''Hardings in America'' Debunked

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Hardings in America: Fabricated Persons and Facts

Background

Abner Morse, in his 1864 Several Ancient Puritans, suggested possible ancestral lines for several early Hardings in New England.^[1] In 1925, Wilbur J. Harding published Hardings in America, which built on Morse's work, but filled in some gaps, added some details and removed some of Morse's cautionary language.^[2]

Wilbur Harding's book tells of three Harding brothers -- Joseph, John and Richard -- who accompanied Robert Gorges to New England in 1623 and started most of the original Harding lineages in New England including, from Joseph, those of John Harding of Braintree and Bridgewater and Joseph Harding of Eastham, from John, that of Abraham Harding of Braintree and Medfield, and from Richard, those of John Harding of Gloucester and Weymouth and Stephen Harding of Providence.^[2] A 1925 letter from Wilbur on the same subject was also published in Veryl E. Harding's 1958 Four Centuries of the Harding Family.^[3] In both his book and his 1925 letter, Wilbur provided specific facts relating to the three immigrant brothers that enhanced the plausibility of his claims.

Wilbur's claims have been repeated in other secondary sources, including Gladys McPherson's Ancestry of Addie Clark Harding,^[4] and have been adopted as fact by most family trees for the applicable lines of Hardings. As discussed below, however, subsequent research has shown that noone meeting the description of any of the three immigrant brothers existed and that most of Wilbur's "facts" related to them were made up.

Disputed Claim: Hardings in the 1623 Robert Gorges Party

According to Wilbur Harding's claims: (1) There is a 1636 will of a John Harding of Northampton, England that made bequests to his brother William and to his sons Richard, Amos, John, Lemuel and Oliver^[2] (or in the recounting in Wilbur's letter in Four Centuries of the Harding Family, sons Amos, Richard, Joseph, John and Oliver^[3]). (2) The William Harding referenced in the will was probably the William Harding whose daughter Mary Harding married Robert Gorges.^[2][3] (3) Three sons of the John Harding who made his will in 1636 -- Joseph, John and Richard --- came to New England with their cousin Mary's husband, Robert Gorges, in 1623.^[2][3][3] (4) The list of passengers accompanying Robert Gorges included the names of John Harding, wife and young sons, Joseph Harding, and Richard Harding and wife and infant son.^[2][3]

The problems with these claims are:

• There were multiple Robert Gorges who were roughly contemporaries and who were part of the same extended Gorges family. According to the profile for Sir Robert Gorges of in the History of Parliament^[5] and articles from 1872^[6] and 1875^[7] that were published in NEHGR, the Robert Gorges who married Mary Harding, daughter of William Harding, was not the Robert Gorges who sailed to New England in 1623.
• The William Harding who was the father of Mary Harding who married Robert Gorges, was from Wanborough and Claygate, Surrey,^[5][8] and there is no evidence connecting him to John Harding of Northampton.
• No passenger list has been found for the ship on which Robert Gorges' party sailed.^[9][10]
• No evidence has been found of any Hardings being part of Robert Gorges' party. No evidence has been found that identifies more than a handful of the men in his party, none of whom were called Harding.^[9][10]
• No evidence has been found of any Hardings in New England prior to 1639 other than Robert Harding of Boston (1630), his sister Elizabeth Harding of Boston (1635) and Martha (Doane) Harding and Phoebe Harding of Plymouth (both 1632).^[11]

There is thus no reason to believe that there were any Harding immigrants in Robert Gorges' 1623 party, and the available evidence suggests that there were no Hardings in New England until 1630.

Disputed Existence: Joseph Harding, Immigrant

According to Wilbur Harding's claims: (1) A Joseph Harding was one of three brothers who immigrated with Robert Gorges in 1623. (2) Joseph's name appears in the records as "Joseph Harding of Braintree." (3) After Robert Gorges returned to England, Joseph moved to Plymouth. (4) Joseph married Martha Doane in Plymouth in 1624. (5) After his marriage, he removed to Cape Cod. (6) Joseph had a son named John, born about 1625, who in turn was the father of a daughter named Sarah who married John Tower and a son who was John Harding of Braintree and Bridgewater. (7) Joseph also had a son named Joseph, born in 1629, who was Joseph Harding of Eastham. (8) Joseph died in 1630.^[2]

The problems with these claims are:

