NEW: The LONDON ORIGIN OF SAMUEL HARDING (1692-1732)

Samuel Hardin (will 1732)

Samuel Hardin, born before 1695, lived in Brunswick County, Va.

At his death Samuel Hardin owned a farm on Fountain Creek in St. Andrews Parish, Brunswick County, Virginia near the North Carolina line. The will of Samuel Hardin, Sr. was recorded on 4 Oct 1732 and his wife Elizabeth is referred to as a widow in a land sale on Oct. 26 (below). We don't know when the will was written, but he was "sick of body" suggesting it was written during his last illness.

Fountain Creek flows east from Brunswick County through present southern Greensville County and into the Meherrin River. Fountain Creek was in south central Brunswick County until county line changes in 1781. On a small scale map it is accurate enough to locate the creek at the modern Brunswick-Greensville county line.

1732 Will of Samuel Harden of Brunswick County, Virginia

In the name of the Father, Son, & Holy Gost, Amen.

I, Samuel Harden, sick of body but of perfect memory, do first bequeath my soul to the Almighty God and my Body to be buried Christian like; I do will & bequeath unto my wife Elizabeth Harden fifteen head of cattle and what hogs belongs to me(.) To each of my sons. I give and bequeath owne hefer apece and the breeders that comes from an other(.) To each the breed of his own heifor and what proceeds from them of steers to my wife towards maintaining of her children.

ITEM I give unto my three eldest sons six hundred and fourty acres of land in North Carolina to be equally divided amongst them to them and their heirs for ever. My plantation I leave to my wife Elizabeth Harden for her lifetime and after her death to my son William Harden. In case the child she goes with be a girl and if it should be a son the land to be equally divided between them;

ITEM I give and bequeath unto my wife Elizabeth Harden my horse and all other cumberment that I have.

ITEM I desire if my wife should dye before my Children are of age that Edmond McCarthy should be their guardian to take care of them and what they have(.) It being my last will and testament so help me God.
Samuel Harden
Signed in the presence of us:
Thomas Powel
John Powel

At the court held for Brunswick County 24th day of October 1732 This will was proved in court by Elizabeth Harden Executrix. She given security for the same made Oath thereto Recording __ the same being proved by Thomas Powel & John Powel Witnesses thereto it is admitted.  Signed(?)
Test. Drury Stith, C.C.

The will was transcribed from the microfilm script by T. L. Hardin.

The inventory and appraisal

was recorded 5 Dec 1734 as recorded in the index, which also says the will was proved 4 Oct 1733. The copy of the will appears to say it was proved 1732.)

Source of the will (p. 85) and inventory (p. 147): Brunswick County "Deeds, Wills, Etc. 1, 1732-1740 (Reel 1)", microfilm, Library of Virginia. To see the entry, see http://www.lva.virginia.gov/ ("Search the LVA catalog/words in title/Samuel Hardin*"). The entry says:

Hardy Family, BRUNSWICK COUNTY RECORDS (Valentine Papers)*

1732
(An extract of the will is also in the Valentine Papers, page 601.)

"Elizabeth Harden widow of Samuel Harden of St. Andrews Parish from Robert Morgan of sd. Parish & Co. £20: curr. 130 acres on north side of Fountains Creek in Brunswick Co. Oct. 26, 1732. W. B. 1, p. 134." (Valentine p. 601)

The wording from and to in the extract notes refers to the land, not the money. 130 acres was transferred from Robert Morgan to Elizabeth Hardin who paid £20.

Samuel Hardin Family from Other Sources (Transactions after 1732 are believed to refer to Samuel Hardin, Jr.)

1733 June 1
Richard Pace sold his patent of 1724 on Fountain Creek in Brunswick County to John Bradford. Witnesses: Jesse Heathcock, Dan Walker, Eliz. Harden, Margaret Moore.
from Boddie, Southside Virginia Families, vol 1 p.75.(ancestry.com)

1733 Sept.
John Lynch of Bertie Precinct, NC, to John Bradford of Brunswick County; lease and release; 200 acres on the south side of Fountains Creek. Wit: James Francis, Walter Long, Joseph Heathcock, Daniel Walker, Elizabeth Harden, Margret Moore. Proved by Elizabeth Harden and Margret Moore. Brunswick County Deed and Will Book 1, 1732-1740 p. 176-178. http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/brunswick/wills

1741
Samuel Hardin of St. Andrews Parish, Brunswick Co. from Hohn—(X)—Steed of same Parish, £5: curr. 100 acres adjoining Samuel Hardin's land. Dec. 2, 1741. D. B. 2, p. 241.

