The hartsfield family

Margaret Hartsfelder and Humphrey Edwards

Jurian must have died shortly after his deed of 2 Feb. 1688/89 was drawn. In any event he died before January 1690/91 for the “Meting of the Commissioners the 10th of 11th mo. 1690/91” shows that prior to this date Jurian Hartsfield’s widow, Margaret, had married Humphrey Edwards.³³

Apparently Jurian disposed of all of his Germantown lots and land shortly before his death by selling it to Andries Griscom, not just the 75 acres noted on Pastorius’ map of 1688.³⁴

Minutes of the Commissioners meeting cited above show that in the years immediately following Jurian’s death Margaret Hartsfelder Edwards lived with her second husband on land that had previously been in Jurian’s possession, this land doubtless being a part of, or adjacent to, the original Hartsfeld tract. Noting that this tract had been re-surveyed and found to contain 245 acres overplus land, the minutes also show:

Humphrey Edwards, who married the widow of Jurian Hartsfield… Requests he may rent of the Proprietor 30 acres of the said Overplus Land, which was improved by his predecessor, which was granted him for 21 years at a Bushell of Wheat per annum.

Minutes of the meeting of the Commissioners three weeks later show that an option to purchase this overplus land was offered to “Dan’ll Pegg and Thomas Smith’s widdow” with the restriction:

Humphrey Edwards to enjoy 30 Acres of the Land he lives on as tenant to them as was agreed by the Commiss’rs. The said Edwards not makeing waste of timber or firewood, and Accomodation for a Mill by the new Casway reserved of about Six Acres.³⁵

Of Margaret Hartsfield Edwards’ later life nothing is definitely known. It is possible that she and Humphrey moved to Gwynedd in 1702 and to Germantown in 1704, for Humphrey Edwards received a headright grant of 50 acres in Gwynedd in 1702, and in 1704 he bought one hundred acres of land that lay partly within Germantown. Margaret’s name, however, is not mentioned in the deed.³⁶

Burial records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, show that a Margaret Edwards was buried August 21, 1732. Although, as the following account will show, Christ Church was the church with which the next generation of Hartsfields were affiliated, the identity of this Margaret Edwards has not been established.³⁷

4. Sons of Jurian and Margaret Hartsfelder

The preceding account has shown that Jurian and Margaret Hartsfelder were husband and wife during the ten year period of 1679 to 1689, and it is possible that they were married for several years prior to 1679. Did they have any children?

One document provides absolute proof that Jurian Hartzfelder was the father of a son named Godfrey Hartzfelder; and, taken in the context of other documents, it is evident that his mother was Margaret Hartzfelder. Circumstantial evidence provides convincing evidence of another son who, in the only document thus far discovered, was recorded as Adam Hadfield. Other documents list the name of an Andreas Hartzfelder who, by virtue of his Hartzfelder name and his association with Pastorius in Germantown, obviously belonged to Jurian’s family as a son or as a grandson.

1. Adam Hadfield (Hartsfelder?) of Germantown

One document referring to Adam Hadfield, and only one such document, has been discovered:

This Indenture made the twentieth day of the tenth month in the tenth year of the reign of our Sovrign Lady Ann queen of Great Britain &c. and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eleven between Sam¹ Shourds (alias) Sicerts late of Germantown in the county of Phil^a in the province of Penn^a Cooper, but now of the city of Phil^a and Sarah his wife, of the one part and Edw Hatfield one of the Sons of Adam Hadfield of Germantown aforesaid yeoman of the other part.

Witnesseth that the said Sam¹ Shourds and Sarah his wife for and in consideration of the sum of Thirty pounds have granted unto Edward Hadfield all that his lot of Land Scituate in Germantown aforesaid and fronting the Main Street of the same containing in breadth three perches and in length forty-five perches and a half, bounded on one side with a lot or a piece of ground now or late in the tenure of Nelkje Opden Graeff and on the other side with a lot of ground now or late in the tenure of Joseph Shippen, together with a Messuage or Dwelling house thereon erected and being and also all outhouses &c.³⁸

It is proved by this deed that in 1711 Adam Hadfield was the head of a household in Germantown in which there was an adult son named Edward, at least one other son, and apparently others. These facts make it obvious that Edward was born about or before 1690 and that Adam Hadfield must have been born before 1670. No documents show Adam’s place or places of residence prior to 1711, but Edward’s purchase of a house in the town where his father resided is suggestive of the family’s being well-established in that town. Adam had probably been a resident of Germantown for several years prior to 1711.

One might assume that Adam was one of the many undocumented men (chiefly Germans) who arrived in Philadelphia from Europe in the late 1600s and early 1700s, but circumstantial evidence requires a different conclusion, viz., that Adam belonged to the family of Görg Hartsfelder.³⁹ This evidence will be outlined as we follow the story of Edward Hatfield (Hadfield, Hartsfield) below. Here, however, it should be noted that if Adam Hadfield was Jurian’s son, as now seems most probable, he would have been a teenager or a young adult when Jurian moved from Marcus Hook to his Andros Tract on what came to be named Pegg’s Run. If so, he would most likely have worked with his father improving the Hartsfeld tract in the Northern Liberties and also that in Germantown (or Germantown Township).

Pastorius’ note on his 1688 Germantown map shows the transfer of Goerg Hartzfelder’s lot and 75 of his 150 Germantown acres to Andries Griscom. In 1701 Jurian’s son Godfrey Hartsfelder acknowledged Jurian’s transfer of a lot and a half-lot in Germantown and 150 acres in Germantown (i.e. Germantown Township) to Andries Griscom (see below). Apparently, there were no residual Hartsfelder lots or lands in Germantown, but a youthful Andreas Hartzfelder is recorded as a resident there in 1702, and Edward Hadfield’s deed of 1711 apparently places him in the near neighborhood of the lot originally assigned to Goerg Hartzfelder. One wonders: Did Adam Hadfield reside nearby?

Although the possibility of Adam’s owning a Hartsfelder lot remains speculative, there is documentary evidence that Hartsfelder names were transformed by public recorders into many variants, most notably into that of Hatfield and Hadtfield. Documents exhibiting these transformations will be exhibited below, but first a general observation about the anglicizing of German names in Germantown may be relevant to Adam Hadfield.

1. Anglicization of German Names

English speaking recorders of English names were notoriously careless with names, phonetically spelling names as they sounded. The case is even more complex with German names. English recorders wrote German names as they sounded to English ears. Moreover, these sounds often passed through three or four sets of ears—German, Dutch, Swedish and English, i.e., the spelling of the Hartsfelder name in Upland Court records as Hertsveder and Hertsvelder. One of the recorders there being the son of Augustine Hermann, a German speaking Bohemian father (fluent in several languages), and a Dutch mother who had reared their family in Maryland.

In the course of learning to speak English, Germans often, intentionally or unintentionally, themselves adopted what they took to be their English equivalents. In Germantown, for example, Schaeffer became Shepherd, Shumacher became Shoemaker, Fuchs became Fox; and, as the 1711 Edward Hatfield deed shows, Sicerts became Shourds (or vice versa), and Hadfield became Hatfield. Pastorius spelled Sicerts as Sicerdts which makes an interesting comparison to Hadfield-Hadtfield.

In Germany, before the Hartsfelder name reached America, the name Hartfelder became Hertfelder and Herdtfelder; and it doubtless appeared in many other variants.⁴⁰ These were derived from the place name Das Härtsfeld which was written with the a umlaut (ä) requiring an ae sound. Of especial interest here is the “dt” variant of “t” which is suggestive of the Hadfield, Hadtfield, Hattfield, Hatfield variants in America.

In America one can actually follow in recorded documents some of the transformations of the Hartsfelder name into Hartsfield and into Hatfield. The Andros land grant records it as Hartsfelder. Later documents show it as Hartsfielder. Pastorius recorded Jurian’s name as Georges (or Görg) Hartzfelder, but I believe he was using z and s interchangeably. Different records show Godfrey Hartsfielder as Hattfield, Harsfielder, Hartfield, and as Heartsfield. Descendants stabilized the name as Hartsfield although recorders sometimes wrote it as Hartesfield.

Of especial interest are the baptismal records of Christ Church which show:

1. 
   “Andrew Son of Godfree & Katherine Hatfield”
   
2. 
   “Paul Ye Son of Godfree & Kathrine Hartfield.”
   

Here Godfrey Hartsfelder’s name is recorded as Hatfield and as Hartfield—offering an interesting comparison to Edward Hartsfield of Laicon’s deed becoming Edward Hatfield (see below).

In the light of these facts it appears most probable that Adam Hadfield’s name was a transformation from Adam Hartsfelder.

2. Descendants of Adam Hadfield

No documents have yet turned up positively proving the name of Adam Hadfield’s wife or the names of any daughters they may have had. Edward Hatfield’s deed of 1711 proves that he was a son of Adam Hadfield and that there was another son; and it may imply that there were other sons.

Galen R. Hatfield, in his The Hatfield Ancestry, gives some interesting suggestions as to the possible name of Adam’s wife; and he provides strong circumstantial evidence that, in addition to Edward, there was an older son, John, and another son, George. Galen’s work supports and supplements my 1972 descriptions of Edward Hatfield and George Hatfield; and it convincingly identifies both Edward and George as sons of Adam Hadfield. Accordingly, in this revision of my 1972 “The Hartsfield Story,” Edward and George must be listed as sons of Adam Hadfield (Hartsfelder) and as grandsons of Jurian (Görg) Hartsfelder. John Hatfield, an ancestor of Galen R. Hatfield, was not included in my 1972 account. By way of keeping the record straight, he is listed here with a few facts from Galen’s book, but readers are referred to Galen’s The Hatfield Ancestry for the full story of John Hatfield and his descendants.

1. John Hatfield

John Hadfield, formerly a resident of Maidenhead, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and later of Dublin Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, purchased land near Gwynedd in 1717 and settled there with his wife, Elizabeth. They later moved to Norriton Township, settling in an area which became the Hatfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth was a Quaker, and in 1756 (John being deceased) she moved her Quaker membership from Gwynned to Fairfax Monthly Meeting, Fairfax County, Virginia.⁴¹ Her death on June 28th, 1759, is recorded by Christ Church, Philadelphia. Children of John and Elisabeth Hatfield were:

i) Sarah m. Anthony Conrad (Kunders)

ii) Jane m. James Conrad (Kunders)

iii) Elizabeth m. Henry Dismant

iv) Suzannah m. Joseph Turner

v) John m. Katherine Supplee

The Kunders and Supplee families were original settlers of Germantown.

2. Edward Hatfield (Hartsfield)

   1. A Gwynedd Monthly Meeting Connection

So far as is known, the earliest documentary reference to an Edward Hatfield in Philadelphia County is that of the 1711 deed cited above in which his name is also spelled Edward Hadfield. Two years after this (in 1713) an Edward Hadfield witnessed a Quaker wedding in the Gwynedd Monthly Meeting, another witness being a Margaret Hadfield.⁴² Either or both may have been Quakers, but Quaker records sometimes included names of guests who were not Quakers.

Here it should be recalled that Humphrey Edwards, presumably a Quaker who had settled in Pennsylvania in 1683, had married Jurian Hartsfelder’s widow, Margaret Hartsfelder, and in the early 1690s had lived on 30 acres of Jurian’s “overplus” land in the Northern Liberties near Daniel Pegg and Nils Laicon. Humphrey Edwards who married Margaret Hartsfelder was “Of Gwynedd” in 1702, he having obtained a 50 acre headright grant there. In 1704, Humphrey, and presumably Margaret (Hartsfelder) Edwards, moved on to Germantown. In 1708, Humphrey Edwards sold land in and adjacent Germantown to Dirk Jansen, a native of Germany. Margaret (Hartsfelder) Edwards may or may not have been still alive in 1708, but her name was not mentioned in either of the Germantown deeds.

As a Quaker landowner in Gwynedd, Humphrey Edwards at one time, and perhaps still, would probably have been a member of the Gwynedd Monthly Meeting. If so, Margaret (Hartsfelder) Edwards may also have been a Quaker at this time.

Adam Hadfield’s son, Edward Hadfield, is not known to have been married in 1713, although his purchase of a house & lot in Germantown in 1711 suggests otherwise. The Gwynedd Meeting Margaret Hadfield is unidentified, but conceivably could have been a wife of Edward (possibly dying later that year), an otherwise un-recorded sister of Edward, his mother whose name is not known, or some other—perhaps even Margaret (Hartsfelder) Edwards being recorded under the Hadfield name. In any event, there seems to be a strong thread of evidence here identifying this Edward Hadfield, on one hand, with Adam Hadfield’s son Edward Hadfield of Germantown, and on the other hand, with the Jurian Hartsfelder family which had both Germantown and Gwynedd interests.

2. Edward Hatfield and A Laicon Family Connection

Shortly after Jurian settled on his tract called Hartsfeld one of his former neighbors in the Swedish community to the south, Nils Laicon, settled on another tract nearby. Nils was the son of Peter Nilson or Nelson, the family name being variously recorded as Nilson, Nelson, Neilson and Neelson as well as Laicon, Lycon, Laiken and in variant spellings of these names.⁴³

Some idea of the proximity of the residences of Jurian Hartsfielder and Nils Laicon can be gleaned from the tax list of Northern Liberties for 1693.⁴⁴ It shows Neels Loycon as the next land owner after Daniel Pegg (who had purchased the Hartsfeld tract), the names of only three non-land owners separating the two. Jurian, then, had been a very close neighbor of Nils Laicon and following Jurian’s death his widow had continued to be a neighbor of the Laicons for a few years.

Nils Laicon drew his will on December 3, 1721, and died shortly afterward. In the course of listing in his will various bequests to his widow and children he states “Also I give unto Edward Hartsfield or his wife one English shilling and no more.”⁴⁵ It is obvious that one of Laicon’s daughters had married Edward Hartsfield.

In view of the close association of the Jurian Hartsfielder family with the Laicons there is a very strong presumption that this Edward Hartsfield belonged to the Jurian Hartsfielder family— possibly as a son, perhaps as a grandson.

Nils Laicon’s will does not give the name of Edwards’ wife even though it lists another married daughter, Christian, and “my five other daughters: Ann, Elizabeth, Suzanna, Bridget, and Mary.” Church records, however, identify Edward’s wife as Gertrude Laicon and there are some reasons for supposing that she was also named or nicknamed Catherine. The records of the Gloria Dei Church of Philadelphia, the Swedish Lutheran church to which Nils and his family belonged, give the names of this Laicon family in Swedish. Translated into English they appear as “Nicholas Lycon. His wife Marie; Their children John, Peter, Christina, Gertrude, Maria and Anna.”⁴⁶ It should be noted that the name of Elizabeth, one of the daughters named in the will, does not appear in this list, while Gertrude, whose name does not appear in the will, is listed here.

Marriage records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, show:

1714, Feb. 3 Hatfield, Edward and Catherine Liekens.⁴⁷

One might normally suppose that this Catherine Liekens here was some person other than the wife of the Edward Hadtfield who appears in the records of Raccoon Creek as Gartho and Hiertrud (Gertrude), but this supposition is wrong. It should be remembered, as the editor of the Old Dutch Reformed Church of Tarrytown, New York, has pointed out, that in colonial America it was common for church records to carry names other than those by which persons were commonly known.⁴⁸ This seems to be the case here.

