TWO:  BURNS(ES) AND HEDGES(ES)

"SFA" stands for the Smith Family Archives, assembled and transcribed over many years by Leanna Lois Claudia Smith, daughter of Alonzo; her great-nieces Mellie Morris Smith (daughter of Herbert Gustavus) and Gertrude Fairchild Smith (daughter of Maurice Leigh); and great-great-niece Mildred Aileen Nash (neé Mellie Agnes Smith: daughter of Francis See).

"DCB" stands for correspondence with David Coulon Burns, webmaster of the RootsWeb megasite ~burns/dcb—who cautions that the designations Sr., Jr., and III used below and in later chapters were not likely to have been used by any of the fathers/sons sharing a first name (except for King George).  In most cases the present author has tried to indicate this with [square brackets].

Great Britain and its American colonies did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar until 1752.  Years began on March 25th; the last day of the previous year was March 24th.  This is reflected below in winter dates displayed with split years: e.g. "January 1, 1751/52."  (Other split years may indicate uncertainty as to an exact year.)

           B-2    The Early Hedgeses
 

  
● The Migrating Paterfamilias

Concerning the earliest Hedgeses±, some resources provide a sensibly broad view.  The Joseph Project has assembled a composite (and contradictory) timeline for the hard-to-pin-down paterfamilias, with "known data alternatives" for his conceivable parentage and possible wives.  ~shawhan presents "several conflicting traditions... represented in articles on the Hedges family," while ~gbnf/I679 and its links enable a survey of several generations.  ~marylandhedges details the family's history in that state, and ~rawl includes two small vintage maps.

The present author's aim here and in Chapter B-5 is to not to document every last possible Hedges, but to focus (in a broadly sensible way) on how/where/when they interlaced with the Burnses and Van Metres, and ultimately the Smiths.

According to most accounts, Joseph Hedges [Sr.] was born in England circa 1670/75: the son of William Hedges and Mary [surname?], who were granted a lot in New Castle County, Delaware on January 3, 1677/78.  (Other, more legendary ancestries have been proposed, including a claim that Joseph "was a lineal descendant of Sir Charles Hedges, one of the Secretaries of State under Queen Anne of England, and a member of the British Parliament."±±  Joseph's descendants supposedly employed Henry Clay himself to investigate this possibility, believing "there was a fortune laying in England waiting for them to demand"—as per the Joseph Project's Bibliography, which presents accurate and farfetched sources alike.  (See the Notes below for a selection.)

New Castle is the northernmost of Delaware's three counties (click on the thumbnail to the left to see an 1889 map).  Originally a Swedish settlement, its name wavered in the 1670s between "New Amstel" and "New Castle" as the Dutch and English sought control.  England won out in 1674; eight years later the Duke of York leased the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" to William Penn.  His provincial assembly would hold alternate meetings in New Castle and Philadelphia (in the "Upper Counties") till 1704 when Delaware and Pennsylvania's assemblies separated, though still sharing one colonial governor.

Some Hedges chronicles show Joseph and his (older?) brother Charles Hedges as born in Delaware; others document their being christened at Shrivenham (aka "Shrivingham") in Berkshire in 1675/76, before coming to America.  Either way, their father William died intestate in New Castle County circa December 1678, and their mother Mary appeared as a widow in January 1679 court records:

Mary the Late Widdow of William Hodges deceased this day apeared in Court whoe declared to have putt out hur son Charles hodges of about 5 Jeares of adge, unto Thomas Jacobs of Bread & Cheese Ysland for the full space and terme of Twelve Jears now next Ensuing, Thomas Jacobs Lykewyse apearing in Court did aknowledge to have taken the said Chyld for the abovesaid terme of 12 years; during which tyme hee doth promisse & Ingage to find the said boy with sufficient meat drink apparill washing and Lodgeing, and att the end of the 12 Jears to give to the boy a Cowe and Calfe, and doth further promis to Instruct him (if hee the said Jacobs Lives and that the boy is Capable of itt) in the trade of a wheele Right, and that his son Oele Tomas [aka Olle Thomasson] shall Larne the said boy to Reed as much as hee can teach him.

Thomas Jacobs aka Jacobsson was said to be a Finnish Swede, living on "Bread & Cheese Island" in the Christina River.  Young Charles Hedges seems to have proved himself capable; in 1699 he helped build Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church in Fort Christina—the future Wilmington, Delaware.  Over three centuries later Holy Trinity remains "the nation's oldest church building still standing as originally built.  It is still in regular use for worship" (~oldswedes).

As for Joseph Hedges, he may have accompanied Charles to Bread & Cheese Island; nothing is known for certain till 1701, when he appeared on a tax list as an adult.  Then on September 8, 1702 he requested a land warrant for 100 acres on Red Clay Creek in Mill Creek Hundred: "Joseph Hedges of New Castle County requests 100 acres at the head of the Tract formerly taken up by Geo. Hogg on new Rent, and now entred upon by some Dutch Men, Situated upon Red Clay Creek, for which he agreed to pay £20 upon the Confirmation.  Rent 1 Shelling per 100; 1st 11 months" (as cited in the Joseph Project's Bibliography).  For this he was granted certificate of survey on April 4, 1703; the following year his brother Charles was granted 96 acres in the same area.

"Joseph Hedges was English, but—notwithstanding elaborate claims to the contrary—no substantiated tie has ever been established to a marriage in England or to his antecedents there," states ~marylandhedges.  Nevertheless, chronicles tend to place Joseph in Kingswood, Wiltshire in January 1708/09, marrying Mary Fettleplace aka Fettiplace.  They had two children, either in Britain or back in Delaware:

* Solomon Hedges:  born c.1710 †
* Charles Hedges:  born c.1712 ‡

Their mother evidently died during or soon after Charles's birth, since Joseph married again in September 1713.  By his second wife—listed variously as Catherine Land, Catherine Tingey aka Tingley, or Catherine Stalcop (aka Stallcop aka Stalcup aka Katherina Johnsdotter Stalcop: see the Notes below)—Joseph had seven more children, the first in New Castle County and the rest in neighboring Chester County, Pennsylvania:

* Joshua Hedges:  born April 14, 1714/15 §
* Jonas Hedges:  born 1716/17 ††
* Joseph Hedges [Jr.]:  born 1718/19 ‡‡
* Samuel Hedges:  born 1720/21
* Ruth Hedges:  born 1722/23 §§
* Catherine Hedges:  born 1724/25
* Dorcas Hedges:  born 1726/27

By 1722 Joseph Hedges [Sr.] appeared on the tax list for Chester County's New Garden Township, just north of New Castle County; and in March 1723 he bought 200 acres just to the west in London Grove Township (created that year).  But "although now well advanced in years and with a family nearly grown" (~marylandhedges) Joseph had not yet finished migrating.  On April 22, 1730 he sold his land in Pennsylvania and moved south to Maryland, where on July 1st he had 258 acres surveyed on the Monocacy River in Prince George's County, five or six miles north of where the town of Frederick MD would be laid out fifteen years later.  Joseph called this estate "Hedge Hogg" or "Hedges Hogg," and there he wrote his will on September 6, 1732.  As transcribed by the Joseph Project it reads as follows:

I, Joseph Hedges of Manaquicy in Prince Georges County in Maryland do recommend my soul into the hands of God and profess faith in full and free pardon of his sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I order my body be decently buried at the discretion of the Executor, and all my debts be paid in convenient time after my decease by my Executor.
     I give and bequeath to my well beloved son Solomon Hedges whom I likewise constitute make and ordain Executor of this my Last Will and Testament a certain tract of land computed to be 258 [exact number unclear] acres lying up Manaquicy Creek on the West side of said Creek.
     I give unto Charles Hedges and Joshua Hedges, my 2 sons, each of them, two hundred acres of land at Opeckon [or Opecken] to be cleared and paid for out of my estate and effects.
     My will is that my Executors Solomon Hedges and Charles Hedges shall purchase 400 acres of land at Opecken which shall be equally divided between my two sons Jonas Hedges and Joseph.
     My Will is that my Executors above named do purchase one hundred and ninety acres on Manaquicy out of my estate and effects for my son Samuel Hedges.
     I give unto my Daughter Ruth my gray mair and colt and to my Daughter Cathren a young brown mear and to my daughter Dorcas a young sorrel mear and to my son Joseph a dark bay mear and colt. I give to my son Samuel by brown mear and colt.
     And my will is that what remains of my estate stock and effects with household goods and furniture be equally divided amongst my children and wife.

Joseph signed this with his mark, and died by November 29, 1732 (when the will was probated before the court of Prince George's County).  His widow Catherine is said to have married Isaac Bloomfield by 1740, herself dying in 1749.

● Marylanders

"At first the family seems to have stayed put," says ~marylandhedges, though "it would appear that a move to Virginia was contemplated for at least some of the family almost before roots could be established in Maryland."

Yet second son ‡ Charles Hedges [Sr.] would remain there—except for a 1736 sidetrack to Delaware's Old Swedes Church to marry Mary Stille aka Stilley (1715-1765: daughter of Jacob and Rebecca Stille[y]).  They would have eight children in Frederick County MD:

* Jacob Hedges:  born 1738; married Catherine Justis at Old Swedes Church in 1763; had three children; died 1811 in Waynesburg, Greene County PA
* Moses Hedges [Sr.]:  born circa 1740; married Mary Green Wood in 1766; had nine children; died 1782 in Frederick County MD
* Joseph E. Hedges [Sr.]:  born 1743; married Sarah Biggs in 1770; had nine children; served in the Continental Army 1777-80; moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1792; died there at Stony Point in 1804
* Rachel Hedges:  born 1745; no other info
* Susannah Hedges:  born 1747; married Isaac Julien in 1768; had one child
* Charles Hedges [Jr.]:  born 1749; in 1766 married his cousin Rebecca Hedges (1751-1831: of whom see more below); had six children (including Josiah Hedges, the "founder of Tiffin"±); did military duty 1777-78; died 1831 in Brooke County VA
* Absolom Hedges [Sr.]:  born 1752; married Easle Craig; had two children; died 1841 in Bethlehem PA
* Shadrack Hedges:  born 1753; married Mary M. Dickerson in 1782 and had five children, then married Mary Miller; died 1846 in Greene County PA

On May 8, 1740 Charles purchased his brother Solomon's homestead "Hedges Delight" for fifty pounds, and witnessed Solomon's sale of Hedge Hogg that same day to Jacob Neff (aka Kneff, Nafe, and Naff).  In 1742 Charles became one of the tenants of Monocacy Manor: "land set aside for settlement, whereupon a community could be built by others, who would pay rentals directly to the agents of Lord Baltimore" (~gbnf/I670).  During the 1740s and '50s Charles bought other tracts adjoining Hedges Delight.  After his first wife's death, he married Isabella Kirk aka Isabella Wirk in 1769—"she was at least 35 years his junior," murmurs ~marylandhedges—and had six more children:

* Isaac Hedges:  born 1770; married Barbara I. Staley in 1802; died 1842
* Samuel Hedges:  born 1772; died before 1812
* Ruth Hedges:  born 1774; died 1810
* Margaret Hedges:  born 1776; married George Fulton
* Hannah Hedges:  born 1778; married George Burkhart
* Dorcas Hedges:  born 1780; died before 1843

Charles Hedges [Sr.] died in December 1795, and his lot at Monocacy Manor was mutually inherited by son Charles Jr. and his wife/cousin Rebecca.  Her father—Charles's half-brother, ‡‡ Joseph Hedges [Jr.]—also remained in Maryland and became a tenant on Monacacy Manor, marrying Mary Beckenbaugh.  After his death on April 10, 1753, brother Charles raised Joseph's only child Rebecca, who "in storybook fashion married her first cousin Charles Hedges [Jr.]" (says ~marylandhedges; it must have been a consanguine storybook).

Like Charles and Joseph, their sister Catherine Hedges stayed in the Monocacy area; she married first Jacob Julien circa 1744, then Joseph Wood circa 1747; she died after 1782.  Two other siblings, Samuel Hedges and Dorcas Hedges, appear to have died young and unmarried.

● 1738: On to the Opequon

Joseph Sr.'s will directed his sons to Opequon Creek in what was then Orange County, Virginia.  Settlement of this area had only just begun: John Van Metre, Indian Trader crossed the Potomac in 1725 and recommended the region to his sons John and Isaac, who soon obtained grants to large tracts of local wilderness.  Morgan Morgan established western Virginia's first permanent habitation in 1726, on Mill Creek near Bunker Hill; a year later German immigrants founded Mecklenburg (the future Shepherdstown).  In 1731 Hans Yost Heydt—aka Jost Hite, Shenandoah Pioneer—passed through the area with fifteen families from York PA on their way to Winchester.  Frederick County VA would be created out of Orange in 1738, but "the new county lacked sufficient tithables to support itself" so formal establishment did not take place until 1743.  "In the interim, the first significant group of new settlers had arrived from Pennsylvania [and] Maryland...  They followed the well-worn Indian trail along the Opequon Valley" (~frederick).

A couple of centuries further on, the Ohio Hedges would consider themselves as belonging to one of the FFVs: First Families of Virginia.  But membership in that exclusive set is generally limited to those who arrived before 1660, and our Hedgeses—three sons of Joseph Sr., followed by one daughter—didn't show up until 1738.  Once there, though, they and their offspring would do a lot of mingling (marital and otherwise) with other clans familiar to Fine Lineage.

● Solomon and Rebecca

In 1733 Joseph's eldest son † Solomon Hedges had "Hedges Delight" surveyed on 192 acres near Tuscarora Creek, three miles southwest of his father's estate Hedge Hogg.  For several years Solomon took part in life on the Monocacy, and circa 1735 he married Rebecca Van Metre (c.1711-c.1770: fourth child of John Van Metre, Indian Trader but his eldest by second wife Margaret Molenaur).  Rebecca and Solomon would have six children:

* Silas Hedges:  born 1736 in Frederick County MD; married first a Miss Mummy, then Margaret Hoagland aka Hoageland; had nine children; fought in the French and Indian War and as a colonel in the Revolution; was a justice of the peace in Ohio County VA; died there at Buffalo Creek in 1811
* Joseph Hedges:  born c.1738 in Frederick County MD; married Margaret Van Metre (of unspecified parentage) in 1763; had eleven children; lived in Brooke County VA; died 1821
* Joshua Hedges:  born 1744; relocated to Marietta OH; died c.1790/93
* Rachel Hedges:  born c.1745, married William Vause in 1763; had eight or nine children
* Catherine Hedges:  born 1748, married George McCullough, had five children, died before 1801
* Rebecca Hedges:  born 1750; married James Connel; had five children; died 1851, aged over one hundred

In April 1738 Solomon purchased 275 acres "lying on the west side of Sherundo [the Shenandoah] River and Opequon Creek on a branch of the Hangaloota [Potomac] called Tullises Branch" (~vm/smyth page 44).  Tullises Branch on Harlan Run also appears as "Tulisses," "Tulusses," "Tulis," and "Tully's" Branch; it is described as "the stream that lies at the foot of the mountain east of present Hedgesville" in Don C. Wood's "The Early Hedges, Their Lands and Homes" (viewable at ~shawhan).

Solomon served as a J.P. and county coroner during the 1740s.  When young George Washington was surveying northern Frederick County VA for Lord Fairfax in 1748, he "traveled up ye Creek to Solomon Hedges, Esq., one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for ye County of Frederick."  By 1778 Solomon would join his son Silas on Buffalo Creek in Ohio County, in the Northern Panhandle; here too he served as a J.P.  Solomon Hedges wrote his will in January 1797 and died in December 1801.

● Joshua and Elizabeth

§ Joshua Hedges [Sr.]'s story is presented in great detail by ~hedges/aqwg01 and /aqwg02, with some addenda from ~gbnf/I682.  Like Solomon, Joshua and his brother Jonas moved to Tullises/Tulisses Branch in Orange (later Frederick, then Berkeley) County VA circa 1738.  On February 10, 1743 Joshua married Elizabeth Chapline (born November 14, 1722 in Prince George's County MD: daughter of William Chapline and Elizabeth Riley).  They had seven-to-nine children:

* Joshua Hedges [Jr.]:  born 1744; married Mary Vincenheller in 1780; had eleven children; died in 1804 after relocating to Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio
* Abigail Hedges:  born 1746; married Mathias Swaim c.1767/68; had five children; died c.1830 in Tuscarawas County OH
* Samuel Hedges [Sr.]:  born 1748; married Rebecca [surname?] c.1770; had nine children (including Joseph Hedges [1780-1821: married Rebecca Burns, daughter of John, son of William Burns Sr.—click here for more], as well as Josiah Hedges [1772-1849] and Ruth A. Hedges [1786/87-1845], of whom see more below); built a long-lasting stone house in the 1770s; fought in the Revolution; died 1824 in Berkeley County VA
* Elizabeth Hedges:  born c.1750; not included in ~hedges/aqwg01
* Joseph Hedges:  born 1752; married Tillie Lambert in 1777; died 1830 in Berkeley County VA; not included in ~hedges/aqwg01
* Solomon Hedges:  born 1754/58; married Sarah Vincenheller (aka Vincenhellar aka Vinsonheller) in 1789; had eight children; died 1823 in Berkeley County VA
* Jesse Hedges [Sr.]:  born c.1755; married Rachel Evans (1773-1833: daughter of Isaac Evans and Alsie [surname?]; click here for more); had seven children; migrated to Fairfield County OH by 1806; died there in 1815
* Mary Hedges:  born c.1756; died 1797 in Berkeley County VA
* Anna Hedges:  born March 24, 1761; of whom see more below

A month before marrying Elizabeth, Joshua purchased 1,020 acres on Tullises/Tulisses Branch for 46 pounds; then in 1754 he received a grant from Lord Fairfax for 391 acres "on the South side of North Mountain."  Here in 1769 Joshua was twice visited by George Washington, traveling with wife Martha and stepdaughter Patsy to Warm Springs aka Medicinal Springs, later named Bath; today's Berkeley Springs WV.  According to Washington's diary, the first visit was on August 5th ("Bated at Opeckon and lodged at Joshua Hedges") and the second on September 9th ("Set out on my return home about 8 o'clock but broke the Chariot and made it 11 before we got a Mile.  Reached Joshua Hedges").  In 1832 the town of Hedgesville would be founded on Joshua's estate, along Warm Springs Road at this much-traveled gap in North Mountain.

Joshua Hedges's will, written on December 31, 1789 and filed after its author's death in county court on February 16, 1790, is given in full by ~hedges/aqwg01:

In the name of God Amen, I Joshua Hedges of Berkeley County and State of Virginia being weak in body but of sound mind and memory thanks be to almighty God for it do make and publish this my Last will and Testament in manner and form following.  That is to say, To wit:
     I bequeath to my beloved wife Elizabeth Hedges the house wherein I now live with one third of the plantation whereon it stands also her bed and furniture, one riding creature and saddle and three slaves namely, Chloe, Peter and Molley, the above gift to be my wife's during her natural life.
     I bequeath to my son Joshua Hedges one Negro girl named Judith it being with what I have already given him his part of my Estate.
     I give to my son Samuel Hedges the sum of five shillings it being with what I have before given him his part of my estate.
     I devise to my son Solomon Hedges his heirs and assignees forever one tract of two hundred and ninety acres it being the land whereon he now lives.
     I devise to my son Jesse Hedges the remaining two thirds of the tract whereon I now live and at the decease of my widow the other third with the house and everything there unto belonging reserving to my daughter Mary Hedges the privilege of living in the house during the time of her living unmarried but if my son Jesse Hedges shall decease without issue lawfully begotten on his body it is my will that the said tract of land shall be equally divided between his surviving brothers and sisters, I also give to my said son three of my horses with my wagon and gears two plows with the tackle thereunto belonging and after the decease of my widow the three slaves which I have left to her during her life.
     I bequeath to my daughter Abigail Swim 29 pounds Pennsylvania Currency, one horse and saddle, one feather bed and furniture and two cows and a Negro boy named George to be hers during her natural life and after her decease to my son Jesse and his heirs.
     I bequeath to my daughter Ann Robertson [sic] 45 pounds Pennsylvania Currency.
     I further give to my beloved wife Elizabeth Hedges four cows and one Steer besides what I have before mentioned.  It is further my will that if the Negro woman Chloe which I have bequeathed to my wife shall have children during the life of my said wife that the first born belong to my son Samuel Hedges [the second] to my son Solomon Hedges and the third to my daughter Anna Robertson [sic], and I hereby appoint my two sons Joshua Hedges and Jesse Hedges Executors of this my last will and Testament revoking all wills by me heretofore made ratifying this and no other to be my Last Will and Testament.
     In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the 31st day of December 1789.

