William Hyde of NC and AL (approx 1795-1835) married Charlotte Parker (approx 1803-1885)

Descendants of William Hyde generously shared with us the research of genealogist Traci Thompson of the Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount, which shows that William Hyde was a descendant of Richard Hyde “the Pirate” of Chippoakes Creek, VA. Her remarks originally appeared in our comments section and are copied here.

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William Hyde who married Charlotte Parker of Edgecombe County, NC is the son of Stephen Hyde of Halifax & Anson Counties, NC. Here is the evidence for this conclusion: David, Stephen, Richard, & John Hyde are all present in the records of both Northampton and Halifax; deeds in Halifax stating residence in Northampton provide evidence that these are the same people. For example, Halifax County deed book 9 p. 143, David (X) Hyde of Northampton County sold Halifax land to Abraham Johnston. Probate records for these men also overlap counties; for example, David Hyde’s will is recorded in Northampton, but he also has estate records in Halifax, as he had assets there; the same is true for Richard Hyde who died by March 1784 and who had a Northampton County will, but also owned land in Halifax. Information correlated from the wills, deeds, and estate records of these men in both counties provide ample evidence that David was the father of John, Richard, and Stephen. Halifax County deed book 19, p. 3 provides direct evidence of these relationships, and for the fact that Stephen Hyde had relocated to Anson County, NC: “Stephen Hyde of Anson County to his brother John Hyde’s orphans (Mary Hyde & Rhoda Williams) 7 April 1801. Relinquish title to 100 acres formerly called Dentons, on the south side of Roanoke River. Also if land below Eaton’s Ferry should belong to my father’s estate, then title also to said orphans. Wit.: Peter Woodson, D. Hobbs.” (DB 19, p. 3). This last bit apparently refers to the Halifax deed of David (X) Hyde of Northampton County to William Eaton Jr. of same, 17 November 1771, 300 acres which Hyde had purchased from Abraham Johnston, and 2 acres “including said Hyde’s ferry landing, joining Roanoke River” & a strip of land 2 feet wide, witnessed by John Hyde. (DB 12, p. 66).

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Stephen Hyde is present in the Anson County grantor/grantee indexes from 1789 until in 1815, when as recorded in DB R p. 96, the real estate of Stephen Hyde deceased was divided into roughly two equal parts between Stephen Hyde & William Hyde. The Edgecombe County deed in which William Hyde sold the land Charlotte Parker had inherited from her father states: “2/3 of an [undivided] tract in Edgecombe containing by estimation 204 acres on the west side of Deep Creek adjoining Benjamin Bell, Alston Savidge, and others being formerly owned by Jonas Park[er] & the said William Hide claims one third part of the premises by ‘wright of wife,’ one other third part by purchase from Marmaduke Hill & Elizabeth Hill.” I had looked in vain for the transaction between William Hyde and the Hills; it should have been recorded in Edgecombe County, but apparently was not. After realizing that Stephen Hyde had relocated to Anson County, we checked the Anson deeds – sure enough, it is there. Anson County, NC deed book U, p. 103, Marmaduke Hill & Elizabeth his wife to William Hyde, all of the county of Anson, “one third part of the tract of land situate[d] lying & being in the County of Edgecomb[e]…on Deep Creek formerly owned by Jones [sic, Jonas] Parker being Elizabeth Hills part of the land… containing 204 acres.” A look at the census records of Anson County shows Stephen Hyde present there on the 1790 & 1800 censuses; he is the only Hyde in Anson County; he is deceased by 1815 when his land was divided between his two surviving heirs; by 1820, William Hyde is head of household and is the only Hyde in Anson County.

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William and Charlotte’s son Stephen, named for his grandfather, was born ca. 1820 in NC according to his census records; he likely was born in Anson County, NC. Also, Stephen Hyde Sr. married Susannah Collson in Anson County; correlation of her father’s 1789 will and Stephen’s timeline fit perfectly, and reveal that Stephen & Susannah’s oldest son & daughter were John Collson Hyde & Jane Hyde. Both were deceased by Stephen Hyde Sr.’s death; William and Charlotte named their oldest son John, which would have been for his deceased brother and maternal grandfather, and the 2nd son was Stephen, for the paternal grandfather, which fits usual Southern naming patterns perfectly (they also had a daughter named Martha Jane; the name Jane is seen throughout the David Hyde family). The mystery of what ultimately happened to William is still open, and may be hampered by the fact that he was in both Anson County & the AL frontier; Anson is a burned county, and very few county records aside from deeds exist prior to ca. 1849. The last deed in Anson for William as a grantor is 1823.   

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Further information…one question has been, if William Hyde was in Anson County & Charlotte Parker was in Edgecombe County, how did they meet? This mystery, thankfully, has largely been solved. Charlotte’s mother & Jonas Parker’s wife was Zilpa (or other variants such as Zilphia, etc.) Wells (also variant Wills). Zilpa was the daughter of Thomas Wills who d. ca. 1766 in Edgecombe County. After Jonas’ death, Zilpha remarried to Abner Pitman, son of Joseph Pitman of Edgecombe County, at some point in either late 1814 or 1815 – Zilpha is still a Parker in an Edgecombe County deed from 1814 but is absent from the Edgecombe County 1815 tax list; as with the Hydes, Abner Pitman relocated to Anson County, and is present on the 1815 Anson Co. tax list. In 1817, Edgecombe County deed book 00 p. 219-220, Abner Pitman of Anson County, NC leases what appears to be the land on Deep Creek that Jonas willed to Zilpa for her lifetime with reversion to the daughters. It appears likely that after Abner married Zilpa the family, including Charlotte, moved with him to Anson; Susannah Hyde (widow of Stephen Sr.), Stephen Hyde Jr., William Hyde (still under his guardian, William Wall), & Abner Pitman are all in the same district on the Anson Co. 1815 tax list, which would put William & Charlotte in close proximity. It seems reasonable that they therefore met & married in Anson County, NC. at some point between 1815-1818 (the year of the birth of their first child). Further evidence of Zilpa’s family & 2nd marriage is found in Halifax Deed Book 27, page 320, in which Zilpha Pitman sells land stated to have been inherited from her brother, Thomas Wells, & Zilpa’s estate papers; Abner & Zilpa apparently returned to Edgecombe by 1819, as Abner Pitman has existing estate papers there in that year, and Zilpa’s estate papers under Zilpa Pitman are in Edgecombe dated ca. 1835. Charlotte Hyde, Olive Bell, & John Parker were all buyers at the estate sale. Upon Zilpa’s death, Jonas’ land reserved for the daughters was divided according to the stipulations of the will, and divided among Mrs. Martha Pearce (Martha/Patsey Parker had married Bryan/Bryant Pearce, who had died shortly before); Mrs. Charlotte Hyde (her husband William had sold her share of the land in 1825 to her brother John Parker, but because he gained it through her inheritance, by law to clear title she was supposed to give her consent to the sale; her consent is not recorded, apparently thereby rendering the sale void, which explains why Charlotte was able to inherit after that sale); and John Parker, who had acquired his sister Elizabeth/Betsy Hill’s share from William Hyde, who had purchased it from Elizabeth & Marmaduke Hyde, recorded in Anson Co.). 

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 I checked the grantor/grantee index for Sumter County, AL; the only William Hyde that appears has wife MARIA and so would seem to be William Hyde who married Maria Beazley. The four patents are dated 1837; the earliest deed for William & Maria was dated July 1836. The deeds are, very briefly: DB B p. 246, 239 acres from William Hyde and wife Maria to Lyle B. Faucett, 1836; DB G p. 21, 160 a. from William and Maria to Nathan Goree, 1840; DB G p. 190, mortgage deed, William and Maria indebted, 1841; DB G p. 534 and 564, deeds of trust, 1842/1843. As well as William who married Maria, there are two other Hyde/Beazley marriages; Richard Beazley who married Catherine Hyde, and also Charles Beazley who married Thursa Hyde. Most of these ended up in Texas by way of migration across the Deep South; while the death certificate of one of Thursa’s children says she was born in VA, the 1850 census of Caddo, LA says she was born in NC. There appears to be a Bible record for the Charles & Thursa family in the records of DAR. 