Edward Hartsfield and his wife Gertrude (Katherine) moved across the Delaware River into West Jersey where they, along with Gertrude’s sisters Elizabeth Georgen and Christina Kyn, were members of the Swedish Lutheran Church of Raccoon Creek.⁴⁹ Records of this church show:

1719: Frederick and Elizabeth Georgen’s twins, Elizabeth and Maria, born July 10, baptized on 12th. Godfathers: Gustaf Lock, Edward Hatfield, Hiertrud Hadtfield, Annicka Jonsson.

1723: Edward and Maria Hadtfield’s Maria, born Sept. 25, bapt. on 17th. Godparents: Elizabeth Georgen, Christina Kyhn.

1726: Heddert Hatfiell’s and Gertrude Hatffiell’s Adam born on January 6, bapt. Feb. 27. Godparents: Niclas Hoffman, Gustaf Gustafson, Deborah Hoffman, Maria Hoffman.⁵⁰

In spite of the fact that some discrepancies appear in these records, for example the listing of Edward’s wife once as Maria but otherwise as Gertrude (also spelled Hiertrud), the presence of Nils Laicon’s daughters Christina and Elizabeth as godparents of the child of Edward Hadtfield makes it evident that this Edward Hadtfield (Hartsfield) was in fact the person to whom Nils Laicon left only one English shilling.

In any event Edward and Katherine Hatfield lived in Greenwich, Gloucester County, New Jersey where Edward died in or before 1731 leaving a widow Katherine who later married John Middleton. Court records show:

“1731, July 3, Hattfield, Edward of Greenwich, Gloucester Co., tailor, Adm. John Middleton of same place, yeoman, and Katherine my wife, late widow of Edward Hattfield. Witness Sam’1 Bustill, Joseph Base.

“1731, July 3. Oath.”Katherine relict of Edward Hattfield, now the wife of John Middleton, compelled to kill one cow for sustenance of herself and four small children, she being big with child.” Gloucester Wills 140H.⁵¹

Administrations of estates are sometimes delayed until a widow marries again. The unborn child mentioned here was probably that of John and Katherine Middleton.

Compare the following:

1736, March 26. Middleton, John, of Greenwich, Gloucester Co., Yeoman, will. Wife Gartho, executrix and to have estate, real and personal. Sons– John (eldest) and Jacob. Witnesses William Howard, Samuel Shivers. Affirmed 17 May 1736. Libe 4 p. 67.

1736, April 29. Citation: To “Gertrude” widow of John Middleton, to prove will of the deceased.

1736, May 3, Inventory, L 43.5.2, made by Mounce Keen, Samuel Shivers.⁵²

These estate records make it obvious that Edward Hattfield’s wife (“Gartho”) was known by both the name Katherine and the name Gertrude. The name of Mounce Keen here shows beyond doubt that this person is Nils Laicon’s daughter who married Edward Hartsfield. The Catherine Liekens who married Edward Hatfield in Christ Church, Philadelphia, February 3, 1714, was this person.⁵³

3. A Summary Note

Conceivably, we could here be dealing with two distinct individuals named Edward Hatfield: 1) Edward, the son of Adam Hadfield of Germantown who was a yeoman homeowner in Germantown in 1711, and who attended a Quaker wedding in Gwynedd in 1713 at which time he may have been the husband of a wife named Margaret; 2) Edward, possibly the son of Jurian and Margaret Hartsfielder, who married Katherine Laicon in 1714, who was afterward a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church of Raccoon Creek, and who was a tailor of Greenwich, Gloucester County, N. J., when he died in or before 1731. If so, we might be dealing with a nephew and an uncle of the same name.

These two sets of facts, however, do not necessarily refer to two persons. The yeoman Edward Hatfield of Germantown and Gwynedd may well have married Katherine Laicon in 1714 (possibly after the death of a first wife), moved with Laicon relatives to Gloucester County, New Jersey, joined the Swedish Lutheran Church there and followed the vocation of tailor until his death. This is the most probable interpretation of the facts cited. In the absence of any further evidence pertaining to Edward of Germantown, one can plausibly believe that we are here dealing with only one person named Edward Hatfield. If so, this one person was the son of Adam Hadfield of Germantown; and Adam Hadfield’s name must have been an anglicized form of Adam Hartsfelder, he most probably being a son of Görg (Jurian) Hartsfelder.

3. George Hatfield

In the foregoing account of Edward Hartsfield (Hadtfield, Hattfield, Hatfield) documents have been cited which showed his name in the process of being anglicized, or Americanized, into Hatfield. In the records of Gloucester County, N. J., to be cited below, Godfrey Hartsfelder’s name appears as Harsfielder and as Hattfield; in Christ Church records it appeared as Hatfield and as Hartfield; and in Maryland records it appeared as Hartfield and as Hatfield. Godfrey, however, seems to have resisted this tendency and most, if not all, of his descendants in North Carolina preserved the name as Hartsfield, even though in earlier years it was variously spelled as Heartfield, Heartsfield, and as Hartesfield. By contrast, the account of Edward Hartsfield has shown the name in process of becoming stabilized as Hatfield.

In this connection, it is worthy of note that at the time Edward and Godfrey’s names appear on records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, a carpenter named George Hatfield was also affiliated with it. The time, the place, the Hatfield name, and the fact that Adam Hadfield of Germantown had at least one son other than Edward provides exceptionally strong circumstantial evidence that George Hatfield was a son of Adam Hadfield (Hartsfelder), and a grandson of Jurian (Görg) and Margaret Hartsfelder.

George Hatfield was a resident of Philadelphia in 1710 for on March 10 of that year he purchased a house there.⁵⁴ Twelve years later, on September 6, 1722, he drew his will, signed it George (his G mark) Hatfield, and died a month later.⁵⁵ Christ Church burial records show that he was buried on October 12, 1722.⁵⁶ His will, which was probated on March 22, 1723, named his wife Jane, his daughter Susanna Talbot, his daughter Jane Hatfield, and his son George Hatfield. It assigned use of his house to his wife Jane for life after which the house was to become the younger George’s property.

A George Hatfield, apparently the younger George mentioned above, married Mary Moses on July 6, 1739, in Burlington County, New Jersey.⁵⁷ A George Hatfield with his wife Mary and his children were members of Christ Church, Philadelphia, in the 1740s.⁵⁸

In or before 1750 the younger George Hatfield, whose father died in 1722, moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This is shown by a deed of December 7, 1750, in which George Hatfield, a carpenter of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, acknowledges sale of the house in Philadelphia which his father had left for his mother’s use.⁵⁹

1. Andreas Hartzfelder (?) (see below)

1. Andreas Hartzfelder

In his A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names Israel Daniel Rupp includes an appendix headed “Names of the First Settlers at Germantown and Vicinity, From 1683 to 1710.” In this list the name of George Hartzfelder does not appear, a curious omission in view of the repeated mention of the name in warrants for the laying out of Germantown, but an omission which probably indicates that Rupp found no evidence that George Hartzfelder ever resided in Germantown. The list, however, does contain the name of Andreas Hartzfelder.⁶⁰

Rupp does not identify the source from which he got the name of Andreas and it is impossible to determine from Rupp’s list anything about the year in which the name was recorded or about Andreas’ age at the time. There is, however, another record of Andreas Hartzfelder’s presence in Germantown which is a bit more informative about Andreas. It is the list of pupils taught by Pastorius in 1702. Possibly this was the source used by Rupp.

In January 1702 Francis Daniel Pastorius opened a school in Germantown. Regular classes were held during the day for children who were free to attend classes during daylight hours. Additional classes were held in the evening for persons, presumably older youths, who were unable to attend during the day. In 1702 Andreas Hartzfelder was one of fourteen pupils attending evening classes under Pastorius.⁶¹ Presumably, he was an older youth or young adult at the time.

When it is recalled that Jurian, known to Pastorius as George Hartzfelder, had been closely associated with Pastorius in the establishment of Germantown, that Jurian had resided less than five miles from Germantown, and that Humphrey Edwards who married Jurian’s widow lived there as early as 1704, there are exceptionally strong reasons for placing Andreas in the family of Jurian and Margaret Hartsfelder. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact that the only Hartzfelder (Hartsfelder) family names recorded as Hartsfelder (Hartsfielder) in Germantown or Philadelphia in that era were those of Jurian Hartsfelder and Godfrey Hartsfelder.

In another vein of thought, since a very strong case has been made that Adam Hadfield, who lived in Germantown with his sons, was a son of Jurian (Görg) Hartsfelder, he would have been known to Pastorius as Adam Hartzfelder and Pastorius would have recorded names of Adam’s sons as Hartzfelder. Accordingly, so far as we know, Andreas Hartzfelder could have been a son of either Adam Hadfield (Hartzfelder) or Jurian (Görg) Hartzfelder. In either case he was doubtless much younger than Godfrey Hartsfelder.

No further information is presently available on this Andreas Hartzfelder. It should be noted, however, that this Andreas Hartzfelder was not the Andrew Hartsfield, son of Godfrey, who died in Johnston (Wake) County, North Carolina, in 1761. Andreas of Germantown was either an uncle or cousin of the Andrew, son of Godfree and Katherine Hatfield (Hartfield), who was baptized in Christ Church, Philadelphia, in 1714 and who died in Wake County, N.C. in 1761.

3. Godfrey Hartsfelder

In the generation after that of Jurian and Margaret Hartsfielder there was in the Philadelphia area another person bearing the Hartsfelder name, viz., Godfrey Hartsfelder. As was the case with Jurian, the earliest extant records show that he continued to use the “er” ending of his surname, Hartsfielder. As was the case with Edward, recorders of public documents tended to anglicize the name into Hatfield. Unlike Edward for whom the name seems to have been stabilized as Hatfield, Godfrey and most of his descendants preserved the name as Hartsfield. This Godfrey Hartsfield and his wife, Katherine (Walker) Hartsfield, were the ancestors of all of the branches of the North Carolina Hartsfield family.

In “The Hartsfield Story,” first published in 1972, I stated: Godfrey’s presence in the Philadelphia area, his bearing the name Hartsfield, the distinctive use of the “er” ending to his name, and his affiliation with Christ Church, Philadelphia, as the following account will show, all point to the conclusion that he was a son of Jurian and Margaret Hartsfielder.

