Richard Hulse (? – 1770)

Origins in New Jersey

A Richard “Hulst” of Freehold in Monmouth County, New Jersey obtained a license to marry Mary Williams of Freehold on 27 May 1751.1. The license indicated the consent of the bride’s mother Sarah Williams.2.  Interestingly, the same source lists four other persons named “Hulse” who obtained marriage licenses in Monmouth County between 1740 and 1770.

Unless we have an amazing coincidence, James Hulse, his wife Mary and his mother-in-law Sarah Williams were the same persons who died roughly 250 miles west of Monmouth County in Shepherdstown (then in Frederick County), Virginia nearly twenty years later in 1770.

Mary Williams was the daughter of Joseph Williams and Sara Layton.   Her grandfather Thomas Layton of Freehold, Monmouth County died intestate in 1740, with Joseph Williams appointed a co-administrator of the estate by virtue of his having married Layton’s daughter Sarah.3. Joseph Williams himself was dead by 23 August 1756 when his inventory was recorded.4. His widow Sarah renounced her right to administration in favor of her brother-in-law John Williams.5

How long Richard and Mary Hulse might have lived in New Jersey is unclear, in part due to absence of records in Monmouth County and to his lack of land ownership.6  But it was presumably the same man who took the inventory of one Peter Wilson of Freehold on 9 August 17657 and who witnessed the will of Joseph Morford of Freehold a week later.8  Those records, barely a week apart, are the only evidence o him in Monmouth County that I have so far found.

The Great Wagon Road

Although we can’t know why or exactly when he migrated to the upper Potomac River, we can be reasonably certain how he made the trip. The Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia to Winchester and points south passed through the Pennsylvania communities of Lancaster and York then turned southeast to cross the Potomac River and enter Virginia very near Shepherdstown (then called Mecklenburg and now in West Virginia).  The route is clearly shown on the famous Fry-Jefferson map of 1751 and was the main route for settlement in the south. It was said to be the most heavily traveled road in colonial America.

Excursus: Another Richard Hulse in Frederick County, Virginia by 1754?

On 15 March 1754 a Richard Hulse witnessed a quitclaim deed from Samuel Swann to Richard Mount of a land claim in Frederick County, Virginia.9  Five years later, on 9 April 1759, Richard Mount sold that claim to Ebenezer Brewster with Richard Hulse again witnessing the transaction.10  On the same day Ebenezer Brewster signed a promissory note to Mount, with Richard Hulse witnessing that document as well.11.

What makes the above transaction especially intriguing is that Josiah Hulse of Frederick County lent Ebenezer Brewster part of the money to make that purchase, then witnessed Mount’s written acknowledgement and later testified to that event.12  Josiah Hulse was also from New Jersey, and had been in Frederick County since about 1749.  Surely the two men were related in some way, though these documents represent the only known intersection of their lives.

Death in Frederick County, Virginia

Neither Richard Hulse nor his mother-in-law Sarah Williams were found in Frederick County court or deed records prior to their deaths in 1770.  It is possible that they had lived across the Potomac in Frederick County, Maryland or an adjacent county, or perhaps had only recently arrived.  It appears that Richard, his wife, his mother-in-law and perhaps a child all died at about the same time, perhaps in one of the cholera epidemics that periodically swept through the south.

Richard Hulse’s will was dated 23 July 1770 and proved less than four months later on 8 November.13  (See a transcript of the will in this file.)  He divided his estate, which did not include real property, among his wife Mary and seven children, all of whom were minors.  His wife Mary was named executrix but died sometime during the four months before the will was probated.  When the will was proved the court appointed a prominent local named Van Swearingen to administer the will “the Executrix therein named being Dead.”14 Swearingen was a longtime resident whose brother operated the ferry at Shepherdstown (then called Mecklenburg), and doesn’t seem to have had any familial relationship to either Hulse or Williams. An inventory was ordered, but record of it no longer exists.15 Nor are there any estate accountings, from which we infer that the estate was quite paltry.