• As discussed above, there is no evidence of a Joseph Harding or any other Harding being party of Robert Gorges' party.
• No records have been found of a Joseph Harding in New England prior to the records for Joseph Harding of Eastham. (There are some records, however, relating to Joseph Hardy of Salem that spell his name Harding.)
• Since the town of Braintree was not called such until 1640 and was instead called Mount Wollaston,^[12] it is implausible that any records for this profile's hypothetical Joseph Harding or anyone else before 1640 would have referred to them as "of Braintree."
• While Martha (Doane) Harding who died in Plymouth in 1638 obviously was married to a man named Harding, no evidence has been found that establishes his name or otherwise identifies him. In the profile for Martha (Doane) Harding of Plymouth in Robert Charles Anderson's 1995 Volume II of Great Migration Begins, (1) the first name of Martha's husband was left blank, indicating that Anderson and his team found no reliable evidence as to what his name was, and (2) Anderson stated that Martha's husband probably died before Martha sailed for New England.^[13]
• Since the earliest settlement on Cape Cod was established in 1637,^[14] seven years after Joseph Harding's supposed death, it is implausible that Joseph and Martha would have removed to Cape Cod prior to his death in 1630. (It appears likely that Wilbur Harding included the "removal to Cape Cod" claim in order to explain why "son" Joseph Harding of Eastham was in Eastham.)

The immigrant Joseph Harding described by Wilbur Harding thus appears to be a complete fabrication.

Disputed Existence: John Harding, Immigrant

According to Wilbur Harding's claims: (1) A John Harding was one of three brothers who immigrated with Robert Gorges in 1623. (2) John was accompanied by his wife and two sons, John (then aged 8) and Abraham (then aged 5). (3) John moved to Gloucester, where he sold land to Frances Jones in 1635 and purchased land from Abadiah and Susan Mason in 1636. (4) John was chosen as a Selectman of Gloucester in 1637. (5) John returned to Weymouth in 1640, where he took the freedman's oath and drew land in Braintree. (6) Abraham Harding later moved onto his father's lands in Braintree. (7) John continued to live in Weymouth until is death in 1650. (8) On October 8, 1650 administration of his estate was granted to sons John and Abraham and his property was later inventoried and appraised at £146:15:08. (9) His property was divided equally between his two sons, who were responsible for a dowery of £25 to his daughters Sarah and May when they wed. (10) John's widow died in 1656.^[2]

The problems with these claims are:

• As discussed above, there is no evidence of a John Harding or any other Harding being party of Robert Gorges' party.
• No evidence has been found of a Harding in Gloucester prior to 1652, when his "son" John bought land there and married widow Tybbot.^[15][16]
• No record of the purported 1635 and 1636 land transactions have been found. No Frances Jones or Abadiah Mason are listed in Anderson's 2015 Great Migration Directory,^[11] which means that Anderson and his team found no evidence of the presence of a person by either name in New England prior to 1641.
• No record of the supposed 1637 Gloucester selectmanship has been found. According to both Babson^[17] and Pringle,^[18] Gloucester did not have a town government until 1642 and selectmen were not chosen until 1643. Therefore, there could not have been a John Harding who was chosen a Selectman of Gloucester in 1637.
• According to Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration Directory, the only John Harding for whom there is evidence that they were present in New England before 1641 was John Harding of Gloucester and Weymouth who made his will in October 1682.^[11]
• According to both Anderson's Great Migration Directory^[11] and Chamberlain's History of Weymouth,^[19] the John Harding who took the oath of freemanship in May 1640 was the John Harding of Gloucester and Weymouth who made his will in October 1682.
• It is established by Thomas Lechford's Note-book,^[20] as endorsed by a 1958 TAG article,^[21] that Abraham Harding of Braintree and Medfield was the son of John Harding of Boreham, Essex, England and the brother of Capt. Robert Harding of Boston, not the son of Wilbur's supposed immigrant John Harding.
• No record of the death of a John Harding in 1650 or his widow in 1656 have been found.
• No record of a 1650 estate administration for a John Harding has been found.

The immigrant John Harding described by Wilbur Harding thus also appears to be a complete fabrication.

Distorted Existence: Richard Harding, Immigrant

According to Wilbur Harding's claims: (1) A Richard Harding was one of three brothers who immigrated with Robert Gorges in 1623. (2) He immigrated with his wife and a 3-year-old son named John, who was John Harding of Weymouth and Gloucester who made his will in 1682. (3) Richard and his first wife had a second son named Stephen about 1624, who was Stephen Harding of Providence, Rhode Island. (4) In 1633, a Braintree tax record shows that Richard was taxed on a small amount of property. (5) On May 10, 1640, Richard took the freedman's oath. (7) Richard's first wife died before 1630 and, in that year, he married Elizabeth Adams. (8) Richard and Elizabeth had a daughter named Lydia who was born in 1632 and married Martyn Saunders in 1651. (9) In his 1657 will, Richard made bequests to his widow, his son John and John's daughter Mary. (10) Richard's wife Elizabeth died in 1664.^[2]

Some of Wilbur Harding's claims (e.g. those for the later part of Richard's life) are true, but they relate to a man named Richard Hardier. As discussed in Richard Hardier's profile: (1) Richard Hardier of Braintree had a wife named Elizabeth. (2) Richard Hardier and Elizabeth had a daughter named Lydia who married Marty Saunders in 1651. (3) In his 1657 will, Richard Hardier made bequests to his widow and to John Hardier and John's son Mary. Richard's wife, Mary Hardier died in 1664.