This conclusion based on circumstantial evidence available to me at that time is now supported by documentary proof. In his The Hatfield Ancestry (1996) Dr. Galen R. Hatfield notes:

Sometimes between 1689 and 1690, in the first registered Germantown land transaction (parcel A) , Jurian sold his Germantown estate and 75 acres in Krisheim to Andrew Griscom” … and “In February of 1701, ‘Godfrey Hartzfelder son and heir of Julian Hartsfelder’ confirmed in a deed his father’s sale of 150 acres in Germantown to Andrew Griscom”⁶²

The document on which this is based proves definitively that Godfrey was a son of Jurian, and it also makes possible an estimate of the approximate year in which he was born. That is, he must have been an adult who had just recently come of age when he signed it, thus making his year of birth about 1680. This would establish his age as approximately sixty-three years when in 1744 he moved from Maryland to North Carolina (see below), so it is not likely that he would have been born before 1680. Taken together these facts prove that Margaret Hartsfelder, who is known to have been the wife of Jurian (Görg) Hartsfelder at that time, was his mother.

In or before 1710 Godfrey Hartsfield married Katherine Walker and established his home among his Walker in-laws on Pennsoakin Creek in Waterford Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey.⁶³ This is shown by two deeds. One of these deeds was to “Sam^ll Burroughs from John Walker Junr.” Drawn October 11, 1714, the deed describes a tract of “One Hundred & Five Acres of Land and meddow Ground Lying and Being on the West Side of Penshoakin Creek.” The deed states that the tract:

Includes the five Acres and odd perches of meddow Ground which Godfory Harsfielder and Katherine his Wife Reserved to themselves when they sould the Premises to me the aforesaid John Walker within which Lynes Is contained one Hundred and five Acres of Land with all the Improvements thereupon made with appurtenances which sd one hundred and Five Acres of Land was Purchased by John Walker the Elder of Robert turner by Virtue of a Deed Baring Date the fourteenth day of September Anno Domini 1698 And by A Deed of gift made by the sd John Walker Y^e Elder to Godfory Harsfielder & Katherine his Wife baring Date the ninth of the fouerth month Anno Domini 1710 Conveyed unto them and by the sd John Walker the Younger Purchased of the sd Godfory Harsfielder & Katherine his Wife As doth and may apeare by a small deed or Assignment upon the back of the said Deed Baring Date the twentyth Day of the third month Anno Domini 1712.⁶⁴

The deed immediately preceding this one is listed as “Samuel Burroughs his Deed from Godfory Harsfielder & Katherine his Wife.” It describes a 150 acre tract on the “southerly Branch of Penshoakin Creek” bordering land of John Herritage. This tract had been purchased by John Walker the Elder from Samuel Coles in 1703, given by John Walker the Elder to his son John Walker the Younger in 1712, and “By me the sd John Walker the Younger by Indenture Baring date the 4th of the 4th mo Anno Dominin 1712 conveyed unto Godfory Harsfielder and Katherine his wife.” Dated the “first day of the Eygth month in the Yeare of our Lord one thousand seven Hundred fouerteen,” this deed was signed by Godfrey (his G? mark) Harsfielder and Katherine ( her K mark) Harsfielder.⁶⁵

No records of names of children of Godfrey and Katherine who were born prior to 1714 have been found but, as the account to be given below of Godfrey and his sons in North Carolina will show, they undoubtedly had a son born during these years. They may possibly have had a daughter Christina born in the earliest years of their marriage.⁶⁶

Following the sale on October 11, 1714, of their land in Gloucester County, New Jersey, Godfrey and Katherine moved to Philadelphia. Here they were members of Christ Church, Philadelphia, the church in which Edward Hatfield (Hartsfield) had been married earlier that year. Baptismal records of Christ Church show:

Baptized Anno dom: 1714

Andrew Son of Godfree & Katherine Hatfield

Bap. Nov. 3 Aged Eleven months⁶⁷

Baptized for Ye Year 1717

Paul Ye Son of Godfree & Katherine Hartfield

Octob 14 Aged 5 months⁶⁸

Of Katharine’s life nothing further is known. She may have died early or she may have lived long enough to accompany Godfrey in his migrations south. Of Godfrey’s later life, however, a few facts of interest are known.

At some time between 1717 and 1726 Godfrey moved to Cecil County, Maryland. On December 16, 1726, John Williams, Richard (his R mark) Arindill and Godfrey (his G? mark) Hartsfield witnessed the will of Richard Touchstone in Cecil County, Maryland. In the will Touchstone names his wife Christiana and his son Andrew. The will was probated three years later and on August 13, 1729, Godfrey Hartsfield and Richard Arindill appeared personally in court to testify to the signature of Richard Touchstone on the will.⁶⁹

Later that year Godfrey moved from Cecil to Baltimore (now Harford) County, Maryland. This is shown by an “Indenture made the 20th Day of December Anno Domini 1729 by and Between John Cooper of the County of Baltemore in Maryland of the one Part Yeoman and Godferry Hatfield of Cecil County in Maryland Planter on the other part.” The indenture describes Cooper’s lease to Godferry Hatfield of a tract of:

…forty acres of land that place where Joseph Cantrel Began in Baltemore County in Maryland upon the Susquhannah River and also ten acres of that Tract of Land of the said John Cooper where the said Godferry Hatfield shall see good for his use and the Heirs of his Body by the River side in the whole fifty acres of Land Situate Standing and being in the County of Baltemore in Maryland upon Susquehanna River Called the Desert of Arabia.