Sons Joshua Jr. and Samuel had each been sold 200 acres of Joshua's estate back in 1772.  Elizabeth Chapline Hedges died in Berkeley County on July 14, 1794; and in 1801 son Jesse Hedges, "for reasons satisfactory to myself, [did] liberate a Negro woman named Chloe aged 33 years."

● Jonas and Agnes

Joshua's brother and neighbor †† Jonas Hedges lived on Tullises/Tulisses Branch from 1738 to his death circa 1787.  Around 1735 he had married Agnes "Angelitje" Powelson aka Poulson, the sister of Rebecca Powelson who married Johannes Van Metre [Sr.]  After the death of Johannes (and Rebecca?) their two children, Joanna and Johannes Jr., were raised by Jonas and Agnes; Jonas would be named their legal guardian in 1747, to help secure their legacies from grandfather John Van Metre, Indian Trader.  Joanna would go on to marry William Burns [Sr.], of whom see more in Chapter B-1.

Jonas and Agnes had nine children of their own:

* Benjamin Hedges:  born 1738; married (whom?) and had eleven children; died 1805
* Joseph Hedges:  born c.1738; married Elizabeth Rawlings; had five children (one of whom, Agnes Hedges, married George Burns son of William Burns [Sr.] and Joanna Van Metre—click here for more); served as a (military?) captain
* James Hedges:  born 1755; married Elizabeth Kennedy; no other info
* Samuel Hedges aka Samuel Hedges II:  born 1757 (some say 1740); married Mary Tabb in 1783; inherited the home plantation, according to ~shawhan; had twelve children (including Jonas Hedges, of whom see more below); then married Nancy Wolgmot Harris in 1807 and had four more children; died 1822
* Catherine Hedges:  born when?; married Jacob Julien; no other info
* Rachel Hedges:  no info
* Elizabeth Hedges:  no info
* Jane Hedges:  no info
* Rebecca Hedges:  no info

Jonas died circa 1787 after writing the following will (provided by ~watsgw/hedges):

In the Name of God Amen, I Jonas Hedges of the County of Berkeley and State of Virginia being in perfect health and memory at present thanks be to God for the same.  Calling to mind the mortality of my body knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die do make and ordain this my last will and testament.  My soul I recommend into the hands of God that gave it and my body at my death to the earth to be buried in decent Christian like manner at the discretion of my executor—and as touching those things & estate whereof it hath been pleased God to bless me with in this life I give and dispose of in the following manner and form.
     First, I give and bequeath to my well beloved wife, Agnes, one sorrel mare or in case the mare should die before my decease instead thereof the sum of 10 pounds and her choice of any one of my cattle this to be hers or to whom she may please to dispose them to, likewise all the remainder of my moveable affects during her life and at her decease these to be sold, the money equally divided among all my children.
     Secondly, I give my eldest son, Benjamin Hedges, one dividend of my moveable estate which is all allowed him and his full share of my estate.  And further I constitute and appoint my two sons, Joseph Hedges and Samuel Hedges to be the executors of this my last will and testament ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament in testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 9th day of February 1787.

● Ruth and Abraham

Some suggest that §§ Ruth Hedges was the widow of a Mr. Bentley in 1742, when she married Abraham Van Metre [Sr.] (c.1721-c.1783: ninth child of John Van Metre, Indian Trader and the sixth by second wife Margaret Molenaur).  Abraham's eldest full-sister Rebecca had married Ruth's eldest brother Solomon about seven years earlier.

From his father Abraham inherited 100 acres on the Opequon.  To this he added other tracts, included 237 acres called "Allans Hill" that he purchased from Jost Hite, Shenandoah Pioneer.  "Abraham, like all of the Van Metres who were famous grazers and cattle traders, had extensive business relations with the frontier posts that were established along the borders during the advance of the settlers toward the Ohio Valley" (~vm/smyth page 96).

Ruth and Abraham had six children, half of whom appear (one with the wrong first name) in a book of "Abraham and Ruth Hedges Vanmeter Descendants" compiled circa 1882.  This was published in Issue 10 (1981) of the Berkeley County Historical Society's Berkeley Journal, and is reproduced by ~vm/descendants "exactly as spelled and capitalized in [the original] book":

1 Jacob V. married Isabel Evins daughter of John Evans
2 Abraham V. married Betsy Burns
Ruth married Wm. Gorrel

A complete list of all six:

* Joseph Van Meter [Sr.]:  born c.1740/43; married Margaret Morgan (said to be his first cousin) and/or Drusilla Morgan; had nine children†††; was active as an appraiser in the newly-created Ohio County VA; either drowned in the Ohio River c.1780/81 (see Notes for details) or lived until 1823
* Jacob Van Meter [Sr.]:  born c.1744/45; of whom see more in Chapter B-3
* Mary Ann Van Meter:  born 1745; circa 1769 married William S. Gorrell [Sr.]; had nine children‡‡‡; died September [day?] 1802 in Berkeley County VA
* Rebecca Van Meter:  born 1746; married first John Spahn, then Joseph Morgan; had eight children; died 1804 in Ohio County VA
* Isaac Van Meter:  born 1747; circa 1767 married Mary Burns (born c.1745, so would not appear to be the daughter [born c.1769] of William Burns Sr. who married an Isaac Van Meter of unspecified parentage); had eight children; died 1807 in Madison County, Kentucky 
* Abraham Van Meter [Jr.]:  born 1751: married Elizabeth "Betsy" Burns (1753-1831: daughter of William Burns [Sr.] and Jo(h)anna Van Meter); had nine children (click here for more); died c.1834/39

Ruth Hedges Van Meter died circa 1751 in Martinsburg.  Her husband Abraham Sr. then married Martha Roberts Wheeler and had four more children:

* John Van Meter:  born 1752; married first Rebecca [surname]?, then Jamima Dunn Bukey; died 1803
* Daniel Van Meter: born when? married Ruth Harp in 1792; inherited the family homestead on the Opequon
* Ruth Van Meter:  born c.1760; married Reuben Foreman in 1777 and "went west"; later married Benjamin Hammitt, then in 1791 John Matt Nichols; died 1824
* Hannah Van Meter:  born when?; married Providence Mounts aka Mounce in 1785; died when?