At the same 8 November 1770 court, the Churchwardens were ordered to bind out the oldest son, seventeen-year old William Hulse.16  Van Swearingen was appointed guardian of five of the remaining six children, omitting the son Joseph who perhaps had also died in the interim.17  Seven months later, on 8 May 1771, James Hulse and three of his four sisters were ordered to be bound out, the estate apparently not being sufficient to support them.18

Simultaneous Death of his mother-in-law Sarah Williams

Richard and his wife Mary must have died within days or weeks one another, as did his mother-in-law Sarah Williams.  At that same 8 November 1770 court session two brothers named William and David Shepherd proved Sarah William’s nuncupative will.  As William Shepherd described the event, he “being at the House of Richard Hulse in the said County was Called upon by one Sarah Williams who then Lay sick on her Death Bed & who Requested the Deponent & his Brother David Shepherd then Present to See that the following articles of her Estate should be given & Disposed of in the manner hereafter Mentioned. Thats to say, her Bed & furniture to be sold & the Money Arising from said sale to be given & applied toward the Support & Maintenance of her grand Daughter Mary Hulse being the Youngest (sic) of the Richard Hules[sic] – And that two gold Rings, Three Silver Spoons, Six Pewter Plates One Pewter Basin & 1 Pewter Dish or Platter should be sold and the Money arising from the sd. Sale to be Equally given & Divided Between her other grand Daughters Susanna Hules[sic], Catherine Hulse, & Hesther Hules[sic] Daughters of the above Mentioned Richard Hulse.”  ((Frederick County Will Book 4, p46.))

As with her son-in-law’s effects, an inventory of her possessions was ordered but never recorded.

A Curious Estate Record

In 1773 Van Swearingen, the administrator of Richard Hulse’s estate and guardian of five of his children, sued a man named Joseph Cowenauer over a debt to the estate.19  The court eventually ordered Cowenauer to pay  £2:7:1 with interest from 12 May 1770, presumably the due date, though the nature of the debt was not identified.20. At the same court a man named Joseph Seaman, described as a garnishee in the same case, testified that he was in possession of “two Plough irons, two Mattocks, two Large Bundles left at his house by a stranger” that belonged to the Hulse estate.21  The court ordered the Sheriff to sell those items at auction with proceeds to be applied towards the judgment.

What makes this curious is that Joseph Seaman apparently lived near Winchester, a considerable distance for those heavy items to have wandered.

Aside from these records, there is no indication of an estate left by either Richard Hulse or Sarah Williams, and it is clear that whatever Hulse possessed was not sufficient to support his children.

The children:

The children are listed in the order in which they appear in the will of Richard Hulse. I note that the five children assigned to Van Swearingen were perhaps all under fourteen, the age at which they could choose their own guardian.