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Debra Kinney (descendant) notes:

I’m so thankful for the research recently made available from Traci Thompson at the Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount, NC. There are a couple of us that descend from this Hyde line and are very pleased to see the line traced back to Stephen Hyde of Anson, NC (1751-1815), son of David Hyde (1713-1785), son of Richard Hyde, II (1675-1719), son of Richard Hyde, I (1652-1710). More research shows connections with the Alston/Stallings/Deal/Abrams and Holland families (example: Benjamin James Hyde (1861-1900), son of Stephen Hyde, married Mary A. Holland (1870-1936). And, as Traci put it, “all roads seem to lead to Martin County, NC” for the Hyde line especially from 1850-1940. I am hoping that this recent discovery of the William Hyde line will open more doors in tracing his (and Charlotte’s) sons, John William and Stephen Hide/Hyde. A military record suggests that John William served in the Civil War for 4 months and was discharged due to a disability; and Stephen is last seen in the 1870 census for Upper Conetoe farming. Previously, he was the overseer to the Williams’ farm in Martin, NC (1850-1860). Skipping a generation or two, I know that Mike is anxious to find the missing pieces to Pearl Hyde just as I am in finding out Nick Hyde’s parents’ identities. We believe Nick and Pearl to be brother and sister, but perhaps with 1 different parent. Back to the subject at hand…many thanks to Traci Thompson for the William Hyde research documentation and discovery!

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Ann Sterling notes:

Stephen Hyde of Anson County was married to Susannah Colson, daughter of John Colson and widow of Richard Fanning. Both Colson and Fanning were Tories. Link to the Battle of Colson’s Mill https://amrevnc.com/battle-colsons-mill/

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The marriage record between William and Charlotte Parker that appears in most family trees is actually that of another couple, William B Hood and Charlotte Parker of Wake County, NC who migrated to TN. William Hood left a will in Carroll County, TN probated in 1842. 

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The 1820 federal census shows William and Charlotte were living in Coppedge, Anson County, NC. Where did they live from approximately 1825 – 1835? On at least one record, William and Charlotte’s eldest son is showing as born in Montgomery, Alabama. This could not be the case as he appears in Anson in the the aforementioned census. It’s possible that family did spend time in or near “Alabama Town” which eventually became the present-day city of Montgomery, within the county of Montgomery. In Edgecombe County, NC deed book 18, page 243 (image pg 276 of 591 in the film) dated 5 Jan 1825 William Hide is referred to as being of “Autauga County, state of Allabamma” (following these links requires a free account from Family Search) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L983-NGY2?i=275&cat=306915 It’s probable that William traveled to NC to sign the document, leaving Charlotte in AL. We know that a widowed Charlotte was back in Edgecombe by at least 1835, as a buyer in her mother’s estate sale and the settlement of her father’s estate. Edgecombe County Deeds Vol 21 1833-1837 pages 256-257 (169-170 of 906 on film #007551307) records her agreement to the division https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DK-LZ76?i=168&cat=306915

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Charlotte appears in all the censuses, tax rolls and other documentation for Deep Creek, Tarboro PO, Edgecombe County between approx 1836-1885. She and William might have had more than four children as there’s a ten year age gap between the middle two, and some marriages in “Sumpter” County might belong to this family, or possibly to a relative of William Hyde’s who accompanied them to Alabama.

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Charlotte lived to approximately age eighty. On 11 April, 1885, her surviving grandchildren petitioned the county to be able to sell some of her land to pay off her debts. What these documents provide is a snapshot of all her surviving grandchildren at that point in time. John W Hyde Jr, the son of Charlotte’s eldest son, had been her guardian, but did not appear in court to renew his guardianship in 1881. He was replaced by a court appointed guardian, a Mr Fauntain. James T Hyde, who went by his middle name Thomas, was Charlotte’s youngest son. He appears to have been the only one of her children still living by 1885. He was married to Martha Pittman and is mentioned in the inventories. Henry Parker, possibly a brother or nephew, is also mentioned. Charlotte’s grandchildren are John W Hyde Jr of Edgecombe, age 36; Eugene H Hyde of Edgecombe age 34; William T Baker of Halifax age 30; George Baker, who could not be located and was somewhere out of state; Mollie E Weaver of Martin, age 37; David Hyde of Nash age 34; Stephen H Hyde of Edgecombe age 34; Benjamin J Hyde is listed once in the summons with Stephen H, no age or location given; and Lewis Anderson of Halifax, age 8. Lewis had been named “Whit” but this was crossed out and replaced in all the documents. The court appointed his father, James Anderson, as his guardian.