EUROPEAN ORIGIN AND EARLY AMERICAN

HISTORY OF THE HAYS FAMILY

In April 1983, when the “Family History of the Hays of Henderson County, Tennessee was published, the earliest ancestor known was Samuel Ellett Hays, who was the father of 5 brothers. He was known to have been born in Maryland, but the earliest tangible record of him was his marriage on March 6, to Martha B. Davis in Roane County in eastern Tennessee.

Since publication, we made a search of records and in Maryland and Delaware which unearthed additional info which we wish to make available by the July31, 1983 reunion. We found though further searching is necessary for full content and to identify the family’s European country of origin.

This search reveals that it was the grandfather of Ellett Hays who first came from Europe to America as a Army Officer, probably within a decade of the year 1710.

Immigrant Johnathan Hayes was born in Liverpool, England on January 11 or 16, 1685, according to three separate histories. His father was a successful meat merchant or butcher in Liverpool. There must be some old written record that has not been found. Information about the name and place of origin of an ancestor might be handed down 200 years by word of mouth, but it is hard to find such a record of a precise birth date.

"Based also on family histories, this Jonathan acquired a Commission, likely as a ship's captain in Her Majesty's Navy, which at the time needed all of the help it could get to protect shipping against the pirates. Jonathan must have been in his mid-twenties when he received the commission, and still under thirty when he sold it to marry in Philadelphia. We could find no record of the marriage of Jonathan Hayes and Elizabeth Elliott in Philadelphia, and none of the family stories give a marriage date. We therefore favor the story that they were married on shipboard.

In one family history, when discussing John Elliot's objection to the marriage, it says the Hays men were "both" Baptists. We have no idea who the other Hays man may have been. Surely not the Quaker Jonathan. There is record of at least two other Hayes families in Delaware in the very early 1700s, but neither are likely relatives of our Jonathan. One came into Delaware from Virginia, and the other came from Oxfordshire in England, neither of which match our knowledge of Jonathan's origin or travels.

Most of the family stories talk about objection by John Elliot to his daughter's marriage to Jonathan Hays. They also suggest that John Elliot may have helped to obtain the land in Delaware where Jonathan and his wife raised their family. We have found two documents which bear on the relationship between Jonathan and his father-in-law. One is John Ellot's will, written in 1734, in which he names his daughter who married Jonathan, but leaves her only a small bequest compared to those given to his other children. The second document is a 1751 request by Jonathan for re-survey of his Delaware land, in which the ownership history of the land is recited, This land (135 acres) was bought by John Elliot in August 1703. Elliot deeded it to Jonathan Hays in September 1720. It is clear that John Elliot acquired this property before Jonathan ever came to America, and deeded it to Jonathan some 17 years later, probably after Jonathan married Elliot's daughter, Elizabeth. We do not know if this deed was a gift or a sale, but clearly Jonathan's land in Mill Creek Hundred in Delaware was some that his father-in-law had owned for some time. The picture we get is much the same as that given in the family stories, of a father-in-law who opposed the wedding of his daughter, but nevertheless helped them get the started they needed.

All of the stories say that Jonathan and Elizabeth raised 12 sons who lived to adulthood. Nothing is said about daughters. In only one story is any child named other than Jonathan, Jr. whom we will call Maryland Jonathan. That story tells of a brother named Samuel who was particularly close to Maryland Jonathan, and came for a while to Maryland where Jonathan Jr. had settled.

Immigrant Jonathan apparently died in Delaware in about 1769. He left no will, but we did find an inventory of his estate (most illegible) dated February 2? 1770. The estate was appraised at 138 pounds, 10 shillings, and six pence. The inventory is signed by a John Hays, who is almost certainly one of the 12 sons. There is talk in the family that this John Hays may be the one who was killed in the Revolutionary War and whose wife took over his cannon earning the legendary name of Molly Pitcher. If this is true, John must have enlisted in nearby Pennsylvania, as the John Hays is associated with Molly Pitcher served in a Pennsylvania Regiment.

The basis for the other likely brother named Joseph, is in the records of Frederick County, Maryland, where Maryland Jonathan, and possibly this Joseph settled. In Frederick County the home place of Maryland Jonathan was a tract called "Brotherly Love" located near Tom's Creek in the eastern part of the county. He also owned a tract in the western part of the county called "Good Luck" wa first acquired by a Joseph Hayes, who assigned it to Maryland Jonathan in 1761. Then in 1763, when Jonathan called for a re-survey of "Good Luck", one of the witnesses summoned to testify about original survey markers was a Joseph Hays, who was then about 52 years old, or nearly the same age as Jonathan. Because of this age and close relationship with Jonathan over the years, we feel comfortable calling this Joseph a brother of Jonathan (one of the 12 sons of the immigrant). There were other Hays at that time further west in Maryland. Some in Washington County had several doctors in the family, and some in Allegany County had a senator and a preacher in the family. These could be among the descendants of some of the other brothers, but we have no documentation for it. Surely of of 12 sons, there are other branches of the family still in existence, of whom we do not yet have any knowledge.

