Joshua Hayes (c1715? – 1797)

Joshua Hayes is mentioned in a book on Hayes families called Hayes and Allied Families but the author confused him with a different Joshua Hayes.1  That book states that Joshua Hayes was born in 1741 to a William Hayes who left a will in Chester County, Pennsylvania dated in 1771 and proved in 1783. But that is pretty clearly an error, for our Joshua Hayes was two decades older than that man and had a continual presence in North Carolina from 1746 until his death.

Apparent grandson of Peter Hayes and Elizabeth Flake

As reported elsewhere, in 1697 Robert Flake gave to his daughter Elizabeth Hayes a life estate in a 600-ace tract in Isle of Wight County, Virginia which was to be divided after her death among her sons Richard, Samuel, and Peter Hayes.  Forty-odd years later three 200-acre parcels from this tract were sold — one by Peter Hayes of Bertie precinct, one by a Thomas Hayes, and one by Joshua Hayes.  The first of these, Peter Hayes of Bertie precinct, was evidently the son of Elizabeth Flake mentioned in the deed of gift.  But Thomas and Joshua Hayes must have been grandsons who had inherited the shares of Richard Hayes and Samuel Hayes.

On 26 November 1739 Joshua Hayes (no residence given) sold to “my friend” Edward Pittman “a certain tract or parcel of land containing 200 acres which land was bequeathed by Robert Flack (sic) to his daughter Elizabeth Hase it being part of that 600 acres…”2  No other record of a Joshua Hayes in Isle of Wight has been uncovered.

Surely this was “our” Joshua Hayes, but how did he acquire that land?  Absent any deed record, he must have acquired it by inheritance.  His father, either Richard Hayes or Samuel Hayes, could have left it to him in a will or he could have inherited by virtue of being the eldest son of one or the other.  No will (in fact no probate record of any kind) has been found for either man, so it seems likely that Joshua Hayes was the eldest son of either Richard or Samuel Hayes.  That would make Samuel Hayes of Northampton County a likely younger son.

Appears in Northampton County, North Carolina in 1746

Our first record of Joshua Hayes in North Carolina is his purchase on 28 June 1746 of 210 acres in Northampton County, North Carolina on the south side of the Meherrin River from Benjamin Williams of Isle of Wight County, Virginia. 3  On the same day Benjamin Williams sold an adjacent parcel of 233 acres to Samuel Hayes.4  These parcels adjoined an tract of 50 acres that had been purchased by Samuel Hayes more than two years earlier, and were adjacent to, or nearly so, the border between Northampton County and Isle of Wight County (which would shortly become Southampton County, Virginia.) 5  All three parcels comprised two earlier patents to Benjamin Williams and Rebecca Braswell.6  From the descriptions in these deeds, we can place the land fairly precisely in the extreme northeastern corner of modern-day Northampton County, lying directly on the Virginia-North Carolina border and the Meherrin River northeast of the town of Severn. 7 And they adjoined property on both sides of the border owned by Samuel Hayes wife and mother-in-law.

These lands south of the border had been in Bertie County until 1741 when Northampton was carved out of Bertie. Since Samuel Hayes had purchased his tract only two years after Northampton’s establishment, I searched Bertie records for signs of either Samuel or Joshua Hayes but found no record of them prior to the mid-1740s — although there is a single record of a Samuel Hayes in Chowan County records in 1724.

Just over a month after the purchases of 28 June 1746 Samuel Hayes sold a 50 acre portion of his second purchase to his mother-in-law Margaret Brady of Isle of Wight (which was what Southampton County was then called) who owned the adjoining land on the other side of the Virginia border. 8 A few years later both Joshua Hayes and Samuel Hayes sold their land on the Meherrin and moved a few miles southwest deeper into Northampton County.

