions in the records of Brunswick County, Virginia and Granville County, North Carolina, Samuel’s living children there seem to be Gabriel, Thomas, and Samuel the younger. We should find their baptismal records in their London parish.
Child Thomas Harding: Baptized 16 Nov 1715
No baptismal records with parents Samuel and Anne were found. But Henry and Elizabeth Harding from St Marys Whitechapel, Stepney, baptised a Thomas on 16 Nov 1715, around the year one would expect Thomas of Samuel and Anne to be born. The couple Henry and Elizabeth Harding may have been Samuel’s relatives.
.Child Gabriel Harding: Not found
Gabriel was an extremely rare name and in all of London we found
three in the baptismal records in the 10-year period 1710-1719. His
birth was probably in the four-year gap, in 1717 between the other two.
Another possibly is that he was the firstborn preceeding Thomas, but
during the four-year gap seems more plausible. The midpoint of that gap
was the fall of 1717.
Child Samuel (the younger): Baptized 28 Oct 1719
At Tower Hamlets, St Mary Whitechapel, there is a 28 Oct 1719 baptismal record for child Samuel Harding. The handwritten record adds, where the parents’ names should be, “A man about 27 or 28 years of age.” At that time Samuel Harding was age 27. A quiet man answering the description of Samuel bringing a baby alone suggests the wife died in childbirth. If Anne was only ill the couple could have baptized the child another day. On or about 28 Oct 1718, Anne died and Samuel was left with the responsibility of a newborn baby to care for. (Anne’s absence from baptisms may mean childbirth was always difficult for her.)
We believe the burdens of the death of Anne and the arrival of the third child were motivations that led Samuel, along with his second wife, Elizabeth Moore, to think of sailing away to an entirely new start in Virginia. Leading up to the marriage of Samuel and Elizabeth, they must have corresponded with someone in Virginia about land as they began to save money for the trip and for farm land and animals. They may have left right away, given that by Samuel’s death in 1732 in Virginia at age 40 the family had added a plantation, 2 to 3 chidren, 15 head of cattle, a horse, and a purchase of 640 acres of unimproved land in North Carolina.
SECOND WIFE ELIZABETH MOORE
After meeting Elizabeth Moore in their home parish of St Mary Whitechapel, Samuel Harding obtained permission to marry Elizabeth Moore from her mother Anne Cooper and husband Moses Cooper 16 April 1721 at St James Parish in Duke Place, a church near his employer’s location. It was there where Samuel was in service as a pastry cook in the kitchen. Elizabeth was age 19, Samuel was 29. They were Church of England. In both marriage applications Samuel revealed that he was a pastry cook
THE 1721 MARRIAGE DOCUMENTS, located by Phyllis Hardin
- Original bond. Sam bond 1721 canvas.png
- Transcribed. 1721 bond transcription sauel hardin.pdf
- Marriage record original. Samuel 1721 marriage record orig.pdf
- Transcribed.Samuel 1721 record transcription.pdf
During or after the circa 1721 journey to Virginia, William Hardin was born c. 1722,the first child of Elizabeth. The original three oldest boys were half brothers to William and to Elizabeth's other children, which included at least one girl but no other boys. A child she was carrying at Samuel’s 1732 death may have been a girl, a boy, or not born alive at all.
Link: More Moores by Phyllis
Phyllis is considering that related Moores and others came to Virginia
and she will write that story here.
APPENDIX
SOURCESAncestry.com. In London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812
Ancestry.com from Pallot’s Marriage Index
Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.
Ancestry.com. Westminster, London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1558-1812