*The Edward Pleasant Valentine Papers: Abstracts of Records in
the Local and General Archives of Virginia. (ancestry.com database)

A detail. Nic Hardin appears on a list of tithables taken June 10, 1694, a combined list of Southwark Parish (373 total) and Lawnes Creek Parish (269 total) in Surry County. (66)0 shows zero tithe assessed.Nic(holas) Hardin could be a Samuel Hardin family member. The latter did not appear in the list.
Credit: John Boddie, Colonial Surry, p. 199 whose source was deed book 1694-1709, pp 21-23.

Samuel Hardin, His Family Outline-- Facts, Deductions, and Speculations

Rewritten June 2021. No other source found so far has been as useful at identifying the Hardin family cast of characters as the CHAVERS LODGING HOUSE ROBBERY, fron notes of Granville County records taken by Thomas McAdory Owen in December 1895, and eventually published in 1993 as "History and Gelealogies of Old Granville County, North Carolina 1746-1800 by Southern Historical Press. The 1753 testimony copied by Owen established that Samuel Hardin (Jr.) had two brothers, Gabriel and William. William was living in Virginia. In a will of 1732 written in Brunswick County, Virginia the senior Samuel Hardin had left the family estate to a son William (effective after William's mother's death). William, provided for separatey, was not among the older man's three elder sons. Gabriel was possibly the eldest, we find from tracing his movements, land purchases, and other history. I don't doubt that Samuel Hardin, junior, was one of the three older sons. The third oldest appears to be Thomas Hardin. The three elder sons inherited 640 acres in North Carolina, thus their presence in Old Granville County was expected.

Minor children (plural) were mentioned in Samuel Hardin's 1732 will as needing guardians. William Hardin appears to have been the oldest male of them. There was one or more female children.  It is by tracing the descendants of Gabriel, Thomas, Samuel, and William that I have tried to construct a narrative.  A group of Hardins, headed by Sterling Hardin and known related by Y-DNA, remained in Granville County.  They were likelly the descendants of Samuel (Jr.) or Thomas, since Gabriel's children stayed with him. William's movements and number of children are unclear. There is no reason to doubt that William's children stayed with their father. Thus odd third-generation descendants must be of Samuel Jr. or Thomas.

Credits. Methods.

I mention the names of hard-working researchers we are indebted to in the text of this web site. (Additions welcome) The reader may also visit a sister Hardin site, hhhdna.com and view the color-coded families grouped by DNA similarity. You will see that submitters and researchers such as Susan Austin and Gwen Hardin in pursuit of knowledge have persuaded a number of people to test their DNA and have paid for some of the tests.

Though genalogical proof, in the usual sense of finding an original document stating a relationship, is rare, it is not nonexistent. Scattered documents as they are found are tacked onto their suggested spot on the wall. Researchers have produced, where proof is lacking, good circumstantial evidence. Today's researchers for lack of detail may have mistaken a cousin for a brother, or a nephew for a brother, but they know if Hardins live near Hardins or are connected in other demonstrable ways including DNA matches, we have established (in this writer's opinion) a case that will win in the minds of readers and researchers, even if it might not win in a court of law.

By the measures above, several researchers more careful than I now consider Samuel Hardin of Brunswick County, Virginia as the earliest known ancestor of the I-M253 (formerly called  I1a) or Norse Hardins. I further identify this family as "the family of James Oran Hardin" (founder of the Hardin Family Association) to distinguish this family from other Hardins in another, unrelated I-M253 group.

I have abandoned the idea that John Hardin who went to Chatham was the child being carried in 1732. Instead John was of a more fitting age to be a son of Samuel Jr. or Thomas. Gabriel the younger, Isaac, and John of Indiana were not sons of Gabriel (another change of mind) and by elimination must be children of Samuel Jr. or Thomas Hardin.

 In 1761 at about age 20 John Hardin bought land in Granville/Bute County, then we trace him through deeds to Chatham County, N.C., where he lived until 1787. About 1787 John Hardin sold out to son Nicholas Hardin in Chatham County and remained in that county. Gabriel was with John throughout their Chatham County residence until 1787 and appears now to be a brother of John.

Because the John who moved to Pendleton with Gabriel Hardin (the younger) had a wife named Ann, he was the oldest son, not the father, of Gabriel. Griffin Hardin of Pendleton District, son of Gabriel, appears to acquire Pendleton District John's land, and testifies to living as a child in Chatham County, North Carolina. (Aaron Hardin, brother and perhaps twin of Griffin, is shown circumstantally to be my ancestor.)

