Hawley immigrants from Parwich, Derbyshire

Question

I'd like to have a conversation about the Hawley origins in England beginning with the supposed sibling immigrants: Joseph Hawley (Hawley-33), Thomas Hawley (Hawley-47), Elizabeth Hawley Booth (Hawley-52); and the less definite supposed siblings that are listed with them; Robert Hawley (Hawley-386), Hannah Hawley (Hawley-88) and Miriam Hawley Booth ((Hawley-325).

These individuals are currently (Aug 24, 2018) listed as children of Samuel Hawley (Hawley-85) who was born in Parwich, Derbyshire, England in 1647 (after all of his attached children), died in Parwich, 24 Aug 1734, came to America sometime between 1620 and 1637, was a judge, is buried in Fosterville, Aurelius, NY and fought in the American revolution, which if memory serves, was about 1775-1783.

Savage listed Joseph and Thomas but did not call them brothers..In his (Savage's) entry for Richard Booth, he says that Booth married a sister of "the first Joseph Hanley (Hawley)", implying the immigrant Joseph (Hawley-33). There is an article in the Connecticut Nutmegger - sorry I don't have the volume info or the article at present - that says Elizabeth Hawley Booth (wife of Richard Booth) is the daughter of Samuel Hawley of Parwich, Derbyshire, England, and which is, I suppose, the source for saying that all of these individuals are of Samuel.

"The Hawley Record" by Elias S. Hawley, 1890 (available online for free at "https://archive.org/details/hawleyrecord00hawl") implies that Joseph, Hannah, Elizabeth, Thomas and Robert are siblings, but does not name a father for them. He recognizes a connection to Parwich, Derbyshire, but admits that he had no success in discovering the family origins there. It will be seen that he was perhaps closer than he thought.

 Joseph (Hawley-33) wrote his will 17 Sep 1689 and left his lands in "Parwidge in Darbeshire" (Parwich in Derbyshire) to his son Samuel (who coincidentally has the same birth and death dates as Samuel (Hawley-85)).

So now on to Parwich and Derbyshire where some early records have been trickling out. Parwich is a small parish in the NW of Derbyshire in England. There are parish records going back to 1640 available online at Ancestry, but the earliest records are nearly indecipherable. Nevertheless, going forward from 1640, there are no Hawleys or Booths listed in the Parwich records which have been found. There are both Hawleys and Booths in the neighboring parishes.

There is however, a list of freeholders (essentially people that held private land) from 1633 that includes six names from Parwich (the only six names. Parwich is small.)

• Thomas Alsopp (Tomas Alsopp), Parwich
• John Dakyn (Johannes Dakyn), Parwich
• John Gould (Johannes Gould), Parwich
• Matthew Halley (Matheus Halley), Parwich
• Johnn Pegg (Johannes Pegg), Parwich
• Richard Row (Ricardus Roe), Parwich

See:

*(Google Books) "The Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire", Vol. 2, by Joseph Tilley (Of Derby, Eng), Pg 319 Appendix - Freeholders of Derbyshire, 1633 - Wirksworth Wapentake

*List of Vills & Freehoders of Derbyshire 1633, found on LDS film #6026303

Additionally, there is a record found in the Derbyshire Records Office (so far only the summary, not the originl has been viewed):

"http//discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/68c9c63c-d3a8-4562-ae42-83417e321cb7": ref: Bag C/2416, Title: Bargain & Sale

Description:

Mathew Hawley of Parwich (co. Derby), yeoman, and Joseph Hawley, his eldest son, to Joane Rowe of Parwich, spinster. Parcels of land and beastgates (described) in Parwich. Date: 1 Jun 1649, Held by Derbyshire Record Office, not available at the National Archives.

Going back to "The Hawley Record", the author included a transcript of a letter that he received from some Hawleys of Derbyshire, dated 12/12/1870:

60 Bedford St., Ardwick, 12 12, '70

or Monyash, Nr Bakewell, Derbyshire, Eng.

Dear Sir:

A note bearing your signature having been laid before us, relative to an inquiry you are making for the records of the family named Hawley at Parwich, the only family about these parts of Derbyshire known spring from the Hawleys of Monyash, a village some six miles from Parwich, and in the county of Derby,  a township in the parish of Bakewell, and we have traced that the family spring from or came from Kniverton, a village some mile or not more than two from Parwich: this was we believe the great-grandfather of the present Hawleys which spring from Monyash. They of course are some of them scattered, but the representatives still live there or Alstonefield Nr. Ashbourne. This man's name who came to Kniverton, was John Hawley, and we believe he had five sons, whose names we believe were John, James, Samuel, William, Matthew, all dead and their next issue, all except one or two aged females not bearing the name; still the family names are yet retained, John, William, James, Samuel and so on. This John Hawley who came to Monyash from Kniverton, died at Monyash at the good old age of 103, and his good old lady at the advanced age of 97. This we are informed was a Scotch lady, so the fumily has generally been considered to have a little Scotch blood. Being on a vist to my cousin, James Hawley at Manchester, we thought our duty out of courtesy, to just lay these things before you if they will at all assist your enquiries. We had thought to have had the search made for the register, but as you had already applied, we thought you might think it a little (out) of place. Hearing of the family name from so distant a land, you must excuse us for exercising a little curiousity in our enquiries on the subject, as we do purely out of respect for the family name, and this alone must be our apology for troubling you. Should you wish for any further enquiries after you have completed these, they will as cheerfully be given as asked for. Meanwhile we subscribe ourselves on behalf of the Hawley family.

