Legend of Rachel Ragan

Hance Hendrick II (1690s – 1773) had a wife named Rachel, as his will gave her a life estate.1  Her maiden name is unknown.

A number of internet family trees and genealogies identify her as “Rachel Ragan”.  This is a somewhat bizarre distortion of the information in an 1893 book that identifies Rachel Ragan as the wife of his great-grandson, who was also named Hance Hendrick.2

That 1893 publication contains a biographical statement by Humphrey G. Hendrick that says his father Hance Hendrick (1795-1869) married “Rachel Ragan a native of Georgia” and moved from Laurens District, South Carolina to Talladega County, Alabama in 1833.   That Hance Hendrick was the son of William Wynne Hendrick, grandson of Hance Hendrick III, and the great-grandson of Hance Hendrick II.  It isn’t clear how his wife became confused with the wife of his great-grandfather, but the confusion has been perpetuated by a number of internet genealogies.

  1. Amelia County Will Book 2, p97. []
  2. Memorial Record of Alabama, (Brant & Fuller, printers, 1893), pp963-4 . []