Aged almost sixty, Abraham Sr. served in a militia company under George Rogers Clark on an expedition against the Shawnees in the summer of 1780.  Perhaps not coincidentally, he wrote a will dated December 21st of that year; following his death it was probated November 18, 1783.  In it no mention was made of second wife Martha, who presumably predeceased him. 

● Some Robinsons and Tabbs

Joshua and Elizabeth's daughter Anna Hedges was born March 24, 1761 in Berkeley County VA.  On March 24, 1785 she married Alexander Robinson (1749-1811: aka "Robertson" in Joshua's will).  They had eight children, all born in Berkeley County VA:

* John Robinson:  born c.1786; no other info
* James H. Robinson:  born c.1788; in 1814 married his cousin Ruth A. Hedges (1786/87-1845: daughter of Joshua's son Samuel Hedges); died 1844 in Berkeley County VA; James was buried in Back Creek Cemetery, and wife Ruth in Hedgesville's Mt. Zion Episcopal Cemetery
* Joshua Robinson:  born c.1790; no other info
* Alexander Robinson [Jr.]:  born 1791; died 1866; buried in Hedgesville
* Elizabeth Robinson:  born May 26, 1793: of whom see more below and in Chapter B-5
* Samuel Robinson:  born 1795; in 1840 married his cousin Rebecca Hedges Alexander (1807-1881: see the Notes regarding their relationship); had one child, James Alexander Robinson (1841-1843); died 1853 and was buried in Hedgesville
* Ann Robinson:  born when?; married a Mr. Brandiff; no other info
* Mary Robinson:  born when?; married a Mr. Labin; no other info

Anna Hedges Robinson died in April 1817; she and Alexander were buried in Hedgesville's Mt. Zion Episcopal Cemetery (as per ~shawhan).

Meanwhile: Jonas and Agnes's son Samuel Hedges [II] was born in 1757—or 1740, according to ~hedges/bailey.  On June 26, 1783 he married Mary "Mollie" Tabb (born February 20, 1768 in Kingston Parish, Gloucester County VA: daughter of Robert Tabb and Elizabeth Elliott; see ~tabbusa for an overview of this prominent Opequon family).  Mary and Samuel had twelve children:

* Joseph Hedges:  born December 12, 1784; died 1834
* Robert Hedges:  born 1786; no other info
* Jonas Hedges:  born January 20, 1790 (as per ~champaign/d0005, confirmed by ~mumper; though findagrave.com says Jan. 2nd): of whom see more below and in Chapter B-5
* Samuel T. Hedges:  born August 17, 1791; died March 2, 1880 in Champaign County OH
* Baily Hedges aka Bailey Tabb Hedges:  born 1792; married Sarah Lemen
* Elizabeth Hedges:  born 1795; no other info 
* Seaton Elliott Hedges:  born May 19, 1796; relocated to Champaign County OH in 1817 (as per ~history/champaign); married a daughter of Robert Miller of Kentucky, and had a daughter Eliza M. Hedges who married first a Mr. Crabill, then Thomas Denton Crow in 1868
* William Hedges:  born September 18, 1798; no other info
* Mary Hedges: no info
* Anna Hedges: no info
* Isabella Hedges:  no info
* Harriet Hedges: no info

Mary Tabb Hedges died before 1807; Samuel Hedges then married Nancy Wolgmot Harris (born 1778) and had four more children:

* Sally Hedges: married Levi M. Backus in 1835 (according to ~shawhan)
* Isabel Hedges: born when?; married Absalom Thatcher in 1828
* Enoch G. Hedges:  born 1814; married Jane Robinson in 1840; had two children; was a quartermaster for the Confederate Army (and after the war got sued by area residents for $2,000 in confiscated supplies); sold the home plantation to his brother John W.; buried in Hedgesville
* John W. Hedges: built a plastered brick house on the home plantation in 1879

(~hedges/bailey lists these last three among Mary Tabb's children, replacing Anna, Isabella, and Harriet; and says John W. was been born in 1792, marrying Elizabeth Evens [sic] in 1820 in Champaign County OH.  ~hedges/bailey also includes a Mary Tabb Hedges [born September 22, 1814; died March 1, 1888 in Clark County OH] who appears to have been confused with Jonas and Elizabeth's daughter of the same name.)

Samuel Hedges died December 9, 1822 (according to ~hedges/bailey) on Tullises/Tulisses Branch in Berkeley County VA; his widow Nancy died in 1856.

Elizabeth Robinson married her second cousin Jonas Hedges on November 11, 1812.  Six years later they relocated to Urbana Township in Champaign County, Ohio; and there we will rejoin them in Chapter B-5.

            Notes

± The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames (by Basil Cottle, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967, p. 135) defines the surname Hedges as "of (i.e. at) the hedge... found mainly in the counties around Bucks"—i.e. Buckinghamshire (where William Penn was born, and after which he named Bucks County PA).  Berkshire, where Joseph Hedges [Sr.] may have been born and christened, is just south of Buckinghamshire.
±± History of Seneca County, Ohio (Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886), p. 780; viewable at ~history/seneca.  This actually focuses on Joseph Hedges's great-grandson Josiah Hedges, "founder of Tiffin," who was the son of Charles Hedges [Jr.] and his cousin Rebecca.