By DNA testing I am a match with descendants of Griffin Hardin (b. 1774), with descendants of the Brunswick County Gabriel Hardin (b. before 1715) who settled in Moore County, N.C., and with John Hardin of Indiana, a son of either William, Gabriel Jr. or Thomas Hardin. Thomas died in Granville in 1749 and Gabriel Jr. in 1753 while in Granville County.

Others with identical DNA include a descendant of Sterling Hardin (b. 1750) of Granville County, N.C. and descendants of John Hardin of Montgomery County, N.C. through son Moses Hardin. The date of Sterling's birth makes him a probable son of Samuel or Thomas.

My Attempt at Birthdates.

Samuel Hardin the father was born before 1686 and that is based on "three eldest sons" being close to majority at Samuel's death.
Gabriel Hardin, the eldest, about 1710
Samuel Hardin, Jr., about 1712. He bought land in 1741 and needed to be age 21 for that.
Thomas Hardin, about 1714. He had a minor child when he died in 1748.
William Hardin, about 1725 (he was a minor in the will of 1732).
 

The three eldest sons were in no hurry to get married and have children. They were born before 1715 and near majority in 1732, yet their identified children were born in the 1750s. I would expect firstborns in 1735. Also there is a big hole of nearly 40 years in the history of Gabriel Hardin between his birth and the mention of him in the court case of 1753 involving his brother Samuel.

Tax Records and Other Source Material

  Hardins in North Carolina Taxpayers 1701-1786

Of interest:

Horton, Samuel, Bute 1766
Horton, Thomas, Bute, 1766
Harden, Charles, Rowan, 1768
Harden, John, Northhampton, 1780
Harden, Nicholas, Orange, 1779

103
Hardin, James and William, Halifax, 1783
Hardin, David, Halifax, 1783
Hardy, Thomas, Halifax 1783
Horton, William, Orange 1779
Horton, Charley, Henry, James, James, Jr.
and Jerimiah:     Orange 1779

Of possible interest:

Horton, Sarah, Orange, 1779
Horton, William, Orange, 1779
Hardin, Henry and Mark, Surry, 1782
Harden, Presley, Caswell, 1786
Hardin, John, Presley, and William: Caswell 1784

Hardins in North Carolina Taxpayers 1679-1790
Includes searches for creative spelling variations

Of interest:

Harden, Sterling, Granville, 1784
Hardin, Gabriel, Cumberland, 1767
Hardin, Abe, Randolph, 1779 (just west of Chatham)
Hardin, Sterling, Bute, 1771
Hardin, Sterling, Franklin-Warren-Vance, 1771
Hardmon, Robert, Rowan, 1759
Hardon, William, Caswell, 1777 (just north of Orange)
Hardwick, Aaron, Bute, 1771
Hardwick, Aaron, Franklin-Warren-Vance, 1771
Hardwick, James, Bute, 1771
Hardwick, James, FWV, 1771
Hardy, Thomas, Pitts, 1775
Harlin, Stephen, Cumberland, 1767
Harling, Aaron, Orange, 1755
Harlon, Enoch, Randolph, 1779 (just west of Chatham)
Harp, John, Granville, 1784
Harp, Thomas, Granville, 1769
Harp, Thomas, Granville, 1784
Hart, Henry, Granville, 1769
Hart, James, Orange, 1755
Hart, John, Granville, 1769
Hart, John, Granville, 1784
Hart, John, NorthHampton, 1741 (due south of Brunswick Co., Va.)
Hart, Joseph, Granville, 1784
Hart, Josiah, Orange, 1755
Hart, Philip, Granville, 1769
Hart, Pleasant, Granville, 1769
Hart, Thomas, Granville, 1769
Hart, Wm, Granville, 1769
Hart, Wm, Granville, 1784
Harton, Thomas, Bute, 1771
Harton, Thomas s. Thomas & Howell, FWV, 1771
Hearon, Samuel, Dobbs, 1769
Heart, Wm, Orange, 1755
Herren, Moses, Surry, 1771 (two counties west of Caswell/Orange)
Herring, James, Cumberland, 1755
Herring, Wm, Cumberland, 1755
Horton, James, Orange, 1755
Horton, Samuel, Bute, 1771
Horton, Samuel, FWV, 1771
Horton, Samuel Jr., FWV, 1771
Wharton, Wm, Granville, 1769

Hortons

The Library of Virginia indexes the 1728 Surry County will of THOMAS HORTON. (Surry Co. Deeds, Wills, Etc. 1715-30, p. 842. Part of index to Surry County Wills and Administrations (1652 - 1850)) Horton is another family in the area, probably not a spelling variant of HARDIN.

Some Names in the "State Census of North Carolina, 1784-1787" (ancestry.com)

Key to columns:  (1) WM 21-60;  (2) WM under 21 and above 60;  (3) WF all ages;  (4) Blacks 12-50;  (5) Blacks under 12 and above 50; (6) Total.

Granville County, Epping Forest District,1786:     Stirling Hardin        1 1 5 0 0 7
Granville County, Fishing Creek Dist., 1786      William Chavis          1 0 1 1 0 3
Granville County, Oxford District, 1786          Henry Rarden            1 3 3 1 1
Halifax County, District One, 23 Feb 1786:         William Harrdin[sic]    0 3 5 2 3
Halifax County, District One, 23 Feb 1786:         James Hardin            1 0 0 0 0
Montgomery County, District 2, certified 3 July 1787: John Harden  1 1 3 0 0
Northampton County, Capt Williams Dist.:   John Harden             1 6 3 2 1
Caswell County,                            Harden, Presly          2 3 3 0 0
Wilkes County, Capt. Hardin's Dist.:               William Hardin          1 4 4 2 4
Bertie County, Capt. Moore's Dist., Feb. 1787:  Thomas Harden                 1 5 1 1 0
Warren County, Capt. Colclough's Dist              Thos. Harton            0 3 3 1 0 7
Warren County, "                         John Harton             1 0 2 0 0 3

(These are all the Hardins indexed. Names were not preserved in Burke, Chatham, Rowan, Orange, and many others. See the section "North Carolina census of 1784-1787.")

Other Land Transactions and Records in the Area of Brunswick and Greensville Counties

Brunswick County
#235 John Powell [to Dunn?] 26 Jul 1765 VPB 36:847 384a Brunswick/ S side of Meherin River
--Deed Data Pool at http://www.directlinesoftware.com/Pool/brunswick.txt

Greensville County (see Deed Data Pool at above except Greensville county)
     404  17 April 1733   VPB 15 p115-11  Thomas Powell of Brun  370a sd County on N side Fountains Crk 
     570  5 July 1751     VPB 29 p459-46  Thomas Powell          252a Brunswick County on N side Fountain'
     403  7 July 1726     VPB 12 p513     Thomas Powell of Isle  125a on E side Fountains Crk in Brunswick
     542  5 April 1748    VPB 26 p334-33  Thomas Powell Junior   204a on S side Bedingfields Crk, joining 
     385  22 February 172 VPB 12 p208-20  Thomas Powell of Isle  50a on S side Maherin River in sd County

1755 Sep 10 Greensville County deed could refer to Samuel Hardin's widow's life estate or that of Samuel Hardin, Jr.: 
ref Virginia Patent Book 31 p619  
dat 10 September 1755
to Moses Vincent 
consideration 40 shillings  
re 363a Brunswick County on the N Side Fountains Creek 
loc 7902 -3308 F127 L0 P255
pt A) at Thomas Powell's corner on SAMUEL HARDEN's Line, thence by Hardin's line ... 

1763 March, Brunswick County, VA, Will of Edward Clanton (excerpt)
Item:  My brother Thomas Clanton to have a negro Jack.
Item:  To Edward, son of Thomas, his plantation, bought of WILLIAM HARDIN, 
lying and being in Brunswick.
--Brunswick County, VA - Will Book 4 ,P. 325-326, March 1763. (http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/brunswick/)

1768 Powell Names in Halifax County, included in the petition below.
Solomon Powell
Wm Powell Senr
John Powell
William Powell
George Powell

To his Excellency William Tryon Esqr Govr of North Carolina, the members of his Majesties Counsel and the House of Burgesses Now mett at Newbern

The Petition of the Inhabitance of the County of Halifax humbly Sheweth that the grait Scarcity of Money laye Us Under Very grait hardshipe In so much as not to be able to Pay Our Taxes which has been the Real Cause of all the Disturbance that leatly Hapned We therefore Pray that Your Excellency, And Other Branches of the Legislative body would take into Your Mature Consideratione the Deplorable State of the Province And either grant Us An Act of Assembly to make more money or An Act to pay our Taxes in Commodityes which would Enable Us to Chearfully pay as Useual; And Your Petitioners as in Duty Bound will Ever Pray

(signed, 67 names)
source: Petition from inhabitants of Halifax County concerning the scarcity of currency in North Carolina --  Cotes, Henry; Et Al. 1768
Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Volume 07, Pages 866-867
http://www.docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr07-0361

Some Samuel Hardin Connections pointing eastward to the James River

The theory that seems to fit is that Samuel Hardin of Brunswick County, Virginia, is an ancestsor of the I1a Hardins. Thomas and John Powell witnessed his will in 1732. William Powell had land dealings with Samuel Hardin, Jr. There are records suggesting Samuel Hardin knew the Powells in the early 1700s when both were in Surry County or Isle of Wight County.

