Holbrook line: John Hayes 1663 -1726

 I've written of John's family before, of his supposed grandfather, Peter Hayes.  Did you notice the word supposed?  I am no longer confident that this ancestor has been traced correctly.  The above Peter had a son Peter who had a son John or John Joseph or Jacob John, but that John seems to have gone to North Carolina and stayed there.  That John was not the John Hayes of Baltimore County, Maryland, the ancestor I'm writing about today.  The only potential clue I have as to our John's parentage is that a John Hayes arrived in Maryland in 1659.  I don't have any proof at all that his is our John's father, but I do think we should look at him and at any other Hayes family in Maryland by the time our John was born about 1663.

Baltimore County Families, by Robert Barnes is a wonderful resource, and he notes that in 1723 our John gave his age in 1723 as 60 years old, which puts further doubt on his being the son of Peter Hayes, as that John was born about 1655.  Barnes says only that John was in Baltimore County by 1686, when he purchased his first land there.  Of course, he could have spent his entire life in Baltimore County but was not legally noticed until he did something that required an official document.  I've checked a few of the most likely church records and haven't found a Barnes family noted, but that means little.  

John's first known wife was Abigail Dixon, the daughter of John and Jane Dixon and the widow of Thomas Scudamore.  They made some land transactions together, mostly connected to Abigail's first husband, but by 1694 they seem to have been settled at a tract known as "Mount Hayes", which was 317 acres in size.  John and Abigail had four daughters before Abigail died sometime prior to 1705.  In 1705, John was married to Elizabeth, who was possibly related to the Longland family, and he is thought to have also married Mary Ann, so Elizabeth may have also died. There is a Mary Ann Hayes in 1718 who was allowed to have a bed, gun, pot, laborer's tools and such household equipment as necessary for subsistence. If this was the same Mary Ann, the couple may have separated after just a brief marriage.  In addition to the three wives, a John Hayes was named by Dorothy Richards as the father of her child in March 1716/1717.  It is more than possible that this was also our John's child.  

John is found in several documents relating to land purchase and sales, and was also a witness to several wills of neighbors.  He had a license to run an "ordinary" in 1717, so he didn't depend solely on farm income to support the family.  

John died sometime in February of 1726, leaving his real estate and most of his personal property to his "son", Thomas Stansbury.   His daughter, Jane Dixon Hayes, had married Thomas Stansbury in 1709, and John must have thought highly of him.  It's quite possible that John was living with his daughter and her husband at the time of his death.   

This is a very fractured picture of our ancestor, and I'm not sure we've put the pieces together correctly.  He may have been a bit of a rake, but Thomas Stansbury, his son in law, seems to have been a perfectly respectable man, and one wonders whether Thomas's family would have approved of his marrying a Hayes daughter, if John was the kind of man he sort of sounds like.  Maybe he was a good man down on his luck, after losing two wives.  It doesn't seem that he would have been granted a license for an ordinary if he was not regarded as an upright citizen.  What do you think?

The line of descent is

John Hayes-Abigail Dixon

Jane Dixon Hayes-Thomas Stansbury

Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch

Rachel Stansbury-Alexis Lemmon

Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick

Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black

Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants