By Varla Jane Owens Wright

William Hurt, designated in many records as William Hurt, Sr. was the son of Thomas Hurt of Bristol and his wife, Martha Winstone. He was christened 23 Jul 1614 at All Saints parish, one of the original seventeen parishes of the City of Bristol. [LDS Family History Library microfilm # 1596655].

In the 1619 Visitation of Kent [Harlean Society Publication XLII, pg. 31] with information provided by his paternal uncle William Hurt, a mercer who had residences in Dover and in London, William Hurt, Sr. appears to have been a very young child at the time of that recording. Similar information is given in Berry’s County Genealogies of Kent [FHL # 973300, pg. 101], except that both the children of Thomas Hurt of Bristol and the children of William Hurt of Dover (by two different wives) have been all been lumped together as children of William of Dover.

The 1634 Visitation of London [Harlean Society Publication XV, pg. 406] shows that the information was again supplied by Uncle William, now residing in the Bishopsgate Ward area of London. None of Thomas’s living children were shown to be married at that time. His younger daughter, Alice, married the following year at St. John Hackney, London. William was the fifth child born in a family of twelve. Three are known to have died in infancy, and three more deceased before the age of 25. Only children currently known to be living were listed by Uncle William in these visitations.

[It is interesting that William Hurt, mercer of Bishopsgate Ward, London and Dover, Kent chose to use the coat-of-arms originally granted by patent 4 Sept. 1565 to 3rd cousin Thomas Hurt of Ashbourne, Derbyshire (b. abt 1494), but his father and brother in Gloucestershire did not.]

No apprenticeship records have been found for William or his sibilings in the Bristol Apprentice Books, suggesting that they were either trained by their own father in the family mercantile trade, as were approximately two-thirds of the young people of that day – or – they were apprenticed elsewhere.

There seems to be a general consensus among researchers that the William Hurt who was transported to Charles City Co., VA in 1650 by Mr. Stephen Hamelin [Early Virginia Immigrants 1623-1666 by George Cabell Greep, Clerk, VA State Land Office – FHL fiche # 6051246 pg. 172] and [Virginia Land Book 2 pg. 266} is our immigrant ancestor. Others with the Hurt surname being transported in that time period included an Edward Hurt in 1650 by Mr. James Williamson – county not given and Thomas Hurt, who arrived in 1653, courtesy of Nicholas Meriwether, Northumberland Co., VA, who may have been the brother of William (Thomas chr. 17 Sep 1615, All Saints parish, Bristol, England) Neither Edward or Thomas left any record of descendants in Virginia and may have either moved or not survived. George Magruder Battey III, in his 1947 monograph, “Notes Mostly Concerning Hurts in Tidewater Virginia” proposes that this Thomas is the one who moved to North Carolina.

Calculating an approximate date of marriage at age twenty-five, William would probably have married around 1639 somewhere in England. His marriage record has not yet been located. That being considered, he may have had five or so children born prior to immigrating in 1650. His current family group record, as proposed by Oscar Hurt’s research [The Early Hurt Family of Virginia, Oscar H. Hurt, FHL# 854152 item 4 pg. 5] shows three children, all born in Virginia after 1654:
Isabella Hurt, b. 26 Apr 1654, King William Co., VA – md. Philip Pendleton in 1682
John Hurt b. abt. 1655, St. Stephen’s Parish, King William Co., VA d. 9 Feb 1724, King William Co., VA md. abt 1679 Sarah Webber, or more likely, Sarah Yarbrough abt. 1679
William Hurt, Jr. b. abt. 1657, King William Co. VA d. after 1702.

On 18 Feb. 1673/4 the following was recorded in Virginia Land Book 6, pg 502:
“To all ye, whereas…etc… Now know ye that I, the said Wm Berkely, Knt. Governr doe the Consent of the Councill of State accordingly give and grant unto William Hurt two Hundred and thirteen acres of Land Lying in St. Stephen’s Parish in New Kent County, beginning at a white oke corner of Pecks land thence running NE by N 42 poles to a red oake thence E SE 1/2 S jog poles to a red oke thence E NE 63 poles to a red oke upon the side of a hill, thence S 200 poles to a red oke upon the side of another hill then west 89 poles to a red oke by the mill path, then W NW 100 poles to a Spanish oke by a branch, then N 141 poles to a hicory then N NE 10 poles to where it began. The said land is due unto the said Wm Hurt by and for the transportation of 3 persons etc. To have and to hold or to be held or yielding or paying on provision dated the 18th Feb. 1673/4.
Names of the Transported: Thos. Brownell & wife; Lambo, a Negroe” (This land was northwest of the present day Aylett, VA and approximately 28 miles NE of Richmond, VA.)

By 1701, our William had attached the title, Senr. after his name. “To all … Whereas…Now know you that of the said Francis Nicholson, Esq. Govornd etc. do with if and advice and consent of the Coundil of the State accordingly give and grant unto William Hurt, Senr. two hundred ninety and eight acres of land lying in Pamunkey being bounded as followeth, viz: Beginning at a Corner Hiccory called Peter White’s corner hiccory hard by Richard Yarbrough’s plantation and running thence southwest by south four hund: forty pole to a corner red oake, thence northwest sixty nine poles to a corner Hiccory, thence north north-east three hundred seventy six pole to a Corner hiccory, thence east one hundred and four pole, thence East by southe forty-one ople through a meadow all along by John Hurt’s and Richard Yarbrough’s plantations, thence east half a point north sixteen pole, thence south-west twenty-one pole to the beginning place, the said land being due unto the said William Hurt by and for the transportation of six persons into this colony whose names are to be in the records mentioned under this patent. To have & hold & to be held & Yielding & paying & provided & Given under my hand and ye seale of ye Colony this 24th day of October, anno Domini 1701.

fr. Nicholson

Names of the six persons transported into the Colony:
William Hurt, Senr., Margt. Hurt, Edward Freeland, Herbert Benahan, Duksell Brown and Eliza Lea.” [Virginia Land Book 9, pg. 384]

It is from this record that it has been assumed that the wife of William Hurt, Sr. was Margaret. At one time it was thought that he had returned to England to marry a second time, bringing her back with him. It is more probable that he never made that trip, but rather padded his headright list with his and his wife’s names, and none of the officials caught it. He needed six headrights in order to obtain the piece of land he wanted next to his son, John’s property. He had four legal headrights, and made up the balance with the two additional.

In Ralph Whitelaw’s History of Northampton and Accomack Counties concerning these early land grants, states “In spite of the precautions presumably taken, there was much padding of headright lists and a number of names are duplicated in separate patents to different people for different lands. Among the headrights listed in a certificate by the Accomak Commissioners in 1672 to Edmund Scarburgh III, was included “his owne transportation three tymes'”.

By now, New Kent Co. had been divided forming King and Queen Co. in 1691, and was again divided in 1702 to form King William Co. Each time, the Hurt properties had been in the newly formed county. William Hurt, Sr. was on the Virginia Quit Rent Rolls for King William Co., VA for 250 acres of land in Oct. 1704. [Virginia Historical Magazine, Vol. 32, pg. 71] The last reference we have of him was made by his grandson, James Hurt, in a 1722 deed fragment which is very difficult to read, as it was “toasted” in the 1885 fire which burned the King William Co. courthouse and has crumbled, with large chunks missing. There is mention of 74 1/2 acres, being one-fourth of the 298 acres previously mentioned, which were willed to him by his grandfather. This indicates that William Hurt, Sr. wrote a will, but it is no longer available. One would assume that it burned in 1885 along with many other documents. From these fragments, and other indicators, it has been estimated that William Sr. was deceased by Nov. 1704.