Your most obedient servants,

William Hawley, Farmer,

Monyash, N. Bakewell, Derbyshire, Old England

To speak plainly, to me it looks like Joseph Hawley is the son of Matthew Hawley/Halley of Parwich, but he could be the grandson. Given the relatively small numbers of Hawleys in Derbyshire, the immigrants would almost certainly be closely related.  So, for the time being would it be ok to turn Hawley-85 into Matthew Hawley of Parwich - which at least makes sense compared to what's up now.?

This wraps it up for now. I wanted to put this out there as there are so many Hawley descendants. I'd love to hear your thoughts and if you can add any pieces to the puzzle.

Best wishes,

Tim

Comments

I am still confused. Did the Hawley family come over on the Planter? I know my Hawley ancestor (Joseph)was friends with my husband's ancestor William Beardsley and we have assumed they came together but still no confirmation.

Answer 1

Hi Tim,  I'm 9th great granddaughter of Joseph Hawley-33.

There is a big red "correction" report on -33 involving the birth and death dates of the attached father Samuel Hawley-85, so something needs to be done, just not sure if changing his name to Matthew will fix all the problems.  Do you have accurate b & d dates for Matthew Hawley?

I left comments on the profile of Hawley-33.  I left a link and I'm hoping some of the PMs of Hawley-33 and Hawley-85 will weigh in here on g2g.

Please note in comments on -33 that I recommend detaching the two profiles, with appropriate notes and links in both.  If, in the future accurate parents are found, they can be attached, or reattached.

I'm going to ask the United Kingdom (England) Project to take Hawley-33 under their wings and protect Hawley-33 from parents being attached without the project's approval.

Comments

I'm also a something x granddaughter of Joseph. I've looked at my research and found it relies heavily on what's in the Hawley record with a smidge of Families of Old Fairfield. So I can't address this but there seems to be some circular stuff going on.   Katherine Booth and Katherine Birdseye are both suggested persons for the wife of Joseph Hawley-33, so lots of confusion. Maybe just changing dates and making Samuel Unknown to keep the siblings together. The dates on Samuel have been a fairly recent addition

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Thanks for replying Cheryl. I threw the Mathew info out there for consideration since I haven't seen it presented anywhere else and it looks like a very promising avenue for exploration. There is often very useful info in land records and the Derbyshire records Office may have them. I have not found Mathew's birth or death dates in parish records. As I mentioned, Parwich parish records aren't available before 1640 and many of the early records are nearly illegible.

I think at this point, my preference would be to admit that no one knows the parents of Joseph, Elizabeth, Thomas, et al and rename Hawley-85 as Unnamed Hawley and get rid of almost everything that is currently on that page. His profile could then be a repository of the best speculation and reasoning of his identity without committing. There are also ancestors of Hawley-85 listed which are equally unproven and unsourced.

I went through some of the pages of The Society of the Hawley family ("http://hawleysociety.org"). They don't commit to a common ancestor but show that the DNA evidence points to very close relationships. I'm somewhat surprised that The Hawley Society has not weighed in on these wikiTree profiles.

Btw, I have lines going back to Thomas and Elizabeth.

cheers, Tim

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Hi Anne. Thanks for your response. You may also want to look at  "https://hawleysociety.org". They've been pretty diligent about tracking the fam.

cheers, Tim

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I volunteer as the genealogist for The Hawley Society. Sorry, but I have not been following this website, and therefore have not commented. When searching for the parents of Joseph Hawley, who died 1690 in Stratford, CT, please check for proper sources. There is no document to confirm the births of Joseph or his eldest son Samuel, or his parents' names. The Hawley Society does have a volunteer archivist in England who has discovered court records that indicate a man named Matthew Hawley did live in Parwich during the right period of time. But he appears to have come from somewhere else, not originally born in Parwich, just that he owned land there & probably lived there. In one document, he states he knows the property lines from his many years of living in Parwich, but then makes a disclaimer that one should remember he's older and his memory may not be perfect. But there are no birth, marriage, or death records yet.  Also, Y-DNA testing indicates that Joseph & Thomas of Massachusetts were closely related, if not brothers. Elizabeth Booth's family calls Joseph Hawley's family "cousins." Hannah Hawley Beard, in the review of her divorce from John Ufford/Uffoot, calls her brother Joseph Hawley as a witness.

Joseph Hawley's birth in 1603 is not likely. Keep in mind that his first child was born around 1647. His brother Thomas had children around 1651. Elizabeth Hawley Booth had her first child in 1641. Hannah Hawley Beard gave birth first in 1654. If, as supposedly, these siblings were born before 1610, they married late and had children well into their  40's - 60's. According to The Hawley Record, compiled by Elias Sill Hawley (1890), he calculated these ages by the known birth of Richard Booth in 1607 - however, it is possible Richard Booth had a previous marriage & Elizabeth Hawley was a second wife, which could make her considerably younger. What were these ladies doing, if they were born before 1610 and didn't marry until 1640 and 1651?