††† Joseph Van Meter
How you list the nine children of Joseph Van Meter [Sr.] depends on whether you accept ~vm/smyth's legend of his drowning in the Ohio River c.1780/81.  However, ~burns/dcb says he lived until 1823, which enables several children to be born in the 1790s—and one as late as 1815, when Joseph would have been over seventy.  ~burns/dcb does accept ~vm/smyth's 1770s birthdates for two sons, and a 1797 marriage date for a third.  This wide gap in ages might be explained by Joseph's having married both Margaret Morgan and Drusilla Morgan (which rather perplexed ~vm/smyth).  The roster below is a composite from ~burns/dcb and ~vm/smyth pp 105-107:
     * Joseph Van Meter [Jr.]:  born 1770; married Mary Jolly c.1791/95; had four children; relocated to Highland County, Ohio in 1796, and while there was wounded by Indians; circa 1805 moved on to Indiana, living first in Fayette County and then c.1824 in Delaware County; died 1841 and was buried in "Van Matre" Cemetery, Mount Pleasant IN
     * Abraham Van Meter:  born 1778; married Sarah Morgan c.1798; had four children
     * Isaac Van Meter:  born when?; in 1797 married Mary Caldwell; had nine children; relocated to Indiana and lived near Anderson; died 1835 in Chesterfield, Madison County IN
     * Morgan Van Meter:  born c.1795; in 1819 married Margaret Van Meter (born 1798: daughter of Isaac Van Meter [son of Jacob and Isabella: click here for more] and Mary "Polly" Evans); had six children; died 1826; his widow Margaret then married William McDaniel
     * Margaret Van Meter:  born c.1796; married farmer John Van Meter (of unspecified parentage) c.1814 in Indiana; had six children; lived in Delaware County IN; died before 1870
     * William Van Meter:  born 1798; married Sarah Bell; had five (or as many as eight) children; apparently accompanied brother Joseph to Indiana's Fayette and Delaware Counties; he too was buried in Mount Pleasant's "Van Matre" Cemetery, after dying in 1861 (aged "62y 9m 10d," to confirm his birthyear)
     * John (or Ibba?) Van Meter:  no info
     * David Van Meter:  born when?; married Marie Van Meter (of unspecified parentage); had twelve children, including two newspaper editors in Texas and Oklahoma
     * Naomi Van Meter:  born c.1815; in 1839 married farmer Joseph D. Van Meter (of unspecified parentage) in Delaware IN; had seven children

‡‡‡ Mary Van Meter
The eight children of Mary Ann Van Meter and William S. Gorrell [Sr.] were:
     * Abraham Willis Gorrell:  born c.1770; in 1792 married his cousin Isabella Van Meter (daughter of Jacob and Isabella: click here for more); had twelve children, including David G. Gorrell who married Mary Burns Van Meter (daughter of Mary "Polly" Burns and Ashahel Van Meter—click here for more) and Jacob Gorrell who married Johannah Burns (daughter of George Burns and Agnes Hedges: click here for more); died 1834; buried with Isabella at Killdare Cemetery, now part of Pleasant View Memory Gardens
    * Ruth Gorrell:  born 1772; married Tunis Quick in 1789
    * Hannah Gorrell:  born 1774; married Jacobus James Quick in 1789
    * James Gorrell:  born 1778; married Nancy Boley; had seven children; died 1851
    * Joseph Gorrell [Sr.]:  born 1779; in 1799 married his cousin Ruth Van Meter (daughter of Jacob and Isabella: click here for more); had three children; died when?
    * Mary Gorrell:  born 1782 in Martinsville, Henry County VA; in 1800 married Richard B. Chenoweth; had ten children; died c.1833
    * Jacob Gorrell:  born 1782 in Martinsville VA; in 1801 married Isabella Burns (daughter of William Jr. and Magdalena: click here for more); might possibly have been the namesake of Isabella's nephew Jacob "Garrel" Smith (of whom see more in Chapter B-6); died circa 1824
    * Rachel Gorrell:  born 1790 in Martinsville VA; in 1807 married Joseph Chenoweth; died 1855
     * William S. Gorrell [Jr.]:  born 1797; in 1810 married Nancy Van Meter (daughter of Nathan Van Meter, son of Henry Van Meter, son of John Van Metre, Indian Trader); had ten children; died 1854 in Pettis MO

    Legends & Traditions

●  The full "Sir Charles Hedges" legend is provided by Bailey Fulton Davis's "Hedges Family of Bourbon County, Kentucky" (appearing in ~shawhan): "It is also well to tell of the way in which the older members of the family were confused in their thinking about the Hedges family.  Perrin's History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison, and Nicholas Counties has a sketch on page 471 which records this legend that caused so much confusion.  It is the article on Silas Hedges, deceased, and starts out like this: 'The Hedges family trace their ancestry to Sir Charles Hedges, an English politician, who graduated at Oxford in 1675 and died in 1714.  He had four daughters and one son, whose name was Joseph, who emigrated to America at an early day and located in Prince William County, Maryland...  The tradition was that Sir Charles was infuriated at his son for leaving home and having married without his consent and had left a will whereby his vast estate was tied up for the descendants.  The Hedges family in America organized and set about to get this supposedly fabulous estate that was due them.'"  (The movement "whereby the so-called heirs of Sir Charles Hedges tried to get possession of his estate" went on as late as 1881, with "all the heirs in the United States" convening in Cincinnati.  A lawyer pledged to sail for England and win the "heirs" a quarter-billion-dollar settlement—just as soon as 140 backers would shell out $700 in ready cash.)