On 20 February 1753, Joshua Hayes “and Silviah his wife” sold his 210 acres on the Meherrin to Howell Edmonds, both signing by their marks.9  Six days later on 26 February Joshua Hayes bought 150 acres on Wildcat Swamp, about 10-12 miles to the southwest, from Humphrey Revell.10  He bought 200 acres adjoining that tract from Samuel Davis on 16 May 1761. 11   Joshua and his wife “Silvia” Hayes sold the combined 350 acre tract on 28 December 1762 to Edward Davis. 12  His wife relinquished her dower interest at the February 1753 court as “Silvia” Hayes.13

Probable brother of Samuel Hayes

Samuel Hayes, the adjoining landowner, was surely a relative.  Joshua Hayes, Edward Davis, and Samuel Hayes appear consecutively on a muster roll of Northampton County militia, undated but apparently dated about 1755. (It is worth noting that militia duty was limited to white males aged 16 to 60.)  Within days of selling his own land on the Meherrin in 1752 Samuel Hayes bought 100 acres on what is now called Corduroy Swamp from Robert Howell and the following year bought another 200 acres from William Allen.14  Corduroy Swamp and Wildcat Swamp, in the area where the two Hayes men settled, are more or less parallel to one another in northeastern Northampton County, being in several places only about two miles apart.  Indeed, Samuel Hayes was later granted land on Wildcat Swamp (and bordering what is now Route158) in 1761.15  Samuel Hayes remained in Northampton County after Joshua Hayes left,  writing his will on 20 August 1793 which was proven in December 1796.16

For more on Samuel Hayes, see this page.

An article in Historical Southern Families, Vol 15 identifies this Samuel Hayes as a son of Peter Hayes and Elizabeth Flake of Isle of Wight County, Virginia.17 However, the article barely mentions Samuel Hayes beyond his appearance in a 1697 deed and provides no evidence that the Samuel Hayes who died in of Northampton County a hundred years later was actually the same person.  Indeed, it seems impossible that the Samuel Hayes of Northampton could have been alive in 1697. The article offers no facts but merely  makes the statement that Samuel Hayes “settled on a creek in the valley of the Meherrin River…the area was first called Chowan, then Bertie, and finally Northampton Co.”   No attempt was made to prove that statement in the article.

Joshua Hayes moves into Granville County about 1765

Joshua Hayes  voted in the election of 1762.18  But later that year, as mentioned above, he sold his land and moved a quite a distance west into neighboring Granville County.  On 20 April 1765, identifying himself as a resident of Granville County, he bought 500 acres on both sides of Tabbs Creek from Samuel Weaver.19   He appears to have remained on this land for the rest of his life.

Although several tax lists survive, the lists for the district in which he lived are nearly all missing for the next several years. The 1769 tax list survives, in which he is listed as “Joshua Haze” and his son Joseph was listed as Joseph “Hays”.  In 1771 both Joshua Hays and his oldest son Joseph Hays were taxed — the only persons named Hays in the county.  The next available tax list, in 1780, merely listed taxable property and Joshua Hayes appeared in the Fishing Creek district.   The 1782 tax list found Joshua Hays Sr., Joshua Hays Jr., Henry Hayes, and Joseph Hayes all listed in Fishing Creek district.  Tax lists for 1784, 1785, and 1788 also still exist; by then boundaries had slightly altered so that Joshua Hayes was listed in the newly established Tabbs Creek district.

The only other records of substance are a suit by John Parham in 1765, confirming that Joshua Hayes was residing in Granville by then, and his application to build a grist mill on Tabb’s Creek on 2 August 1775.

The state census of North Carolina was taken in 1786 for Granville County.   Joshua Hayes, his son Joshua and Henry Hayes are listed consecutively in the Fishing Creek district, with his son Joseph Hayes nearby in the same district. Joshua Hayes’ household consisted of one male 21-60 (probably his son John), one male under 21 or over 60 (probably himself), and four females (his wife Selvah and younger daughters Selvah, Sarah and Patty). The 1790 census does not survive, but the 1790 tax list includes Joshua Hayes and his sons Joseph, Joshua, and Henry.

Disposed of all his land in Granville between 1774 and 1797

The only purchase of land recorded by Joshua Hayes in Granville County was his 1765 purchase of 500 acres on both sides of Tabbs Creek.   He sold 150 acres of that tract “being in one corner of the said Joshua Hays land on the east side of Tabbs Creek” to Noel Johnston on 6 November 1774 for £15.20  Noel Johnston was probably already married to Joshua’s daughter Catherine Hays.  On  25 March 1784, as “Joshua Hayes Senr.” he sold 60 acres of his tract to Zachariah Higgs for £12. 21   Eight years later, on 6 November 1792, he sold 50 acres “lying on the west side of Tabbs Creek being a part of my own tract” to his son Henry Hayes for £50. 22  On 10 March 1794, he sold 144 acres on the west side of Tabbs Creek “beginning at a white oak near the mill” to his son Joshua Hayes Junr. 23  His remaining land, surveyed as 94 acres, was sold on 31 March 1797, just a week before his death, to a neighbor named Joseph McDaniel.24

He signed every deed with his mark.  No dower releases were noted in the deed books.

The identity of his wife Silvia (Selvah)

His wife’s name in the Northampton County deed books was recorded as “Silviah” and “Silvia”, but was spelled “Selvah” in his will and estate papers.

Selvah Hayes is thought — erroneously — by a few family researchers to have been a daughter of Sherwood Harris. The Granville County will of Sherwood Harris, dated 15 June 1763 and proved at the following (August) court, mentions several children explicitly, then addresses Joshua Hayes thusly: …to Joshua Hays, 200 acres of the land I bought of Jonathan White on condition that he pay 60 pounds to my executors…if he fails to do so, then the land [is to be] sold…”25   This is not evidence of a relationship between the two men, rather it seems that Harris was simply making good on a promise to sell the land.  It is significant that Sherwood Harris had purchased 660 acres from Jonathan White just a month earlier on 13 May 1763 for £50 and was evidently in the midst of negotiating with Joshua Harris to sell 200 acres of that tract for a hefty profit when he wrote his will a month later.26  In any event, his executor never sold the land to Joshua Hayes.

I also note that Sherwood Harris’s will explicitly identifies two sons, five daughters, a grandchild and one son-in-law. Yet no mention was made of a daughter named Selvah nor was Joshua Hayes identified as a relative.  If we need further reason to doubt that Selvah Hayes belongs in the Harris family, we can note that she was considerably older than any of Sherwood Harris’s children, and that she and Joshua Hayes surely married at a time when Sherwood Harris lived nowhere nearby. It is very clear that Silvia’s father was not Sherwood Harris.

Since no marriage records exist in either Northampton County or Isle of Wight County, we have no clues to Selvah’s maiden name.

1797 Will of Joshua Hayes

Joshua Hayes died on 9 April 1797 in Granville County, according to a court record of August 1797, which informs us that his will was in the possession of his son-in-law Joshua Hutchinson and was “lost or mislaid”, necessitating a reconstruction of the will by the witnesses.27  The two witnesses, Joshua Hutchinson and Zachariah Higgs, provided the court with a “true copy of the original as far as they can recollect” that was accepted by the court and, in the absence of any objection by the heirs, was recorded the same month.28

The lost original of the will generated several court records beginning in May 1797 that are filed as loose papers in Granville County.29   Among these papers is a note from Stephen Sneed to “Mr. John Hays, Fishing Creek” dated 15 May 1797 that reads: “Enclosed you will receive the order of the last court relative to your father’s will. You I expect have received the necessary direction from Col. Taylor how to proceed.” Joseph Taylor, the attorney for John Hayes, appeared at the May court to request that citations be issued to the heirs to “show cause why the last will & testament of Joshua Hays decd should not be admitted to record.”  The heirs cited were: “Sarah Davis, Olive Moore, Mary Wood, Samuel Hays & John Hays and other heirs of Joseph Hays decd, Patty Haynes, Noel Johnson, Thomas Johnson, Henry Haynes(sic), Joshua Hays, Selia Hays, Mary Inscoe(sic), heirs of Joshua Hays decd.”30  Stephen Hays, Jesse Hays, and Peter F. Farrar were added as heirs in later citations.  The court records separately record subpoenas to these heirs.  One subpoena was issued to Joshua Hutchinson and his wife Susannah and to John Parrish and his wife Elizabeth.31  Another subpoena names the heirs as: “Sarah Davis, Olive More, Mary Wood, Samuel Hays and Jesse Hays and others as heirs of Joseph Hayes. Polly Hayes, Noel Johnson, Thomas Johnson, Henry Hayes, Joshua Hayes, Sealey Hayes, Mary Inscore. Heirs of Joshua Hayes, Zacharia Higgs and Joshua Hutcherson to answer to the court also”.32  All the persons named in these records were identified as residents of Granville County. Note also that the will below does not address the heirs of the deceased elder son Joseph Hayes, which may account for the apparent dispute over the provisions of the will.

