JOSEPH HEDGES.-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 in 1675 and owned property there under the Duke of York's rule, through Governor Fenwick's administration of South Jersey.
His son, Joseph Hedges, of Gloucester and London, born in 1670, and died in 1732, on Monocacy Manor, Prince George's county, Maryland, was twice married. On January 1, 17o8, he married Mary Fettleplace, -of Kingswood, Wilts; Issue, Solomon and Charles, born in England. He married second, September 8, 17Q, Katharine Tingey, of London; Issue, Joshua, Jonas, Joseph, Samuel, Catherine, Ruth and Dorcas, born in America.
Joseph Hedges first located land in what was known as the Marlborough district of Delaware, which was settled by Gloucester people from Marlborough, Bristol and Kingswood. His sons gained a splendid foothold in the American colonies: Solomon won distinction; Charles (father of the subject of sketch), aided in driving Indian hordes from Maryland and amassed a fortune; Joshua patented over one thousand acres of land in Virginia in 1743, and Jonas founded Hedges Villa (Hedgesville, West Virginia), in 1746. Among the men who peopled the frontier, contributed to the development of the middle west, furnished its social background was Joseph Hedges, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, farmer, Revolutionary soldier and pioneer. He was born in 1743 in Frederick county, Maryland, and was the son of Charles Hedges, Sr., and Mary Stille. In 177o he married Sarah Biggs, of the same county, and engaged in farming at "Standing Stone" in Maryland, on a tract of four hundred and thirty-four acres owned jointly with his brother Absalom. During the steady progression from discontent of a colony to the freedom and independence of a nation, with splendid patriotism he renounced' his allegiance to George III. and served his country from September, 1777, to December, 1780, in the companies of Captains Ward and Comb, Regiment of Foot, Continental Troops, commanded by Colonel Oliver Spencer. After the Revolutionary war, in common with many of the settlers on the Atlantic coast, he determined to emigrate to the wilderness of Kentucky, obtaining patents September 1, 1791, for Hedges' Silence, Hedges' Range, Shintaler Gut and resurveys on Fleming's Purchase and Pilgrim's Harbour, for the purpose of conveying these farms to the purchasers. Early in 1792 he started on the long journey, accompanied by his family and slaves, his brother Shadrach and sister, also several Maryland families,-the Troutmans and others, all traveling in Conestoga wagons. About twelve miles above Wheeling they visited Mr. Hedges' brother Charles, who settled at Beech Bottom Fort in Ohio county, Virginia, in 1776. While sojourning here they constructed flat boats to complete their journey down the Ohio river, taking their wagons apart to carry them. Upon reaching Wheeling, Shadrach Hedges having been wounded by an Indian, abandoned the trip and his sister returned to Maryland with him. They drifted down to Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky, three hundred and nine miles from Wheeling, with no especial incident to mark their transit other than the falling overboard of Mr. Hedges' little daughter Jemima and her rescue by her small brother James, who caught her by her floating skirts and pulled her into the boat. Disembarking at Limestone, they coupled their wagons, hitched their horses and followed the Buffalo trail, afterward the State road, to where Paris is now located. Here they pitched their tents for two weeks during very inclement weather, while Mr. Hedges negotiated with Ralph and Mary Morgarn for the purchase of land in the vicinity of Stony Point, near Strode’s creek. On March 25, 1792, the sale was consummated, and he started soon afterward the erection of a substantial and comfortable log house of a story and a half, of roomy dimensions, and assisted by the slaves planted his first crop on Kentucky soil; but his farming venture the first year was not encouraging, nor for succeeding years. The energy expended in clearing a new country and adapting himself to unusual conditions at his age undermined his constitution, and his health gradually failed until the end came in 1804.
He has left a name of prominence in the early annals of Bourbon and the heritage of an honored memory to numerous descendants. His wife survived until 1822, and nine children have perpetuated the race: John, born in 1771, of fine business ability, accumulated a large estate; Charles born in 1773, spent his life at Clintonville; Rebecca, born in 1775, married Mr. McCray, of Middletown; Joseph, born in 1778; James, born in 1783, of Sharpsburg; Jonas, born in 1785, a farmer of Bourbon and Clark counties; Jemima, born in 1790, married Mr. Reid; Samuel, born in 1792, in Kentucky; and Mary, born in 1795, married Dr. Carney, of Ohio.