The lease was for a period of twenty-one years. In return for the use of this land Cooper stipulated that:

…for the first year the said Godferry Hatfield or the heirs of his body is to give the makeing of a Pair of Horse Traces and for the second year the makeing of a Plow and for the Nineteen Years after a Barrell of Indian Corn for Each Year till the Nineteen Years be fully Compleated and Ended…

The lease, signed by John Cooper and witnessed by George Cole and Henry Cole, was registered March 5, 1729.⁷⁰

Godfrey probably spent several years here, but he did not continue his lease for the full twenty-one years. In or before 1745, as part of a migratory wave which carried a number of families from the Baltimore area to North Carolina, he moved with his family to North Carolina.

During the years of their residence in Baltimore (Harford) County, Maryland, the Hartsfields developed friendships and alliances with a number of families who were also a part of the movement to the south. Of these the McElroys, who like the Hartsfields lived on the west bank of the Susquehanna River, seem to have been their closest associates.⁷¹ Both families moved to Craven County, North Carolina in the early 1740s or late 1730s. Most prominent of the Hartsfield acquaintances who moved south was the family of Richard Caswell, a merchant of the Baltimore (Harford) County area. Richard Sr. with his five sons moved to Craven County, North Carolina, about the time the Hartsfields moved there. He and his sons settled in and about Kinston (now in Lenoir County), North Carolina, where Richard Jr. became prominent in military and political affairs.⁷² Godfrey’s sons, John and Paul, settled a bit north of Kinston but in the same district as the Caswells. In 1780 the names of both John and Paul appear on a tax list of Captain John Kennedy’s District, Major-General Richard Caswell’s name heading the list.⁷³

On February 1, 1744, Godfrey Hartfield purchased

…98 acres of land lying and being in the County aforesaid [Craven] on the north side of the Neuse River beginning at a white oak standing on Sandy Run Running thence S. 81° E 120 poles to a white oak thence 88° W 100 poles to a pine standing on Sandy Run thence, down the Run to the first station for ninety acres.⁷⁴

Witnesses to the deed were John Giles and John Fishpool. On the same date John Fishpool purchased 48 acres on Sandy Run, the deed for this land being witnessed by John Giles and Godfrey (his G mark) Heartfield.⁷⁵

By today’s calendar the year for these deeds would be 1745, the calendar prior to 1752 having begun the dating of the new year on March 25 of each year.

Seven months later, “at a Court of Quarter Sessions begun and held at Newbern the 17th day of Sept. Anno 1745,” there was recorded:

A Deed from Thomas Lewis to Godfrey Heartfield for Ninety Eight Acres of Land was proved by the Oath of John Giles. Said Godfrey Heartfield prays the same may be admitted to record. Granted.⁷⁶

The area in which Godfrey settled was in 1745 in Craven County, but with a division of the County in 1746 it fell into Johnston County, and with another division in 1759 it became a part of Dobbs County. In 1791 Dobbs County was divided into Greene (initially named Glasgow) and Lenoir, but it is not known with certainty whether Godfrey’s tract fell into the area of Greene County or of Lenoir County. Possibly it lay on a Creek named Sandy Run which flows through the southern part of Greene County and which is just a bit north of Wheat Swamp which separates Greene from Lenoir County. It seems a bit more likely, however, that Godfrey settled on a stream, possibly the one now known as Wheat Swamp, in the area now included in Lenoir County.⁷⁷ In any event, Godfrey’s sons John and Paul Hartsfield settled in Lenoir County, probably near the present site of Institute.⁷⁸ Godfrey’s grandchildren lived on farms along the south side of Wheat Swamp, some of these lands still (1972) being owned by his descendants.

Godfrey probably died within a few years of his having acquired the 98 acre tract on Sandy Run, for there are no further records pertaining to him. His associate John Fishpool continued to acquire land for a few years even though he was already an old man, but Godfrey apparently did not.⁷⁹

1. A Concluding Note on Some of Godfrey Hartsfield’s Descendants in North Carolina

When Godfrey moved from Maryland to North Carolina he was accompanied by at least three sons, John, Andrew, and Paul. Of these, baptismal records of Andrew and Paul in Christ Church, Philadelphia, have already been cited. No records of John’s birth and baptism have been found, but the fact that Godfrey is known to have been married to Katherine Walker for at least four years before the birth of Andrew and the fact that John and Paul settled together in Dobbs (Lenoir) County, North Carolina, and were closely associated with each other there for forty years, provide reasonable grounds for believing that John was also a son of Godfrey and Katherine.

It is possible, indeed likely, that Godfrey and Katherine had other sons and daughters, but none have been positively identified.⁸⁰ A George Heartsfield lived in the Wheat Swamp area of Johnston County (later Dobbs County) in 1755, for in that year his name appears on a list of the company of Captain Simon Herring.⁸¹ Possibly this George was a son of Godfrey, but it is also possible, and a bit more likely, that he was a son of John or Paul.⁸²

Of the three sons of Godfrey and Katherine who migrated to North Carolina with Godfrey, Andrew settled in that part of Johnston County which in 1770 became Wake County. Here he was closely associated with the McElroys, who as noted above, had lived near the Hartsfields on the west bank of the Susquehanna River in Maryland.⁸³ Born in 1714, probably in Gloucester County, New Jersey, Andrew was probably married about 1736 and probably in Baltimore County, Maryland. He was the father of four children at the time his father, Godfrey, purchased the Sandy Run tract in North Carolina. This Andrew, son of Godfrey, was the ancestor of all the Hartsfields listed as heads of households in the 1790 U.S. Census for Wake County, N.C. He was also the father of Jacob Hartsfield who in 1790 lived in Franklin County, North Carolina.

John and Paul Hartsfield settled in that part of Johnston County which passed successively into Dobbs then into Lenoir County. Through them Godfrey and Katherine were the progenitors of all of the Hartsfields whose names are listed in the 1790 U.S. Census for Dobbs County, N.C.

Very little data is available on John and Paul for most of the records of early Johnston County, Dobbs County, Greene County, and Lenoir County were destroyed by fire.⁸⁴ Nevertheless, there are a few surviving fragments of records on the basis of which a few facts about their lives and the lives of their descendants can be reconstructed.

John and Paul probably lived near the present site of Institute. A surviving cross-index of deeds for Johnston County shows a deed from Archibald McIllroy to Paul Hartsfield made in 1748 and a deed from Paul Hartsfield to John Hartsfield in 1750.⁸⁵ It also shows several exchanges of deeds between John Hartsfield and Abel (or Abial) Smith in 1755.⁸⁶ On October 12, 1762, Paul Heartsfield witnessed a deed from Edward Searls to William Walker. This deed describes the sale of 140 acres of land on the west prong of Falling Creek bounded by John McKilroy’s land.⁸⁷

As tax lists of 1769 and 1780 show, John and Paul Hartsfield continued to live in close association for many years.⁸⁸ Both were economically successful farmers, John’s estate in 1780 being valued for tax purposes at more than 1900 pounds and Paul’s at more than 3400 pounds. Both were too old for military duty in 1781, their names appearing on a Dobbs County list of”Names of Men Overage.” ⁸⁹ Both in 1790 were still living in the Wheat Swamp area of Dobbs County.⁹⁰

One son of Paul Hartsfield can be identified beyond reasonable doubt, Paul Hartsfield Jr. The 1780 tax list for Captain Kennedy’s District shows him next to Paul Hartsfield Sr., a young man with property valued at 400 pounds.⁹¹ A military list of 1781 shows that he enlisted in the Continental Line for one year and that he was then 23 years of age.⁹²

Two sons of John Hartsfield can be identified beyond reasonable doubt, David Hartsfield and John Hartsfield Jr.⁹³ David was probably the older of the two. Both men probably lived out their lives in Dobbs (Lenoir) County residing near their father. John Jr.’s name appears on the tax list of 1769, although for some unknown reason David’s does not.⁹⁴ In 1777 the names of both David and John Jr. appear on a list of draftees for Captain Kennedy’s Company, the names of John Hartsfield Jr. and John Hartsfield [David’s son] also appearing on it.⁹⁵

The 1780 tax list of Captain Kennedy’s District in Dobbs (Lenoir) County lists John Hartsfield Jr. very near David Hartsfield and both very near John Hartsfield Sr. Both John Jr. and David owned property valued at 400 pounds.⁹⁶ This proximity of their residences, and the fact that by contrast to John Sr. neither had acquired much of an estate, provide grounds for believing that both were of a younger generation than John Sr. and that both were his sons. Both David and John Jr. were still living in Dobbs County in 1790, David being listed next to John Sr. in the 1790 U.S. Census, and John Jr. being listed next to Shadrack Hartsfield. Possibly Shadrack was a son of John Jr., but this has not been proved.

David Hartsfield is of particular interest to many Hartsfield descendants because the lineage of many of his descendants is fully documented. He was the father of John Hartsfield, a Revolutionary War soldier who later married Peggy Morris, and whose pension record provides proof that he was a son of David.⁹⁷

David was a young married man in 1758, the year in which his son John was born.⁹⁸ He lived on Wheat Swamp in Dobbs (Lenoir) County where he evidently spent his entire life. It may be inferred that he was born in the mid-1730s, for in 1777 he was drafted into Captain Kennedy’s Company, but in 1781 he, like the elder John and Paul, was too old for service.⁹⁹

Prior to his becoming overage David did serve in the militia of Dobbs County. A list of militia under command of Colonel James Glasgow shows:

We the subscribers Volunteers and Drafts from the Dobbs Regiment of Militia do acknowledge severally to have received from Col. James Glasgow the sum of money to our respective names affixed for which we promise to perform the duty of militia in Time of War by Law directed Given Under our Hand at Kingston this 14th day of July 1780.

Beneath the inscription is a list of 34 names including “David (his D mark) Heartsfield. Three hundred dollars.”¹⁰⁰

It is possible that David had no active service during the Revolutionary War for the pension application of his son clearly states that one of his periods of duty was as a substitute for his father David Hartsfield.

David probably died before 1800 for, although he is listed in the census of 1790, he is not listed in any later census.

With David this part of “The Hartsfield Story” must be brought to a close. The story of David’s descendants through his son John, the Revolutionary War soldier, requires a separate and full account in its own right.