The undated restatement of the will of Joshua Hayes was proved at the August 1797 court.33   It left one shilling apiece to “my daughter(s)” Sarah Davis, Hanah Howel, Oliff Moor, Mary Wood, and Pattey Hayes.  One shilling was left to “my daughter in law Sarah Hayes” and one shilling apiece to “my son(s)” Henry Hayes and Joshua Hayes.  Daughter Selah (sic) Hayes received one shilling plus a bed and furniture.  His land and mill, livestock, and personal property were given as a lifetime interest to “my loving wife Selvah Hayes”.   After her death the land and mill were to go to son John Hayes and the rest of the property was to be “equally divided between Patience Johnston, Catharone (sic) Johnston, John Hayes, Selah Hayes and Mary Inscoe” (their relationships to the testator being unstated.) Executors were named as Joshua Hutchinson and John Hayes.  The witnesses were Joshua Hutchinson and Zachariah Higgs.

It appears that his wife Selvah or Silvia was dead by the time the will was proved, for she was not among the heirs subpoenaed. She was surely dead by the 1800 census, for no female aged over 45 appears in the households of the children.

Children:

  1. Joseph Hayes (ca1745 – 1792) He was clearly the eldest son if not the eldest child.34 He was taxed to his father in 1767 but was taxed separately in 1769 and thereafter.  In 1782 he bought a tract of 640 acres near his father on Fishing Creek35 and in 1788 sold 140 acres of it to Thomas Johnston.36  He also appeared adjacent to his father in the 1786 state census and in the 1790 tax list, which substitutes for Granville’s lost 1790 census.  His 1786 household included 1 male age 21-60, four males under 21 and six females.  He died before his father, leaving a will dated 10 June 1792 and proved at the November court 1792 listing “my wife Sarah and all my children Samuel Hayes, Susannah Hutchinson, Jesse Hayes, Stephen Hayes, Temperance Hayes, Simeon Hayes, Mary Hayes, Lucy Hayes, Levice Hayes.” 37

    For a more detailed discussion of his life and children see the separate paper on Joseph Hayes.

  2. Joshua Hayes (c1759 – aft1825) He was first taxed in 1784 as Joshua Hayes “Junior”, helping to clarify his approximate age.  He married Martha Lloyd by bond dated 12 March 1783, with his brother Henry Hayes as security. He is in the 1786 state census with an apparent son and two daughters, listed adjacent to his father.38  He is in the 1800 census of Granville County, aged 26-45, with two sons and one daughter. He was taxed in Granville on 144 acres as early as the mid-1780s and as late as 1793, but was not actually deeded the land by his father until 10 March 1794.39 He sold that land on 27 November 1794 and disappeared from Granville records.40  He is likely the same Joshua Hayes who bought land in Wilkes County, North Carolina on 30 October 1797 and recorded a state grant there on 20 April 1799.41

    There is evidence in family records that he was the same Joshua Hayes located in Knox County, Kentucky a few years later. He is on the 1806 tax list of Knox County,42 was issued a land grant in 180743 and appears in several records there, including the 1810 census.44  He is also mentioned beginning in 1809 in the records of the First Baptist Church of Knox County, and the 1810 marriage of his son Joshua Hayes Jr. is recorded in the same church records.

    He applied for a Revolutionary pension as a resident of Washington County, Indiana in 1823, giving his age as 64 and testifying that he enlisted in Granville County “sometime in the year 1781 or 1782” and served nine months.45  He declared that “he is indigent, infirm and helpless…that his family consists of himself and his wife Martha Hayes aged 60 years.” According to his statement, he was a farmer but had no farm, and was crippled in one foot and had lost the use of one arm.  His belongings were valued at barely more than $100.  The pension was denied on the basis that his service was in the militia rather than the regular army.  A marriage bond for Joshua Hayes and Martha Lloyd (as “Loyd”] is dated 18 March 1783 in Granville, with Henry Hayes bondsman and Reuben Searcy (the clerk of court) a witness.  The 25 May 1792 will of Mary Lloyd gives one shilling to her daughter “Marthy Hase”.46  He was enumerated in the 1820 census of Washington County, Indiana with no children in the household.47  Nearby was his son Joshua Hays Jr.48  Although there were several children, only one is known to me:  Joshua Hayes (c1788 – 1867) who married Lydia Schull in Knox County on 15 July 1810 and appears near his father in the 1810 and 1820 censuses. According to descendants, he married twice more, having children by each marriage, and died in Sullivan County, Indiana.