  1. William Hulse (14 October 1753 – ?). When he was bound out in November 1779 to Patrick Donaldson, who was “to learn him to read write & cypher & the trade of a joiner“, the court noted that he was “seventeen years of age the 14th day of October last“.22  His apprenticeship with Donaldson was apparently a contentious one, as he sued his master in Berkeley County in June 1772, the case being continued for two years until dropped when he reached majority.23 In mid-1775 he joined a company of Shepherdstown riflemen that marched to relieve the troops at Boston.24  After that company disbanded he enlisted In the 3rd Regiment of Light Dragoons and was discharged as a Sergeant three years later  on 1 September 1780.25  A history of Shepherdstown, which erroneously called him “Peter” Hulse, states that “[a]fter the Revolution moved to Wheeling, where, in 1825, he was still living. He owned a ferry in that place.”26. Although he owned land in Ohio County in the 1790s, he shortly settled on the Ohio side of the river in Belmont County.
    William Hulse married Elizabeth Brown, the daughter of William Brown and Elizabeth Shepherd (daughter of Thomas Shepherd Sr.)   His children were Joseph, Ruth, John, Parry Brown, Sheppard, Sarah, and Maria (Kitty).
  2. Susanna Hulse (c1754 – 17 November 1839).  The second child mentioned in her father’s will, there is no record that she was bound out by the court. She married Thomas Shepherd Jr. (c1743-1795), the son of Thomas Shepherd Sr. and brother of David, William, and Abraham Shepherd mentioned above, in 1773.27  According to a family history, she had children named Thomas, David, Joseph, Elizabeth, James, and Mary, was married second to a Mr. Brooke, and was buried in the Shepherd burial ground in Shepherdstown.28
  3. Joseph Hulse (c1757? – 1770?) He was neither assigned a guardian nor bound out by the court.  Nor does he seem to be mentioned in any other Frederick or Berkeley County record.  One of the children for whom Van Swearingen was guardian in 1770 was “Isaac” Hulse29  but whether that referred to Joseph or James is not clear.  Since we know James was alive, I’ve assumed that it was a clerk’s error and meant to read “James”.  A later Joseph Hulse is claimed to be the same person, but I can find no evidence to support that claim.
  4. James Hulse (c1758 – 1729). See the detailed biography here.
  5. Catherine Hulse (c 1760 – ?)  She was bound out to George McNabb (c1746-1818) who married Martha Shepherd, daughter of Thomas Shepherd Sr. and brother of the Thomas Shepherd who married Susanna Hulse, in 1771.30.  McNabb remained in Berkeley County for the next few decades but there is no record of a marriage for Catherine in Berkeley County, whose marriage records begin in 1781.
  6. Hester (Easter) Hulse ( c1762 – ?) She was bound out to Van Swearingen31 There is no record of a marriage in Berkeley County, whose marriage records begin in 1781.
  7. Mary Hulse (c1764 – ?)  ) She was mentioned last in her father’s will and her grandmother’s nuncupative will spoke of “her granddaughter Mary Hulse, being the youngest daughter of the said Richard Hulse”.32 It seems likely that she was very young when her parents died.  She was bound out to John Mitchell.33 There is no record of a marriage in Berkeley County, whose marriage records begin in 1781.  John Mitchell moved to Ohio County not long thereafter, perhaps taking Mary Hulse with him, but that county’s marriage records appear to be missing prior to 1790.
  1. New Jersey Archives, First Series, Vol. XXII “Marriage Records 1665-1800″, p188. [↩]
  2. New Jersey County Marriages 1682-1956” at familysearch.org, Film #00802938. [↩]
  3. Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, First Series, Vol. 30, “Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, Etc. 1730-1750”.p293. [↩]
  4. Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, First Series, Vol. 32, “Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, Etc. 1730-1750”.p532. [↩]
  5. Ibid. [↩]
  6. Neither Richard Hults nor Sarah Williams appear as grantees or grantors among Monmouth County land records. [↩]
  7. Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, First Series, Vol. 32, “Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, Etc. 1730-1750”.p363 [↩]
  8. Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, First Series, Vol. 33, “Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, Etc. 1761-1770”.p295 and repeated in Stillwell, p4. [↩]
  9. Part of Survey File for Ebenezer Brewster — Item 3&4 in file online at Library of Virginia as image.lva.virginia.gov/LONN/NN-1/226/0353_0360.pdf [↩]
  10. Part of Survey File for Ebenezer Brewster — Item 5 in file online at Library of Virginia as image.lva.virginia.gov/LONN/NN-1/226/0353_0360.pdf [↩]
  11. Part of Survey File for Ebenezer Brewster — Item 6 in file online at Library of Virginia as image.lva.virginia.gov/LONN/NN-1/226/0353_0360.pdf [↩]
  12. Part of Survey File for Ebenezer Brewster — Item 7 in file online at Library of Virginia as image.lva.virginia.gov/LONN/NN-1/226/0353_0360.pdf [↩]
  13. Frederick County Will Book 4, p44-45. Also see Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p56. [↩]
  14. Frederick County Will Book 4, p45-46. and Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p56. [↩]
  15. Frederick County Order Book 15 ,1770-1772, p56. [↩]
  16. Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p59. [↩]
  17. Ibid., p59. [↩]
  18. Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p190. [↩]
  19. Berkeley County Order Book 1, p382 and Book 2, p59. [↩]
  20. Berkeley County Order Book 2, p97. [↩]
  21. Berkeley County Order Book 2, p97. [↩]
  22. Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p59. [↩]
  23. Berkeley County Order Book 1, p8, p64, p108. [↩]
  24. Willis F. Evans, History of Berkeley County, West Virginia (Heritage Books, 2007), p140. Apparently sourced from Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (The Mitchie Company, Printers, 1910), p88. [↩]
  25. Library of Virginia Rev. War Bounty Land Warrants, attached to warrant issued in 1783. Also see final pay voucher from NARA Records, accessed at fold3.com. [↩]
  26. Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (The Mitchie Company, Printers, 1910), p325. [↩]
  27. Samuel Gordon Smyth, A Genealogy of the Duke-Shepherd-Van Metre Family (1909), p223. [↩]
  28. Smyth, p222-223. [↩]
  29. Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p190. [↩]
  30. Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p190. [↩]
  31. Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p190. [↩]
  32. Frederick County Will Book 4, p46. [↩]
  33. Frederick County Order Book 15, 1770-1772, p190. [↩]