This leaves Charles and Joseph Hedges, both of whom according to their father's will were destined to go to Virginia. Neither did. Nor did their sister Catherine, who stayed on in the Monocacy area with her two husbands, Jacob Julien and Joseph Wood. Joseph Hedges became a tenant on the Monocacy Manor, married and had but a single child Rebecca before he died in 1753. His widow Mary, later the wife of John Wilson, and his brother Charles Hedges were Joseph's executors. Joseph's will provided that. should his daughter Rebecca die before coming of age, half his land should go to the children of his brother Charles Hedges. She did not die, but was raised by Charles Hedges and in storybook fashion married her first cousin Charles Hedges Jr.. As a result, they together inherited the 150-acre lease to Lot No. 10 on Monocacy Manor! So it was that Charles Hedges, alone among the nine children who came to Maryland with their parents, continued the Hedges story in Frederick Coaunty With his brothers Solomon and Joshua, he was listed as a taxable in Monocacy Hundred in 1733. In 1736 he journeyed all the way back to New Castle County where at Old Swedes Church in Wilmington on February 12th he married a Mary Stilley, The daughter of Jacob Stilley. In the same year he was appointed by the Prince George's County Court as overseer of the road from Mill Branch to Monocacy Manor. On may 8, 1740 he purchased "Hedges Delight" for fifty pounds from Solomon and Rebecca Hedges, who then were residents in Virginia. On the same day Solomon and Rebecca transferred title to "Hedge Hogg' to Jacob Nafe (Neff), blacksmith, for #127/10 "for his own use and no other purpose." Charles Hedges witnessed this deed and collected the alienation fine of 10sh 3d. The amount paid for the land at a time when land was free or only a few pennies an acre probably indicates that considerable improvements had been made by the Hedges family after their arrival in Maryland. For a blacksmith, its location must also have been important, suggesting considerable growth in the neighborhood and the importance of the road junctions nearby.