●  ~shawhan includes a different legendary background, put forth by E. Polk Johnson in his 1912 History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: "The Hedges are of ancient and honorable English lineage, their landed estates and manorial privileges being situated in Wilts, Berks and Gloucester, with London the seat of the younger sons of enterprise.  Sir Philip Hedges, of Gloucester and London, born during the reign of the last Lancastrian king, appears to have been the earliest known ancestor.  He was knighted for bravery on the field of battle and died in 1487.  His descendant, William Hedges, of Youghal, Ireland, and Gloucester and London, England, was at Wilmington [DE] in 1675 and owned property there under the Duke of York's rule, through Governor Fenwick's administration of South Jersey."
●  Also included by ~shawhan is John Thomas Hedges's "A History of the Hedges Family."  This has Samuel Hedges [Jr.], the son of Samuel Hedges and Elizabeth Weld, sailing from England in 1675 with a shipload of Quaker immigrants aboard the Griffin; settling in Salem, West Jersey; marrying John Fenwick's daughter Ann in 1676; becoming Salem's Surveyor General and Clerk of Records, then a member of the New Jersey Assembly and master of the estate "Hedgefield."  Samuel and Ann had four children: Samuel, Josiah ("the founder of Hedgesville"), Mary, and Joseph—the latter born in 1690 and marrying Catherine "Stallcop" in Maryland.  Catherine is said to be the daughter of John Stallcop and Anake Erickson, and granddaughter of John Anderson Stallcop who emigrated from Sweden to New Sweden in 1643.
●  John Fenwick, founder of the New Salem colony in West Jersey, did in fact have a daughter Anne who married Samuel Hedge Jr. (note the singular).  Their 2,000-acre estate in Upper Mannington was indeed called Hedgefield; John Fenwick died there in 1683, having sold most of his West Jersey holdings to friend and fellow Quaker William Penn.  Samuel and Anne Hedge had (according to ~fenwick) a son, Samuel Hedge III, who married Rebecca Cox and died in 1709; their children were Samuel IV, John, Nathan, and William (who died in 1749, leaving his estate to his mother).  ~chew claims Samuel Jr. and Anne Fenwick had two children, Dorcas Hedge and William Hedge "of Munmouth River, Salem, New Jersey," but adds a citation that this William was not a member of the Hedge family of Salem.
●  The Joseph Project, usually all-inclusive and nonjudgmental, explicitly states: "The Hedges family of New Castle County... [was] unrelated to the descendants of Samuel Hedge who resided across the river in Salem County or [to] William Hedge and his sister Dorcas Cox who migrated from New England to Salem County NJ in the 1690s."
●  This would seem to nullify Catherine Stalcop's chances of being Joseph Sr.'s second (or third) wife, despite ~vm/smyth (page 43)'s calling her "His wife Catharine Stalcop, daughter of John Stalcop, an early Swedish settler of Salem Co., N.J., who afterward removed to New Castle, Pa. (now in the state of Delaware).  John Stalcop’s wife was Catharine, the daughter of John and Madelina Erickson who were among the earliest inhabitants in the Swedish settlement at Lucas Point on the Delaware, near Salem, N.J.; Joseph Hedges was also in New Jersey."  Salem County is just across the river from New Castle County, so Catherine Stalcop can't be ruled out on geographic grounds; but if Joseph Hedges was not "also in New Jersey," doubt is cast on the entire statement.  (Further down ~vm/smyth page 43, we get: "One of the descendants of Joseph Hedges writes me that Joseph Hedges was either the son of Samuel Hedges of the Province of West Jersey, or of Thomas Hedges, Justice of Anne Arundel Co., Md."—present author's italics.)
●  ~westjersey does provides documentation that on July 3, 1689, John Erickson gave "his son-in-law, John Stalcop, of Christiana Creek, New Castle Co. and wife Annake, grantor's daughter" 183 acres at Lucas Point, part of a tract Erickson had been granted by William Penn.  But the Joseph Project points out that John Stalcop's 1735 will does not include a Catherine among his four children.
●  A final selection from ~shawhan: "Katherine Stalcop dreamed that a young man had called at her father's home and asked for a night's lodging, and that his horse had been turned into the cow pasture for the night.  In the morning, when Katherine went to milk, she found a strange horse in the pasture.  On going in to breakfast, she met the young man of her dream.  He proved to be Joseph Hedges.  In due time, they were married and 'lived happily ever after.'"  (The Joseph Project gives a "Catherine Stallcup" variation of this tale, which is attributed to the Hon. Thomas A. Logan's The Hedges Estate [1884]; but adds "there is no substance to this...  There is no apparent connection between [the Stallcop] family and that of Joseph Hedges."
●  Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig, "a professional genealogist who specializes in the people and early history of settlements in 'New Sweden'" (as per the Joseph Project's Bibliography) spent a decade pursuing the identity of Joseph Hedges's wife Catherine.  He concluded she was Catherine Land, daughter of Samuel and Dorcas Land, and stepdaughter of George Hogg.  The Lands had lived next door to Joseph's mother Mary in New Castle.  ~marylandhedges notes that Joseph's land in Delaware had been "at the head of a tract formerly taken up on new rent by George Hogg," who was one of the witnesses to this tract's sale on August 17, 1725.  Joseph and Catherine named two of their children Samuel and Dorcas, and called their Monocacy estate "Hedge Hogg."

    Less Legendary Notes

●  ~gbnf/I3483 suggests that William Hedges was a carpenter, whose parents Samuel Hedges and Elizabeth Weld were married in England in 1640.  This would appear to make him the "pluralized" brother of Samuel Hedge Jr., John Fenwick's son-in-law.
●  William Hedges's wife Mary often appears in webgens with the maiden name "Caldwell"—which Dr. Craig calls "hearsay baloney, stemming from some imaginative lady who thought Charles Hedges's mark 'C' was his middle initial, which she expanded to Caldwell, and assigned that name to Mary."  (As per the Joseph Project.)
●  Mary Hedges's January 1689 court appearance was not her last.  The Joseph Project and ~gbnf/I3483 give an account of Mary suing one Annettie Ollesdotter in 1680 for alleging that Mary "had Layne with one Jan Cornelis."  A year later (on the judiciary proceeds?) Mary built a house in New Castle, and there earned a living "nurtsing" the sick.  By 1684 she married carpenter John Smith, who was appointed administrator of William Hedges's estate.
●  Charles and Joseph Hedges may have had a younger sister Mary Hedges, who married Thomas Douthitt; this relationship is tentatively inferred from Mary and Thomas having, "as near of kin," signed Joseph's inventory in Prince George's County after his death.  (As per the Joseph Project.)
●  In a few chronicles Joseph Hedges [Sr.] married Beata Springer in 1705, three years before wedding Mary Fettleplace/Fettiplace, five years before wedding Catherine Land (or Tingey, if not Stalcop).
●  All three Catherine candidates run the gamut of first-name spelling: Catherine, Catharine, Catharina, Katherine, Kathrine, Kathrin, Cathrine, Cathrin, etc.  (Perhaps Joseph called her "Kate.")
●  Some genealogies give Joseph Hedges [Sr.] a tenth child, Peter Hedges, born 1728.  If so, he most likely died in childhood and is now confused with Joseph's nephew Peter Hedges, son of Joseph's brother Charles Hedges and Elizabeth Stille.  That Peter (according to ~rawl) was born c.1717, went to Maryland and then Virginia, purchased 300 acres on Tullises/Tulisses Branch in 1738, and thus was a neighbor of his cousins Solomon, Joshua, and Jonas.  By Peter's first (unnamed) wife he had a son Ezekiel Hedges who was killed 1777 in an Indian ambush; Peter’s second wife was Elizabeth Seed aka Seeds.
●  The other five children of Charles Hedges and Elizabeth Stille were: William Hedges (born 1705 in New Castle County, married Ann [surname?], had three or four children, died in 1742); Andrew Hedges (born c.1711 in New Castle County, died c.1748 in Prince George's County MD); John Hedges  (apparently stayed in Delaware); Joseph Hedges (died without issue); and Mary Hedges (married Henry Bishop); all as per ~rawl.  Joseph's brother Charles Hedges "of Londonderry Township and County of Chester and Province of Pennsylvania, Yeoman" died in 1743.
●  Prince George's County was named for the Danish prince who married Queen Anne of England.  Frederick County was created from it in 1748, and much of the District of Columbia would be formed from Prince George's County in 1791.
●  The children of Joseph's son Charles are listed on ~gbnf/I670 and its links.
●  Joseph Jr.'s widow Mary Beckenbaugh Hedges remarried, her second husband being John Wilson.
●  Solomon and Rebecca's children are taken from ~vm/smyth pp. 45-48 (which confuses Solomon's son Joshua with Solomon's brother Joshua, giving the son the brother's wife and children) and ~gbnf/I681 (which throws in a seventh child, Josiah Hedges, born the same year as Solomon's son Joseph but with no other info).
●  Elizabeth Chapline Hedges's father William Chapline purchased 150 acres "at the Gap of the North Mountain" in 1752, but the land grant didn't follow till 1788/89.  In 1832 this tract, including Warm Springs Road, would become the site of Hedgesville.
●  ~wash/trail reports that George Washington first visited "ye fam'd warm springs" during his surveying tour in 1748.  He would often return over the years—as did many others, from Native Americans to the colonial elite.  "Lacking the medicinal taste and odor of other mineral springs, the waters are said to be beneficial in the treatment of a number of physical disorders...  It was probably due to [Washington's] prompting that Lord Fairfax in 1756 granted the land around the springs to the colony of Virginia with the stipulation that the waters were 'to be forever free to the public for the welfare of suffering humanity'" (as per the c.1950s brochure).  In 1776 the town of Bath was chartered; Washington and his family bought lots here "and made Bath the country's first spa."  After Virginia's postal system was established in 1802, Bath—to avoid confusion with Bath in Bath County VA—was renamed Berkeley Springs, although its part of Berkeley County became Morgan County in 1820.  The old Warm Springs Road is now West Virginia State Route 9, but "health seekers still come to 'take the waters' as well as to enjoy contemporary treatments of massage, aromatherapy and herbal wraps" (~wash/trail).
●  ~history/jefferson says George Washington at one point owned nearly 2,300 acres in the Eastern Panhandle; ~wash/trail adds that "at his death, he was paying taxes on more than 1,500 acres in the area."  In 1790 the President considered locating the new American capital in Shepherdstown.
●  One of the owners of Bath's local Inn at the Liberty Pole and Flag (where George and Martha Washington stayed in 1784) was steamboat pioneer James Rumsey, who enlisted Washington's support for his endeavors.  "After a series of mishaps that seemed to be Rumsey's continual lot in life," his boat was successfully tested on the Potomac at Shepherdstown in 1787; but Rumsey died while presenting his invention to London's Society of Mechanic Arts, and it was Robert Fulton who ultimately won renown for his modification of Rumsey's design.  (As per ~wash/trail and ~history/jefferson.)
●  Joshua and Elizabeth's children are taken from ~hedges/aqwg01 and -02.
●  Jonas and Agnes's children are taken from ~gbnf/I683.
●  Ruth and Abraham's children are compiled from ~vm/smyth pp. 96-102, plus ~motteler/ruth (as opposed to the less coherent list at ~vm/abraham), with addenda from ~burns/dcb (which includes John as Ruth's seventh child, and has Joseph living till 1823). 
●  Don C. Wood's "The Early Hedges, Their Land and Homes" says Ruth Hedges "Vanmeter" died in 1761 rather than 1751, and was the mother of all ten of Abraham's children.  (This ~shawhan article also says Joseph Sr. "was the son of Charles Hedges who died in England in 1720"; accepts the legend that Joseph was Sir Charles Hedges's grandson; and lists Peter Hedges among Joseph's sons.)
●  ~vm/smyth page 99 examines the will of Ruth's husband Abraham Van Metre [Sr.]: son Daniel was left the 235-acre family homestead on the Opequon; son John received land in Ohio; daughters Ruth and Hannah got a 400-acre tract in Ohio County VA.  "The older set of children seem not to have participated in the provisions of the will, and in such case it is believed that he provided for them at the time of his second marriage."  Bequests did get paid to Rebecca, Isaac, Abraham, and Mary; no mention was made of Jacob or Joseph.  (If the latter did drown in the Ohio, he would have predeceased his father.)
●  As for that drowning: "The death of Joseph Van Metre was, like others of the Van Metres, a tragic one; the condensed substance of the circumstances traditionally current in the family is that he lost his life while crossing the Ohio River, near Tiltonville; he was last seen, by a Mr. Hite, in a boat on the river and is supposed to have been either shot by the Indians, or lost his life by the capsizing of his boat.  Nothing more was ever heard of him.  The finding of his gun on a sand bar in the river, with his name upon it, many years afterward, only served to deepen the mystery.  This event probably occurred about the year 1780" (~vm/smyth page 101).
●  ~burns/dcb states that Jacob Gorrell also married Elizabeth Van Meter, the younger sister of his mother Isabella Van Meter—meaning if Jacob were Elizabeth's husband, he'd have married his own aunt.  (No birthdates are entered for either Jacob or Elizabeth.)  Supposedly they had one child, Jacob Tabb Gorrell (also no birthdate) who married Susan Jackson.  However, ~evans/aqwg05 shows Elizabeth Van Meter marrying only Thomas Tabb and having his four children—including Jacob Tabb (born c.1808) who married Susan Jackson in 1828.  DCB hopes someday to determine what is amiss with his findings: "the dates definitely don't make sense, but is it the dates that are wrong or the relationships[?]"
●  ~burns/dcb says William S. Gorrell [Jr.] was born in Pettis MO in 1797, but doesn't explain how both his parents died in Berkeley County VA in 1802/04, leaving Junior alone (without any of his older siblings) in Pettis.  More likely this entry was a slip, and Junior didn't relocate to Missouri till after marrying Nancy Van Meter in "Washington MD" in 1810.
●  Of Rebecca Van Metre's eight children by John Spahn and Joseph Morgan, only one is named by ~vm/smyth page 102: Josiah Morgan (1796-1860), who married Susan S. Foreman in 1822.
●  Regarding Joshua's daughter Anna Hedges, ~hedges/aqwg02 says she was born in 1765 (no month or day given) rather than 1761; while ~gbnf/I3497 dates her wedding to Alexander Robinson as April 24, 1785, a month later than other accounts.  Anna and Alexander's children are listed by ~hedges/aqwg02, with some addenda from ~shawhan.
●  Samuel Robinson's wife/cousin Rebecca Hedges Alexander was the daughter of Josiah Hedges, son of Samuel Hedges, whose daughter Ruth A. Hedges married Samuel Robinson's brother James H. Robinson.  Rebecca's mother Catherine Morgan was the daughter of the Reverend Morgan Morgan II, son of Opequon pioneer Morgan Morgan.  Rebecca herself had previously married Elijah Alexander.
●  The twelve children of Samuel Hedges and Mary Tabb were taken from ~hedges/bailey and ~gbnf/I3499.  ~tabbusa and ~aronoff list only six: William, Samuel, Jonas, Enoch, Seaton Elliott, and a nameless "daughter" who married a Mr. Miller.  ~shawhan lists all sixteen of Samuel's children in the same order as ~gbnf/I3499, and supplies some details shown above.
●  ~hedges/bailey says Samuel and Mary's son Jonas Hedges was born July 30, 1789; his marker at Mumper Cemetery (~mumper) indicates that January 1790 is correct.
 

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