  3. Henry Hayes (c1759 – 14 March 1815) He is erroneously claimed by some as a Henry Hayes of Wilkes County, North Carolina based on a mis-identification in the book mentioned above.49  According to a Granville County army enlistment record dated 25 May 1778 he was “about 18 years of age, 5 feet 6 inches high, of a med. complexion, a Planter.”50  Henry Hayes was not taxed in 1780 (perhaps not yet 21 or being in military service)) but does appear in surviving tax lists in the Fishing Creek district in 1782, 1784, 1785, and 1787-1791 as a single male poll.  He owned no land, and perhaps worked his father’s mill.  His father Joshua deeded him 50 acres “lying on the west side of Tabbs Creek being a part of my own tract” on 6 November 1792.51  Henry Hayes sold that land barely more than a year later on 10 February 1794 to his brother-in-law Noel Johnston. 52  Later records establish that he was the Henry Hayes who married Mary Payton [Peyton] by bond dated 1 October 1783 and who appeared in the 1786 Granville state census near his father with a wife and one daughter.53  The 1790 census is missing, but he was still in the same district for the 1790 tax list.

    Records of his father’s estate make it clear that Henry Hayes was still living in Granville County in 1797.  He was enumerated in the 1800 census of Granville County, aged over 45, with seven children.54  On 15 December 1806 he mortgaged his household furnishings and livestock, with his son Peyton Hayes a witness.55  Henry Hayes is in the Granville 1810 census as well, with his oldest son Peyton listed separately. 56  He died in Granville County in 1815, but I found no probate records for him.

    On 20 September 1843 in Cannon County, Tennessee his widow Mary Hayes, aged 74, applied for a widow’s pension based on Henry Hayes’ Revolutionary War service which she believed to have included three years as a soldier and two years as a substitute.57  She stated that she married Henry Hayes in October 1783, that he died on 14 March 1815, and that she possessed a Prayer Book in which was written the births of their children.  Her sons Henry Hays and John Hays supported her testimony, adding that Henry Hayes lived and died in “Gravel” [Granville] County, North Carolina.  A copy of the prayer book’s pages were included in the pension file, listing the following children.  The oldest son Peyton Hayes evidently possessed the book at the time, which also listed his marriage to Sally Richerson on 15 April 1811 and the birth of his child Elizabeth F. R. Hayes in 1814. (Peyton Hayes married married Sally P. Richardson in Granville County by bond dated 4 April 1813 with James Hayes the bondsman. The 1825 will of Frances Richardson gives her estate in trust to her sister Sarah Hayes, apparently the same person, except for a feather bed given to her niece Frances Hayes.58 )

