================================================== ===================================================================== Match: Bowles Source: [email protected] From: "Bob Hodges" <[email protected]> Subject: [HODGES] Hodges Lineage III: Robert Hodges (Part 4) We already introduced the younger Robert Hodges in differentiating from his presumed father Robert Hodges. The younger Robert was 90-100 years old in the 1830 Census, thus born between 1730 and 1740. The elder Robert is called Robert Hodges Senior in 1758, so Robert may have been of age by that time. From this I have generally placed his birth as around 1737. This is from the revised Cemetery Records of Franklin County published by the Franklin County Historical Society. This is recorded as the Bowles/Hodges Cemetery, approx. 1/2 mi. from 734 n. of Carolina Springs Church. 1/2 mi. to the left behind Carolina Springs cemetery on Carolina Springs Road. Hodges burials: Frank Hodges 1817-1892 Anne Elizabeth Riffie Hodges d. 1883 1st wife of Frank Hannah Hodges 2nd wife of Frank Robert Hodges 1770-1880 Came from Dublin, Ireland 1777, husband of Frances Frances Hodges, wife of Robert I am very skeptical about the accuracy of this information. The tombstone alleges that he was born in 1770 and died in 1880, making him 110 years old. I think that is implausible, though not impossible. Let's work at the issue from the other direction. Frank (Franklin D.) Hodges who married Hannah Hodges was probably not born in 1817 or died in 1892. I think the 1817 comes from the Census. Franklin County marriage records show that Franklin Hodges, age 32, son of Robert and Anna, married Hannah S. Ellis, 38, daughter of Zachariah and Malinda, Feb. 22, 1859. County death records show that Hannah Hodges, white female, age 47, died Jul. 10, 1865 of consumption, daughter of Zachariah and Linda Ellis, spouse of F.D. Hodges, who reported the death. Franklin Hodges, age 56, died May 28, 1883, of pneumonia, born in Franklin Co., son of Robert D. Hodges. There is no marriage record in Franklin County for Frank and Anne Elizabeth Riffie, but Anne was more likely his second wife. These records make it clear that Frank was born in 1827, not 1817. This is consistent with his parents, Robert D. Hodges and Anna Harger Woody, being married Oct. 17, 1825 (bond date). Anna's name is given as Amy Woody by Wingfield, Marriage Bonds of Franklin County, Virginia 1786-1858 at 118. The surety was Edward Jones, Robert's brother-in-law, who married his sister, Elizabeth (Betsey), Jul. 25, 1805. Wingfield, at 130. Anna Harger Woody was the daughter of John Harger and the widow of Thomas Woody (marriage bond Mar. 21, 1814). This information is given in Dorothy Chambers Watts, The Tyree Tree 138 Robert D. Hodges was the son of Robert Hodges, one of the early settlers in what is now Franklin County, who died in 1832. Robert is named in his father Robert's will and inherited the bulk of his father's land under Chestnut Mountain. Land tax records identify him as Robert D. Hodges. Robert D. was age 56 in the 1860 Census and 77 in the 1870 Census. It seems likely that his birth occurred about 1794. He does not appear in the 1880 Census, and probably died before 1880. Robert D.'s father Robert, who died in 1832, was born between 1731 and 1740 according to the 1820 and 1830 censuses. He was tithable in the 1767 Pittsylvania tithe listing, but does not appear in the 1748-50 Lunenburg County tithes, suggesting he was born after 1734. His wife named in his 1823 will, proven in 1832, was named Elizabeth, although she may have been a second wife. Occasionally, researcher call Robert Hodges, the son of Isham, Robert D. Hodges. I have not seen any records that call him that. Typically in the Franklin County personal property tax lists, he is called Robert Hodges Jr. or Robert Hodges Owens Creek. In one census he is called Robert B. Hodges, but I think this is because in the Franklin County land tax list he was listed as Hodges Robert Blacksmith, which probably indicated his trade rather than his name. He was born about 1770, and probably died in Tennessee about 1850. This may be where the 1770 birth date on the tombstone came from. That date can be derived from census and marriage records easily. But I think it is the wrong Robert Hodges I think on this evidence, it is most likely that the Robert Hodges buried in the Bowles Hodges cemetery is Robert D. Hodges, father of Franklin D. Hodges, born about 1794 in Franklin County, and died about 1880. There is no evidence that he came from Ireland. Personal property tax records establish that his father was in Franklin County more or less continuously from about 1779, probably from about 1763, and possibly since the first Robert Hodges (probably the elder Robert's father) came to the area by 1747. The Bowles connection comes from Sallie Eva Rena Hodges Bowles 3-1873 4-1951. She married Edward Bowles Jun. 9, 1892. I do not have the records available, but I think the 1880 census would show she was a daughter of Frank Hodges and granddaughter of Robert D. Hodges. It is interesting that there is a tradition of Irish origin in this family, because there is also one in my family. One of my Hodges lines is from Elijah Hodges, brother of Robert D. Hodges. In the 1920's, One of Elijah's grandsons wrote that the Hodges were supposed to be of Irish descent. If the inscription has any validity at all, it may record a tradition that Robert Hodges came from Ireland when he was seven years old (based on the supposed 1770 birth and 1777 arrival) and the arrival in 1777 was just a surmise based on his supposed birth date. If so, it refers either to Robert Hodges who died in 1832, or the elder robert Hodges who was probably his father. If it was the former, it is a clue that the absence of the elder Robert Hodges from 1728 to 1745 may be explained by a return to Europe. Under this hypothesis, the younger Robert would have been born in Ireland about 1737-38 and come to Virginia with his father about 1744-45. If the tradition refers to the elder Robert, it may account for a 1708 headright in the name of Robert Hodges. Robert first appears in a 1721 deed, so we can surmise he was born not later than 1700. This story is not inconsistent with traditions of Scottish birth. The Scots-Irish were Scottish settlers who came to Ireland, and then to America. ===================================================================== --