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Henry Watkins (abt. 1638 - abt. 1713)

Henry Watkins
Born about in Englandmap [uncertain]
Ancestors ancestors
Son of and
Brother of , and
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Husband of — married before 1670 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Father of , , , , , , , , and
Died about at about age 75 in Virginiamap
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Profile last modified | Created 30 Dec 2010
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Henry Watkins resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776.
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Warning - Aside from a few disparate records, most of which concern gifts of land to Henry Watkins' sons, information about this person lacks primary sources. He also appears to have been part of a fraudulent genealogy. His origins (birth location and who his parents were) are disputed, and there is disagreement on who he married as well as when he died. See Research Notes below.

Contents

Biography

Henry Watkins was born about 1638,[1] possibly in Wales but probably in England.[2] He married Katherine (also spelled Catherine).
Henry was a Quaker and lived in Malvern Hills, Virginia, which is also referred to in records as Malborn Hills and Mamburne Hills. Turkey Island Creek and Malvern Hills were located in the southernmost part of Henrico County.
Henry's wife Katherine may not have been a Quaker. The Friendly Virginians: America's First Quakers, included the following:
Two years later, in 1681, a Quaker child aggravated the Henrico County court by refusing to take the oath as a witness. The case was a rape case and the complainant was Katherine Watkins, who was not a Quaker herself although married to Henry Watkins, Quaker of Malvern Hill...
On January 25, 1692, Henry Watkins divided it up between his five sons, William, Joseph, Edward, Henry, and Thomas, as a gift ("it" being land he had acquired).[3]
Whether the same or additional lands, HENRICO CO VA DEEDS 1677-1705, Benjamin B. Weisiger III, 1986, has two entries (p 68/267 and 68/268) that pertain to the division of land:
20 Jan 1691/2 Henry Watkins Sr of Henrico Co for love & affection to my sons William, Edward and Joseph Watkins, a tract on S side Chickahominy Swamp, to be divided to each 120 acres with William's next to Edward Finch, Joseph next and Edward's being the lower part. Signed: Henry (H) Watkins. Wit: Tho. Charles, Hannah (X) Charles
25 Jan 1691/2 Henry Watkins Sr for love & affection to my sons Henry and Thomas Watkins, tract where I now live; also to Thomas, 200 acres on Three Runs. Signed: Henry (H) Watkins. Wit: Tho Charles, Hannah (X) Charles. Both deeds of gift recorded 1 Feb 1691.
In 1707, both father and son witnessed a sale by "John Pleasants of Henrico... Henry (H) Watkins Sr, Henry (H) Watkins Jr. Signed: John Pleasants, Dorothy Pleasant.Henry (H) Watkins" (HENRICO CO VIRGINIA DEEDS 1706-1737, Benjamin B. Weisiger III, 1985, p 8/62)

Research Notes

Fraudulent Genealogy:

Media Research Bureau, 1607-1608, Washington, DC-1800 states that the early Watkins started with Francis Watkins of Shotten, Wales born about 1562, his son James born about 1586 in Shotten, Wales came over on the ship PHOENIX in 1608 with Captain John Smith of Jamestown, had a son, Edward born 1611 in Henrico Co.,VA had a son Henry born 1637 in Henrico Co, Va who was a Quaker, married Katherine.
Note - James Watkings is listed among passengers of the First Supply Fleet (1607), which included the Phoenix. [4]

Parents:

Detached from profiles for James Watkins-1516 and Sarah Freeman-3736. I believe that Watkins-1516 is probably a duplicate of Watkins-393, which has been identified as possibly based solely on a fraud (see Watkins-393 & Category:Media Research Bureau, Washington, DC, Fraud.
Note - That James is now Watkins-393 and has a son Henry attached (Watkins-313, born about 1600 in Myddle, Shropshire, England). ~ Liz Shifflett, 20 September 2020
I would also suggest that Henry Watkins-313 and Alice Moslin-1 be removed as the parents of Henry Watkins. ~ Malcolm Hoare, 19 September 2020

Birth Location:

I can see very few sources for the birth of Henry Watkins in 1638 in Talgarth, Brecon, Wales, there are quite a few baptismal records for the name Henry Watkins - 1638 Bristol, 1638 London, 1640 London, 1636 Worcester, 1636 Dorset, and the list goes on. Some people have Henry born in Malvern Hills. I would suggest that his birthplace be removed and left with Wales marked uncertain. ~ comment posted 19 September 2020 by Malcolm Hoare
Birth location possibly taken from place of origin of Henry Watkin, Talgarth, Brecknock, tailor. Indentured servant to William Thomas of Virginia, date of indenture 13 November 1656.[5] Shirley Dalton 16:44, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Wife's maiden name: Katherine's maiden name may have been Pride, but her surname is not proved: "Only mention of her given name is on a Henrico Deed Sep 1681" (apparently referencing the court case mentioned in the biography?). It's also possible Henry had more than one wife. Henry's son is said to have married Elizabeth Pride so perhaps that's the origin of the possible surname for Katherine.[6]

Wives: Profiles for both Rachael and Katherine (whatever their maiden names) have been attached/removed/re-attached over the years that WikiTree has had a profile for Henry Watkins. Currently (as of 20 September 2020) attached are Rachel Griffin and Elizabeth Pride.

Death: Given by Find-a-Grave as 1713.[7]

Both this Henry and his son of the same name may have died around the same time, and often are given the same death date by descendants: February 7, 1715. The son's will, dated November 15, 1714, and recorded February 7, 1715, named his wife Mary and sons: John, Benjamin, Joseph, Henry & Stephen. A record February 6, 1715,[8] shows "Henry Watkins of Henrico Co for love & affection to Thomas, son of my son Thomas Watkins, 1 feather bed & bolster, 1 yarn sett rug, 1 pr. Nine quarter blankets, 1 pr sheets. Signed: Henry (H) Watkins. Wit: John Tocker, Humphry (X) Smith" - some researchers contend this must be the father, as the son would not have had a grandchild in 1715 and "Quaker records note his passing in January of 1715."[9] Although the son's will, which was recorded February 7, 1715, does not mention a son Thomas, it's possible that Henry and Mary had a grandson by a son no longer with them (assuming the 1680 marriage year for them is fairly accurate).

Notes

One of the merged profiles, created through the import of The Alvis families 9a.ged, had Mary (Watkins-267) Hutchins as a daughter of the younger Henry and his wife Mary Crispe. Based on estimated ages, this is a possibility, but barring additional support, Mary was moved to be the daughter of this Henry, making her the younger Henry's sister instead of his daughter.
Another merged profile (Watkins-387, created through the import of carl&elaine_(grove)_rhodes-10-2-2010.ged), listed the burial place as Turkey Island, Henrico Co, VA. This ged also had marriage to Katherine Pride before 1670 and the following children:

Henry was born about 1638. He passed away about 1713.


Research Notes

Many sources say Henry was born about 1638 in Wales, possibly in Talgarth, Brecknockshire, South Wales. He was a Quaker, a member of the Society of Friends, and appears in officials records in Henrico County, VA as early as 1677. One quote says: "One of the most interesting families in Virginia from the point of view of economic, social and political development is the distinguished family of which Henry Watkins is the immigrant ancestor."

Other sources claim that Henry was born in Virginia, the son of Henry Watkins who was active in Accomac County, Virginia as early as 1614, but there is no proof of this belief.

James C. Watkins of Linwood, Kansas believes that Henry was the son of Edward and Alice (Morton) Watkins and was born 1637/8 in Varina Parish, Turkey Island Precinct, Henrico County, Virginia.

Unfortunately James C. Watkins did not cite any sources for the information in his study. I have not been able to find any other source that says that Henry Watkins bought the plantation known as "Malvern Hills" from Thomas Cocke. On the contrary, what I have found suggests that this property passed down through successive generations of the Cocke family.

William Clayton Torrence reported that Henry Watkins "lived in the southernmost part of Henrico County near Turkey Island Creek, Chickahominy Creek, and Malvern Hills." This use of "Malvern Hills" seems to refer to the physical geography known as Malvern Hills rather than the plantation owned by the Cocke family. It is possible that Henry Watkins bought his property in the Malvern Hills from Thomas Cocke who was a wealthy landowner with a very large number of acres.

Sources

  1. ↑ On April 1, 1678, testified in Henrico County Court that he was "aged 40 yeares." (from Carl Rhodes' notes on this Henry)
  2. ↑ See Malcolm Hoare's 19 September 2020 comment. Removed "Talgarth, Brecknockshire, S. Wales" from the datafield (Wales was added back later).
  3. ↑ Statement from Carl Rhodes' page on Henry, which also states that he had acquired a large piece of land near the western edge of settlement along the Chickahominy river and 60 acres near his old farm in the Turkey Island Creek watershed.
  4. ↑ "Watkings James", from "First Supply" (accessed 20 September 2020); research and compilation by Anne Stevens of packrat-pro.com.
  5. ↑ Bristol database, Indentured Servants
  6. ↑ Notes from WikiTree profile Watkins-1009, with the comment: "Information copied over by Liz Shifflett on June 10, 2012; probably written by Kay Haden."
  7. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 19 September 2020), memorial page for Henry Watkins II (1638–1713), Find A Grave: Memorial #176164541, citing Henrico Parish Church Cemetery, Varina, Henrico County, Virginia, USA ; Maintained by Gary Cummings (contributor 47012773) .
  8. ↑ HENRICO CO VIRGINIA DEEDS 1706-1737, Benjamin B. Weisiger III, 1985, p 47/68
  9. ↑ reported as "1714/15, 11, 7. Henry Watkins, overseer of Curles Meeting is deceased; Joseph Pleasants appointed in his place." from ENCYCLOPEDIA OF QUAKER GENEALOGY, 1750-1930; Vol VI, Henrico Monthly Meeting. However, the Curles Meeting minutes for "the 11th of the 12 mo 1714" (February 11, 1714/15) note the son's death.
See also

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Heath Vogel for creating WikiTree profile Watkins-1515 through the import of Vogel Wiki Upload.ged on Jan 22, 2013.

Click the changes tab to edits to the current profile. The following links are for changes to profiles before they were merged into this one:

changes to Watkins-1009
changes to Watkins-602
changes to Watkins-566
changes to Watkins-790
changes to Watkins-797 (showed birth date as 1637)
changes to Watkins-1164
changes to Watkins-4169







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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Henry by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Henry:

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Comments: 22

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Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Watkins-12673 and Watkins-270 appear to represent the same person because: duplicate sons of duplicate couples (I just proposed merges for the parents) - these Williams & the profiles for their wives/sons need merging also
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
merge completed... just a few more merges to go. However, his father's death date, or his birth date, needs to be adjusted:
A father's death date (Watkins-313 died 1625) should not be more than nine months before one of his children's birth dates (Watkins-270 born 1638) .
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Brett Martin
John H. Stutesman, Jr. published a book about this Henry Watkins and his descendants in 1989. "Some Watkins Families of Virginia and Their Kin..." I've found him most careful to avoid jumping to conclusions. Explaining this in the introduction, he wrote "I have also tried, gently but firmly, to clear away assertions, some only unproved, some plainly wrong, which have been much favored by Watkins descendants. Like filings falling toward a magnet, many of them claim as an ancestor the James Watkins who came to Jamestown in that settlement's first winter 1607/08...Their symbiotic urge to join the first settlers of Virginia is understandable but their claim is unproven."

He makes no effort to assign parents to Henry, and mentions Henry the "Tayler of Talget" from the Bristol ledger of indentured servants as a possibly the same man, but not necessarily. With regard to Henry's possible wife "Rachel", he found only one possible reference to a lady of that name in the Prince George County Orders (1714-1720 Book) p. 64. On June 12, 1716 a case was dismissed between Rachel, executrix of Henry Watkins, dec'd and James Banks when neither party appeared. Of course this would indicate that Henry wasn't married to Rachel before Katherine.

posted by Brett Martin
edited by Brett Martin
Stewart-16676 Dennis Stewart
I finally found a source that Henry Watkins had a 2nd or later wife named Rachel / Book, copyright 1938 by Southern Maryland Colonial Dames, "Evolution of Patriotic Ancestry Series II of Register Maryland's Heraldic Families" (fold chart insert for Auld Family).
posted by Dennis Stewart
Stewart-16676 Dennis Stewart
The following from Dennis Stewart on profile of Henry Watkins 1638-c1713. No evidence he had a wife 'Rachel'. He did have a wife Katherine as proven by the rape deposition. No evidence her maiden name was 'Pride'. No evidence that 1638 Henry's mother was a 'Moslin'. There is, however, evidence that Henry's father(or grandfather)was Henry Watkins the Burgess of the Eastern Shore who later moved not far from Malvern Hill(see, "Genealogies of Virginia Families", Vol. V, p. 774-780). And there is evidence this 1st Henry was a son of James Watkins of Jamestown because he was friends with Cap. John Smith, and would explain how Henry got the important post of overseer of the late Gov. Dale's widow(see Smith's General History & the book, 'Virginia's Eastern Shore', by Law, pub. 1951, & the Trabue Family History in 1909 in Genealogies of KY.) That being said, the Wikitree profile continues in error on the following points, while the 1st Henry's father likely was James who came on the Phoenix in 1608, he is not the James who had a wife 'Sarah Freeman' and Henry was certainly not a grandson of 'Francis Watkins and Eliz. Lee', styled a kin of General Lee. This is all fiction. These profiles are examples of truths being mixed with garbage because so many different people add to them.
posted by Dennis Stewart
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
I added "Fradulent Genealogy" to research notes, but I still am unclear on what this means for THIS Henry - I had asked about the category being added (apparently on another Henry Watkins' profile) and was told it did not mean that the profile it was placed on was fradulent, but the category was added so that people would know the person had been mentioned in a book known to contain fraudulent information (if I recall correctly).

So it may be that this Henry is NOT considered to be part of the fraud mentioned in the #Research Notes (also if I recall, the text there, from my comment posted in 2018, was information provided to me when I had questioned the fraud category being added).

posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Smith-32867 Jillaine Smith
Profile managers and other watchers: A disputed origins section has been added; any objections to detaching the unsourced parents here?
posted by Jillaine Smith
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
no objection to detaching the parents, but can the Disputed Origins section be moved to Research Notes (if you need to draw attention to the issue at the top of the profile, a line* with a warning and a link to Research Notes or Disputed Origins should suffice and would be in keeping with current style guidelines).

edit - added * ... a line ^of text^ (not an actual line, since lines are not allowed above the Biography heading)

posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
edited by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Smith-32867 Jillaine Smith
Go ahead, Liz. Place it how you'd like to see it.
posted by Jillaine Smith
Hoare-535 Malcolm Hoare
I agree the parents should be detached and birthplace set as England, there may be a problem with the parents as well as they are lacking in source material for the birth and marriage, his ancestors all seem to be based on Ancestry sources.
posted by Malcolm Hoare
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Watkins-1515 and Watkins-270 appear to represent the same person because: death dates are different, but I think these would be better merged. Please merge if you agree.

I detached Watkins-1515 from profiles for James Watkins-1516 and Sarah Freeman-3736. I believe that Watkins-1516 is probably a duplicate of Watkins-393, which has been identified as possibly based solely on a fraud (see Watkins-393 & Category:Media Research Bureau, Washington, DC, Fraud.

posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Hoare-535 Malcolm Hoare
Hi Liz, I can see very few sources for the birth of Henry Watkins in 1638 in Talgarth, Brecon, Wales, there are quite a few baptismal records for the name Henry Watkins - 1638 Bristol, 1638 London, 1640 London, 1636 Worcester, 1636 Dorset, and the list goes on. Some people have Henry born in Malvern Hills. I would suggest that his birthplace be removed and left with Wales marked uncertain.
posted by Malcolm Hoare
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
thanks Malcolm. I've removed the birth location from the datafield and edited the text.
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
not sure if this profile needs to be added to Category: Media Research Bureau, Washington, DC, Fraud or not. That fraud appears to be the source of information about Francis and James. This Henry too?

What do y'all think, based on the following:

Media Research Bureau, 1607-1608, Washington, DC-1800 states that the early Watkins started with Francis Watkins of Shotten, Wales born about 1562, his son James born about 1586 in Shotten, Wales came over on the ship PHOENIX in 1608 with Captain John Smith of Jamestown, had a son, Edward born 1611 in Henrico Co.,VA had a son Henry born 1637 in Henrico Co, Va who was a Quaker, married Katherine.
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Seems as if Henry m Katherine has support (maybe not her maiden name though).

Henry m Rachel not so much (see her profile and the profile for Henry currently attached as his father: Watkins-2177).

posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
see Watkins-313 & Watkins-2177 ... they were just proposed to be merged (I postponed them).

I think info in this profile needs to be looked at when sorting out those two also.

posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Lee-5956 Robin Lee
Watkins-4169 and Watkins-270 appear to represent the same person because: stories/biographies on both profiles indicate they are the same person
posted by Robin Lee
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
I removed Rachel as Henry's wife (she was shown as both Henry's wife and his mother - left over from a bad merge that I thought I had finished "unmerging").
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Mary Crispe married Henry's son, so I removed the marriage. Cheers, Liz
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
http://oursoutherncousins.com/watkins.html has information from an application for a Daughter of the Pilgrims that shows a 1691 will for this Henry (which works with the 1691/2 record of gifting to his sons, but doesn't work with the 1707 sale that both Senior and Junior witnessed)
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett
Kittredge-46 Glenn Kittredge
There is no Brechnochchire in Wales but there is a Breconshire and some sources have that as the place of birth.
posted by Glenn Kittredge
Kittredge-46 Glenn Kittredge
I didn't match up my William with yours because of the date discrepancy. However I don't have any sources. Some people think Henry was born in Malvern Hills but the lineage is different.
posted by Glenn Kittredge

Rejected matches › › Henry Watkins (abt.1600-aft.1625) › Henry N. Watkins (1787-1850) › Henry Edward Watkins Sr (abt.1782-abt.1856) › John Henry Watkins › Henry Watkins Sr. (abt.1671-bef.1775) › Henry Watkins

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Categories: Talgarth, Brecknockshire | Media Research Bureau, Washington, DC, Fraud | Virginia Colonists