A George Hardy operated a mill on Lawnes Creek, on the Surry / Isle of Wight county line. Some spellings have it "Hardin" and "Hardin" but the best evidence shows that to be a misspelling of Hardy. See surry.htm. In other writings I claimed it is Hardin's Mill but I now agree the mill was George Hardy's.

The James River was the entry point for immigration and the center of population. If Samuel Hardin came from near the James River, and if he was not a headrights immigrant, then his mother, his father, or his guardian WAS such an immigrant. Several headrights women of surname Hardin/Hardie were recorded in the headrights records. A  decision in the record of Sept. 29, 1683 showed a "Joanna Hardy convicted of Murder repriev'd she being with Child." This and similar records hint at but do not name Hardin children--in this case, one born 1683 or 84. --Executive Journal, Council of Colonial Virginia, p. 496.The first council recorded in this volume was at James City 11 June 1680. The record is found at Books.Google.com.   An alternative is that Samuel Hardin came from a Jamestown family, among which were several Hardins. Future researchers may want to investigate these possibilities.

11 Dec 1695 Will of William Powell of Isle of Wight County, Va.

WILLIAM POWELL, will, to wife ELIZABETH the plantation I now live on for life then to my son JOHN POWELL, to son NATHANIEL POWELL "neck down swamp to orchard" -- the remaining part to son JACOB, to son WILLIAM POWELL land in Bows and Arrows Swamp, to dau. ELIZ. the wife of John Cooper that plantation they now live on. THOS. POWELL, THOS. GALE, RICHARD (x) HUTCHINS

The witnesses to the 1732 will of Samuel Hardin in Brunswick County were Thomas and John Powell. A William Powell later had a land transaction with Samuel Hardin, Jr.

28 Sep 1728 Brunswick County land grant to Edmond McCarthy, 960 acres on the N. Fork of Gento Creek. The grant was by William Gooch, Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Virginia at the time.

22 Feb 1724 Surry County, land grant to John Jackson on Meherrin River. Significance is he owned land later sold by Samuel Hardin. (In 1723 Brunswick County was formed, taking the Fountain's Creek area from Surry and Isle of Wight. The 1723 portion of Surry County the Meherrin River flowed through is north of Fountain's Creek and in present day east central Greensville County. I can't conclude that land was once Samuel Hardin's, only that the two men knew each other and might have known each other in Surry County.)

Deed sources: Land Office Patents No. 14, 1728-1732 (Jecnetoo Pt. 1 & 2 p. 29 reel 11, viewed online at Library of Virginia.

Brunswick County VA Deeds, Wills, Etc. 1, 1732-1740 (reel 1) (Samuel Hardin's will and inventory are in there.). LDS loan.

Surry County VA Deeds, Wills, Etc. 1715-30 (reel 4). LDS loan. In that reel I looked up Thomas Horton who left a will in 1728. I thought it may be a misspelling of Hardin. No, he had a good many possessions and 3 daughters: Elizabeth Barrow, Mary Proctor, and Anne Rofe. He didn't mention a wife. Horton is usually a separate surname but you never know.

URL (Click on link)	http://image.lva.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/GetLONN.pl?first=520&last=&g_p=P12&collection=LO Patent
Author	Jackson, John. grantee.
Title	Land grant 7 July 1726.
Summary	Location: Brunswick County.
	Description: 125 acres on the north side of the Reedy Creek.
	Source: Land Office Patents No. 12, 1724-1726, p. 520 (Reel 11).
	Part of the index to the recorded copies of patents for land issued by the Secretary of the Colony serving as the colonial Land Office. The collection is housed in the Archives at the Library of Virginia.
Other Format	Available on microfilm. Virginia State Land Office. Patents 1-42, reels 1-41.

	http://image.lva.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/GetLONN.pl?first=366&last=&g_p=P21&collection=LO Patent
Author	Harden, Thomas. grantee.
Title	Land grant 30 June 1743.
Summary	Location: Amelia County.
	Description: 800 acres on both sides of Falling Creek of Buffilo River.
	Source: Land Office Patents No. 21, 1742-1743 (v.1 & 2 p.1-674), p. 366 (Reel 19).
	Part of the index to the recorded copies of patents for land issued by the Secretary of the Colony serving as the colonial Land Office. The collection is housed in the Archives at the Library of Virginia.
Other Format	Available on microfilm. Virginia State Land Office. Patents 1-42, reels 1-41.