Jamestown and Elizabeth City County notes and speculations: Hardin

Jamestown and Elizabeth City County notes and research, 1600's

This writer believes that Samuel Hardin of Brunswick County, Virginia was alone without brothers to have children and was the sole ancestor of Haplotype I-M253 Hardins in America. Searching female Hardin immigrants to the James River may reveal one with a son the age of Samuel. This page may put the researcher in the frame of mind to research the settlers on the James River.With that possibility in mind I created this page to help guide other researchers in those areas.

Records hint the Powells (will witnesses) and McCarthy (guardian) came from Isle of Wight and Surry Counties. (The latter was James City County until 1652). The family of the Brunswick court clerk Drury Stith,gentleman, was a privileged family that lived east of the James River. Drury Stith Jr. settled alongside Gabriel Hardin in Lunenburg County. Nothing proved there, except to show the sweep of migration into and out of Brunswick County.

Research Resources

The Virginia Colonial Records Project search page

A fully-searchable index to almost 15,000 reports that survey and describe documents relating to colonial Virginia history that are housed in repositories in Great Britain and other European countries. Survey report images are available online with references to microfilm reels for the original documents.

Search on the names Harding, Hardin, Harden, Arden, and variations, and any terms of interest.

This is the source, for example, of a 1617 report from Lewes Hughes from the Summer Islands (Bermuda) to Sir Robert Rich of the same place. Robert Rich had received a hive of bees from his brother Sir Nathaniel Rich in England the year before, the first bees to arrive in Bermuda from England. The letter mentioned a dispach of books and that Mr. Harding's books had a certain mark "in a little barrel." Shipments were from and to England, Bermuda, and Jamestown, and sometimes the West Indies. This writer does not know where Mr. Harding lived.
"Quarter Sessions Records and Papers: Examinations and Depositions 1622-1644," in the Southampton Record Office, also known as "Manchester Papers." (Find it by searching the Virginia Colonial Records Project.)

Another example: Mention of George Hardy, a Virginia Planter in 1651, executor of Mr. Lamb.

Virginia Memory from the Library of Virginia. Choose Digital Collections for online records.

Contains many more online records. The Virginia Colonial Records Project is a subset.

Inventory of Hardings

CAUTION This page includes speculation for discussion among reseasrchers of this family. It is not finished genealogy tied up in a ribbon for harvesting. Corrections and better explanations are requested. Contact Travis Hardin at ke3y at comcast dot net.

The theory that seems to fit -- I venture to say it is proven -- is that Samuel Harding of Brunswick County, Virginia, is an ancestsor of the I1a Hardins. I can see no further back. Every Hardin kin can reasonably be traced back to him. It is possible he was alone without brothers in America. It is possible he came as a child of a Hardin woman. There were several.

At this stage of my research and speculation no Jamestown ancestor or headright immigrant has been identified, and perhaps no ancestor needs to be identified except for a Hardin woman who might have arrived with young Samuel. Nevertheless some might want to research further into Jamestown settlers and into the headrights immigrants.

A researcher friend said that in 1623 Christopher Hardin, Jamestown settler, was killed in the Jametown Massacre. Thomas Harding survived it and was in Elizabeth City County.

A Jamestown Society qualifying ancestor is George Hardin. Another is George Hardde, listed at http://www.jamestowne.org/ Jamestowne_Society_Qualifying_Ancestors_List_Pg_3.htm. George Hardy had a mill on Lawnes Creek by Widow Bennett. The source of Hardy's mill pond was selected by appointed representatives following a court order at Southwarke on 4 May l675, as the beginning point of the straight portion of the Surry County line.

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IN A NUTSHELL

Researchers Sue Hardin Austin, Gwen Hardin, and others have proposed a model for the I1a Hardins based on a chance find of a court case in which they learn there were two men at a tavern in Granville County, N.C. in 1753 named Samuel and Gabriel Harding and they had a brother with land in Virginia named William. William was in the 1732 will of Samuel Harding of Brunswick County, Virginia. "My three eldest sons" are believed to be Samuel, Gabriel, and Thomas, with William being a boy in 1732 and John a newborn. The more I keep that model in mind the better the pieces seem to fit.

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Last updated 13 Sep 2020