    1. Peyton Hayes (4 June 1784 – )
    2. James Hayes (12 November 1786)
    3. Betesy(sic) Hayes (29 November 1788 – )
    4. Thomas Hayes (20 May 1792 – )
    5. Sally Hayes (17 September 1795 – )
    6. Hardy Hayes (20 November 1796 – )
    7. Nancy Hayes (3 February 1799 – )
    8. Henry Hayes (12 October 1800 – )
    9. Mary Hayes (9 December 1802 – )
    10. John Hayes (1 February 1805 – )
    11. Fanney Hayes (21 March 1808 – ) includes the line “wrote by Peyton Hayes”
  4. John Hayes (30 November 1764 – 1849)  See the separate page.  At one time I believed this man to be the father of my ancestor Solomon Hayes.  The separate page explains my error.
  5. Patience Hayes (c1750s? – aft1814)  She was identified as an heir of Joshua Hayes, though not explicitly identified as a daughter, and his estate records identify her husband as Thomas Johnson.  They were married by 1780, as a 12 January 1781 deed for land adjacent to Joshua Hayes was signed by Thomas Johnson and his wife Patience.59   His will was dated 22 September 1806 and proven later that year at the November court.60  The will left the plantation and most of the estate to his wife Patience for life, with legacies and/or reversions to daughters Sally, Patience, Mildred Davis, and Mary Marlen, and to sons William, Thomas, John, and Isaac Johnson (“Isack” in the will.)  Patience Johnston appears in the 1810 census in the Tabb’s Creek district, near several of her presumed brothers and sisters. The household consisted of two males and two females, all 16-26, and one female over 45.  She was taxed in Tabbs Creek district as late as 1814 but not further traced.
  6. Catherine Hayes (c1750s? – ?) Like Patience, she was not explicitly identified as a daughter by Joshua Hayes will, but was much too old to have been a daughter of Joseph Hayes. She was the wife of Noel Johnston (or Johnson). Noel Johnston appears in the 1786 state census for Tabb’s Creek, and in the 1800-1820 censuses. According to descendants, they were the parents of at least one child born by 1781 (James H. Johnston), thus were apparently married by 1780 or so. Other children were Aaron, Noel, and Joshua according to these descendants.
  7. Sarah Hayes (? – ? ) was called “Sarah Davis” in her father’s will. (One published abstract read this name as “Dawson” but it is clearly written as “Davis” in the original records.)
  8. Mary Hayes (c1760 – ? ) Her father’s will calls her “Mary Wood”, as does a summons in the estate file.  There is no marriage bond in Granville county for her, but she appears to have been the wife of Moses Wood, as his second wife.  Moses Wood was taxed in Fishing Creek district in 1780 and evidently paid the tax of Joseph Hayes that year.61  On 12 January 1781 he bought 304 acres adjacent to Joshua Hayes from Thomas Johnson and his wife Patience (Hayes) Johnson, with Joseph Hayes, Joshua Hayes Jr., and Celah Hayes as witnesses.62   Moses Wood and his wife Mary sold the tract on 2 December 1784 and evidently moved to Wake County.63  He was in Wake County when he wrote his will on 5 April 1797, proved in 1804,  naming his wife Mary and eight children.  Mary was evidently the mother of only the later children; It appears that half the children were born well before 1780 and half after, The 1800 census shows the older female in his household in the “over 45” column.
  9. Hannah Hayes (? – ? ) was called “Hanah Howel” in her father’s will.  The identity of her husband is unknown.
  10. Olive Hayes (? – ? ) was variously called “Oliff Moore” in her father’s will and “Olive Moor” in the estate records. The identity of her husband is unknown.
  11. Selah Hayes (? – ? )  Her name appears twice in her father’s will as “Selah” though she later signed at least one document as “Celah”.  She was the “Sella Hayes” who married Hickman Floyd by bond dated 27 December 1799, with John Hayes the bondsman. There is a Hickman Floyd in the 1800 and 1810 census of Granville County, with an apparent wife and no children.  Among the papers in her brother-in-law’s estate is a suit by Thomas Johnston’s executor versus Thomas Johnston in which she was called as a witness. as “Celia” Floyd but signed as “Celah”.  64
  12. Patty Hayes She was unmarried in 1797, and there does not appear to be a marriage record for her in Granville County.
  1. Hayes and Allied Families, Charles Clifton Hayes gives Joshua Hayes a birth date in 1741 in Pennsylvania, though we know he was born two decades or more earlier. []
  2. Isle of Wight County Deed Book 5, page 414. []
  3. Northampton County Deed Book 1, page 264. 50 acres was part of a 1719 patent to Rebecca Braswell and 160 acres from a 1742 patent to Benjamin Williams. []
  4. Northampton County Deed Book 1, also on page 264-5. This was part of the 1742 Williams patent. []
  5. Northampton County Deed Book 1, page 104-5. A deed from James Joyner of Edgecombe County to Samuel Hayes of Northampton County dated 10 January 1743/4 for 50 acres originally granted to Rebecca Braswell on 1 March 1719/20. []
  6. On 1 March 1719/20 Rebecca Braswell was granted 530 acres on the line between Southampton County, Virginia and Bertie County, North Carolina and bordering the Meherrin River.  She later married William Wilson, who sold half of her patent to Thomas Clark and half to Samuel Eldridge a few years later.  Samuel Eldridge sold his half to Benjamin Williams in 1734.  Part of Thomas Clark’s tract ended up in the hands of James Joyner and then Samuel Hayes.  Benjamin Williams enlarged his holding with a grant dated 7 May 1742. []
  7. All three tracts bordered either the “old country line”, (meaning the pre-1728 resurveyed border that would have bordered Braswell’s patent) or the “new country line” (meaning the post-1728 Virginia-NC border that bordered the Williams patent), the banks of the Meherrin River (including the point where the state line crosses the river), Thomas Boykins’ line (which bordered the Braswell patent), a road that crosses the state line, and the Cowpen Branch.  There is only one location that fits these descriptions. []
  8. Northampton County Deed Book 1, also on page 265-6. []
  9. Northampton County Deed Book 2, page 58-59. Her name around the signature mark was written as “Silvia”. []
  10. Northampton County Deed Book 2, page 104. []
  11. Northampton County Deed Book 3, page 122. []
  12. Northampton County Deed Book 3, page 215. []
  13. Ibid. []
  14. Northampton County Deed Book 2, page 81 and Deed Book 2, page 175-6, respectively. []
  15. Granville Grant to Samuel Hayes for 700 acres 26 November 1761. []
  16. Northampton County Will Book 2, pages 129-130. []
  17. Historical Southern Families, Vol. XV, pp 172. []
  18. North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, Vol. 12, No. 3, page 171. []
  19. Granville County Deed Book H. page 224. []
  20. Granville County Deed Book M, page 84. []
  21. Granville County Deed Book O, page 298. []
  22. Granville County Deed Book N, page 139. []
  23. Granville County Deed Book P, page 50. []
  24. Granville County Deed Book Q, page 33. []
  25. Abstracts of Granville County, NC, “Unrecorded Wills 1746-1771”, p9. []
  26. Granville County Deed Book F, page 143-4, a deed by Jonathan White dated 13 May 1763. []
  27. Granville County Court Minutes 1796-1799, page 233. []
  28. Granville County Will Book 4, pages 132-133. []
  29. Granville Estate Records, NC Archives (loose papers), call number CR 044.508.77 []
  30. Ibid. []
  31. Minute Book 1796-1799, p201 as abstracted in Abstracts of Granville County, NC, p152. []
  32. Minute Book 1796-1799, p223 as abstracted in Abstracts of Granville County, NC, p153. []
  33. Granville County Will Book 4, pages 132-133. []
  34. One correspondent suggested to me that he may have been a brother of Joshua Hayes, based on the sequence of their deaths.  However, the subpoenas issued in the settlement of the estate of Joshua Hayes make it clear that Joseph’s children were heirs of Joshua, something that could only be the case if they were his grandchildren.  There are several other obvious reasons to reject that theory. []
  35. Granville County Deed Book O, page 179. []
  36. Granville County Deed Book N, page 129. []
  37. Granville County Will Book 3, page 13-14. []
  38. 1 male 21-60, 1 male under 21 or over 60, 3 females.  He is listed as Joshua Hayes Jr., adjacent to Joshua Hayes Sr. []
  39. Granville County Deed Book P, page 50. []
  40. Granville County Deed Book P, page 205. []
  41. Wilkes County Deed Book D, page 283 and Deed Book C-1, page 547 respectively. []
  42. Listed adjacent to Willis Hays, perhaps a son. []
  43. The Kentucky Land Grants, Volume 1 “ Grants South Of Green River 1797-1866”, p328. []
  44. Household: 00001-01001, near his son Joshua Hays Jr. 10100-00100. []
  45. Pension File R4792. []
  46. Granville County Will Book 3, page 33. []
  47. Joshua Hays Sr.’s household: 000001-00001. []
  48. Joshua Hays Jr. 310010-00100. []
  49. See Hayes and Allied Families, Charles Clifton Hayes. []
  50. A description list of six men raised under the present Act of Assembly in Capt. Saml Fowler’s Compy No. 2.”, found among loose Granville County papers in NC Archives. []
  51. Granville County Deed Book N, page 139. []
  52. Granville County Deed Book P, page 106. []
  53. He is listed 25 names from his father, as Henry Hayes Jr.  Henry Hayes Sr., perhaps relative, is listed consecutively with Joshua Hays Sr. and Jr. []
  54. Henry Hayes:  31001-21010 []
  55. Granville County Deed Book T, page 135. []
  56. Household:  31101-30010.  This census includes a land holding, Henry Hayes being shown with 100 acres. Peyton Hayes was listed separately. []
  57. Pension #W14. []
  58. Granville County WIll Book 10, page 99. []
  59. Granville County Deed Book O, page 122. []
  60. The Wills and Estate Records of Granville County, North Carolina 1746-1808,  Zae Hargett Gwynn (Joseph W. Watson, 1973) page 298. []
  61. See the records page for the text of the 1780 tax list entry for Moses Wood. []
  62. Granville County Deed Book O, page 122. []
  63. Granville County Deed Book O, page 356. []
  64. Granville County Loose Estate records, file “Johnston Thomas 1807” []