Henry Trent (aft. 1707 - bef. 1785)

Born after 1707 in Henrico, Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Henry Trent - sometimes referred to as Henry Trent III (as his grandfather and father were both named Henry), and sometimes as Henry Trent of Cumberland County - was no doubt born in Henrico County, Virginia. There is no precise record of his birthdate, but he was still a minor in 1725, when his father's will left all his lands to Henry "if he Lives to the age of one and twenty."

At some point, Henry married Esther Lafuite, a Huguenot resident of Manakin-Town. She apparently died in 1739 or 1740; in the latter year Henry filed suit in Goochland County Court seeking full possession of her estate.

In the following decade he engaged in various land transactions - sometimes involving his uncle John Harris - in Goochland County. In 1747, he was listed on the tax list of that county next to Joseph Hooper, father of Joanna Hooper, whom Henry had married, probably in 1745 or 1746. In the latter year, he sold land in Goochland County and Joanna gave her consent to the sale.

In his father-in-law's 1750 Cumberland County will (Cumberland having been formed from Goochland in 1749), Henry was left "200 acres of land whereon he now lives during his natural life." But rather than remaining on that land, in 1757 he bought land in and moved to Granville County, North Carolina. Then, in 1758, described as Henry Trent "of Granvel County," he leased the 200 acres in Cumberland County to Benoni Boatright - the lease being "for and During the said Trents life."

He did not remain in North Carolina long, however. In 1760, he sold his Granville County property and returned to Cumberland County, where on January 14, 1761, he witnessed the will of Benjamin Harris. His name occurs sporadically in Cumberland County records for the next two decades. In 1772, he signed a document agreeing to "a marge [marriage] with John Wilson and my daughter Prsiler [Priscilla} Trent."

Henry apparently died in 1785; on April 25 of that year the land to which his father in law had left him life-use, and which he had leased for the rest of his life to Benoni Boatright, was sold by George Hooper. Joseph Hooper's will had specified that George, his nephew, would own the land after Henry's death. (Dornan's excellent "Adventurers of Purse and Person," 4th edition, which has very valuable information about Henry's line of descent from Christopher Branch Sr., would seem to be mistaken in saying that Henry Trent left a will in Amherst County in 1793; this was apparently a different Henry Trent.)

Sources

• https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/39RQ-V5X Broken link
• Henrico County, Virginia, Wills

• Chancery Court Records of Goochland County, Virginia

• Goochland County, Virginia, Deeds

• Goochland County. Virginia Tithe Lists, 1735-47, Transcribed, indexed, & published by A. Jean Lurvey (1979)

• Cumberland County, Virginia, Wills

• Cumberland County, Virginia, Deeds

• Granville County, North Carolina, Deeds

• Cumberland County, Virginia, Marriage Records

• Adventurers of Purse and Person..., Fourth edition, John Frederick Dorman, Volume One (2009).

See Also:

* Esther LeFuit On Genealogy.com Forum. Re: Huguenots? Henry III. By Donald Trent January 25, 2006 at 03:24:15 In reply to: Re: Huguenots? Henry III. Barbara Marsh 9/25/05

* Re: Huguenots? Henry III Posted on Genelogy.com. By Barbara Marsh September 25,2005 at 03:41:36In reply to: Re: Huguenots?. Donald Trent 9/23/05