Although none of the stories mention anything about daughters of the immigrant Jonathan, there appears to have been at least one. We had noted that records of Newcastle County, Delaware showed an Elliot Hays in Mill Creek Hundred in the mid 1700s. We felt sure this was another of the 12 sons, but when we found the will, Elliot turns out to be an unmarried woman, who left the family property to a niece in 1807. She apparently was the last one remaining on the home place in Delaware.

As we now see it, immigrant Jonathan's family in Delaware consisted of him, his wife Elizabeth Elliot, twelve sons, including Jonathan, Samuel, John, and Joseph, and at least one daughter, Elliot.

We can now get a pretty good idea about the land in Delaware which Jonathan got from his father-in-law, and on which Jonathan and Elizabeth raised their large family. There is a plat of the land which shows the names of adjoining land owners, that the land fronted on White Clay Creek, and that it contained 154 acres after re-survey. The land was located in what they call Mill Creek Hundred. These "Hundreds" were land subdivisions used in early Delaware. On the northwest border of Delaware is the Mill Creek Hundred, joined on the south by the White Clay Creek Hundred. We must assume that White Clay Creek formed at least part of the border between these two "Hundreds", and that Jonathan's land lay along the Mill Creek side of this boundary. "

Elliot Hays reserved a quarter acre of the original land where the old burial grounds are. This cemetery has not been found yet.

There is no record of where Elizabeth is buried, but she was still alive when her father wrote his will in 1734, and by 1770 had died when inventory of Jonathan's estate was made. It is believed that none of the sons remained in the area, but some of the daughters and their descendants remained in the area until 1807. Names associated with the daughters are Morton and Cooper.

It is not certain where the other sons went to, however at that time many were migrating to the west and southwest where lands were opening up. At Jonathan's death many were taking sides in what would lead up to the Revolutionary War. Many became Loyalists who maintained their allegiance to England. Most of the Loyalist moved to Canada as the War approached, hence their land was confiscated during the war. Some of those who moved to Canada moved back to the area after the war.

"Remember that Delaware Jonathan was born and raised in England, and came here as an officer in their military, so it would not be surprising if at least some of his sons would choose to be Loyalist and their descendants might now be found in Canada.

A NOTE ON THE TRADITION AND HISTORY OF THE HAYS

From the Publication of the Clan Hay Society

The name Hay is from the Norman word meaning a fence, and the Gaelic name (Mae) Garadh has a similar meaning. This is, by tradition supposed to have been given to a farmer and his two sons, in 961, at a critical moment, when the Scots were fighting the Danes, in the Carse of Gowrie, unyoked the oxen with which they were plowing, took the heavy wooden ox-yokes and with them held a narrow pass against all corners. The road being stayed, the Scots took fresh heart, and the Danes, thinking fresh reinforcements had come up, turned tail and fled. They were pursued with great slaughter and many of their galleys burned, only a small number escaping.

A not very reliable source of information records in 1062 the Hays fell foul of Macbeth, who killed the father and two elderly sons. The younger sons are said to have escaped to Normandy, but this is tradition and not authentic hisotry. It is, however, an historical fact that two Hays (de Haya or de la Haye) came over with the Conqueror, and one was given lands in Hereford, where he built a castle which bears his name to this day. Other Hays appear in Doomsday Book as owning lands in Sussex. The first Hay historically reported in Scotland was the cup-bearer to William the Lion in the twelfth century, William Hay of Erroll.

In 1171, William de la Haye married Eva, a Celtic heiress, whose lands lay in the Tay estuary (she certainly brought him Pitmilly in life and probably his Anugs lands, and may even have been heiress of the falcon parks and the family legends of Erroll itself) At this time the Celtic houses had no surnames, and so the followers of her clan naturally became followers of her Hay descendants who would incorporate with their own traditions those of the families into which they had married. Possibly ever our "Luncarty" tradition may have come to us in this way."

Hi Lisa, I will try to answer your questions in the order you asked them.

(1) According to Dorothy Lee Hays DesJardins, Jonathan Hayes was a British Solidier that came to Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, from England. He spelled his name "Hayes" , that is the way the Hayes spelled their name in England. Some of them changed it to "Hays" after this and others left it like it was originally.

Jonathan Hayes met a girl named Elizabeth Elliott and wanted to marry her, but her family were Quakers and forbid her to marry him. So he sold his commission in the Army so he could marry her. For a time they continued to live the high life with the British Officers. When their money ran out, Elizabeth's father refused to support their life style, so they located a large tract of land in Mill Creek Hundred, New Castle County, in Northeren Delaware, not to far from Philadelphia. They raised twelve sons on this farm, all of whom lived to adulthood. Our ancestor was one of these sons, also named Jonathan. He was the oldest son, and named after his father. He was born in 1729.

We only know of one other son whose name was Samuel, (Like our Samuel). The first Jonathan's sons, Jonathan and Samuel moved later on to Maryland. For clues of the other sons they looked in the 1790 Delaware census for the county where Jonathan and Elizabeth lived and found the names of John, Stephen, and Eliot Hayes. It is believed that they to were sons of Jonathan and Elizabeth, but nothing to document it. But you will notice that one is name Eliot like the maiden name of Elizabeth. It could have been shorten from Elliott. The name Ellett given to our Samuel Ellet as a middle name is another common variant of the name Elliott. The last evidence we have of soldier Jonathan Hayes was in Delaware on May 21, 1753, when he had a tract of land surveyed. He may have died before the Revoluntary War. We know that at least one of his grandchildren fought for the United States in the

Revoluntionary War.

The second Jonathan, the son of the Soldier and also later to become the father of Samuel Ellett Hays, left home when he was seventeen years old to seek his fortune in company of a man named John Drummond. They met up with a Edward Dulaney in Baltimore, Maryland. Edward Dulaney was a land developer in Maryland. He advised them to explore the fertile land along the Monocacy River in west-central Maryland, were there were many Indians who were friendly. They did just that and Jonathan claimed 2000 acres along Tom's Creek, about one quarter of a mile back from where it empties into the Monocacy River. They found

Jonathan's land, which is located by a place now called Six's Bridges over Tom's County, Maryland. Jonathan lived and died, and was buried on this land. Samuel Ellett Hays grew up on it.

Jonathan married a girl named Mary Henderson, who had came to the colonies from Nova Scotia. Her story might be of special interest because she had an English name, but she seems to have left Nova Scotia near the time when the British deported all of the original French Acadian settlers from that land. These settlers and their families had been there for about 100 years. Their

story was immortalized in Longfellow's poem "Evangeline". Jonathan and Mary Henderson had six children, documented in the wills of both parents, as follows:

(1)Elizabeth, married Thomas Wilson before 1792. By 1796, in court records concerning Jonathan's will, we find Thomas Wilson in Washington County, Maryland, and his wife Elizabeth in Allegany County, Maryland, where her brother John also lived at the time. The "History of Fredrick County, Maryland" says one daughter of Jonathan and Mary married a John Smith and had eight children. This could have been a second marriage for Elizabeth.(2) Jonathan (known as Jahue) had left home before his father's will was

written in 1792, and hand settled in Georgia by 1796. (3) Joseph, was born about 1760. He has been documented by the DAR as a

Revoluntary War Solidier. He married Deborah Weimer on February 7, 1791. She was an only child and inherited a farm at Taneytown, Maryland, from her father. Joseph and Deborah lived on this farm and raised four sons and three daughters and died there. (4) John, is reported to have gone to Tennessee, where he married a girl named Coffee, and returned to Emmitsburg by the time his father's death in 1793. He was in Allegany County, Maryland in 1796, but witnessed his mother's will in Emmitsburg in 1798. He is in the 1800 Emmittsburg census and apparently his younger brother Samuel Ellett was living with him then. Jon was not present to certify his mother's will at her death in 1803, nor is he in the 1810 census of Emmittsburg. John returned to Tennessee after his

mother's death, and we feel it is likely that he and Samuel Ellett were there together, and that he was the John Hays who bought land in the Hines Valley of Roane County, Tennessee, where Samuel Ellett settled first. (5) Mary, was still single at the time of court action on her father's will in 1796. Frederick County, Maryland records show a marriage of Mary Hays and John Gillilan on September 23, 1798. We believe it was this Mary's marriage. She and her husband must have left town, because they were not in the 1800

census in Frederick County, Maryland. A John Gilliland appears on a petition drawn in Roane County, Tennessee on July 15, 1799. They may have been the leaders of the family exodus to Roane County, TN. (6) Samuel Ellett, was born about 1782. He apparently was a change of life baby, because in 1792 when his father wrote his will, Samuel would only have been 10 years old, and all of his brothers and sisters were considered adults of at least 18 years. Samuel Ellett's mother's will left her entire holding to him when she died in 1803. We could not find when or how he disposed of the property, or any evidence that any of his brothers or sisters contested the will. None of the documents in Frederick County on which Samuel's name appeared used the middle name of any of the parties named in the document, so we do not have this identification. However some of his brother Joseph's children and grandchildren carried the given name of Elliott, including Samuel Elliott Hays who became a Frederick County Lawyer.

Dorothy Lee Hays DeJardins believes that this is strong evidence that this is our Samuel Ellett Hays' family. They believe that all three of the younger children of Jonathan and Mary Henderson Hays' children moved to Roane County, Tennessee from Emmittsburg, Maryland, between 1799 and 1807, when they disappear from the Frederick County, Maryland records, and appear for the first time in the records of Roane County, Tennessee.

This is all documented in the letter written by Dorothy Lee Hays on the "Europeon Origin and Early American History of the Hays Family"; written on July l, 1893.