The problem with the remainder of Wilbur Harding's claims regarding Richard Harding are:

• As discussed above, there is no evidence of a Richard Harding or any other Harding (or Hardier) being party of Robert Gorges' party.
• There is no evidence of any Richard Harding in New England prior to at least 1670 other than Richard Hardier of Braintree.
• There is no evidence that supports the proposition that John Harding of Gloucester and Weymouth who made his will in 1682 was the son of a Richard Harding or Richard Hardier of Braintree.
• There is no evidence that supports the proposition that Stephen Harding of Providence, Rhode Island was the son of a Richard Harding or Richard Hardier of Braintree.
• No 1633 tax list that includes a Richard Harding (or Hardier) has been found. Since the town of Braintree was not called such until 1640 and was instead called Mount Wollaston,^[12] there could not have been a 1633 Braintree tax list as Wilbur suggested.
• No record of a Richard Harding (or Hardier) taking the freeman's oath on May 10, 1640 has been found. As discussed in his profile, Richard Hardier took the freeman's oath on May 10, 1648.
• No evidence has been found that suggests there was a Richard Harding who married a woman named Elizabeth Adams. As discussed in his profile, the maiden name of Richard Hardier's wife Elizabeth is unknown.

The immigrant Richard Harding described by Wilbur Harding thus also appears to be mostly a fabrication added onto some real facts for the immigrant Richard Hardier of Braintree.

Disputed Existence: John Harding, son of Joseph Harding the Immigrant

According to Wilbur Harding's claims: (1) Joseph Harding and Martha (Doane) Harding had a son named John who was born about 1625. (2) John's mother, Martha, had committed him to the care of John Doane previously to committing son Joseph to John Doane's care at the time of her death. (3) John completed his minority in Duxbury and Eastham before returning to Braintree to occupy his patrimonial estate. (4) John married _____ Hurst. (5) John had a daughter named Sarah, who married John Tower, and a son named John, who moved to Bridgewater about 1707.^[2]

The problems with Wilbur Harding's claims regarding John Harding are:

• As discussed above, his claimed father, Joseph Harding, appears to be a complete fabrication.
• As discussed in Martha (Doane Harding's profile, evidence indicates that Martha only had one child and that child was Joseph Harding of Eastham. There is no evidence that Martha (Doane) Harding had a son named John.
• There was a John Harding on a list of men 16-60 at Duxbury able to bear arms in 1643,^[22] but no evidence connects him to Martha (Doane) Harding, John Doane or Braintree. There is no evidence that John Doane (John Harding's supposed custodian while he was a minor) ever lived in Duxbury.^[23][24] John Doane himself was on the 1643 list of men at Plymouth (not Duxbury) able to bear arms.^[25]
• No evidence has been found of the presence of a John Harding in Eastham prior to Joseph Harding of Eastham's son John.
• No evidence has been found of the marriage in New England in 1640-1660 of a John Harding (or variant thereof) and a woman whose surname was Hurst.
• As discussed in the profile for John Hardman, John Hardman of Braintree was probably the father of Sarah who married John Tower and John Harding who moved to Bridgewater in 1707.

^{[19] [8] [24] [23] [1] [25] [22] [20] [21] [17] [15] [16] [18] [4] [10] [3] [9] [5] [6] [7] [14] [12] [11] [13] [2]}

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Morse, Abner. Several Ancient Puritans. Vol. IV. 1864. Link to book at archive.org.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10} Harding, Wilbur J. The Hardings in America. The Harding Printing Co., 1925. pp 17-24. Link to pages at hathitrust.org.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Harding, Veryl E. Four Centuries of the Harding Family. Ancestry and Descendants of Perry Green Harding 1807-1885. 1958. Link to pages at hathitrust.org.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} McPherson, Gladys Redfield. Ancestry of Addie Clark Harding: Daughter of Abner Clark Harding, Jr., and Maud McCain. 196?. pp. 88-89. Link to pages at ancestry.com.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} "Gorges, Sir Robert (c. 1589-1648), of Redlynch, Som." The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, eds. 2010. Link to article at histparl.ac.uk.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Dean, John Ward. "Gorges and Harding." New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. 26 (1872). pp. 381-383. Link to pages at hathitrust.org.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Brown, Frederick. "The Gorges Family." New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. 29 (1875). pp. 42-43. Link to pages at americanancestors.org.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} "Parishes: Ash", in A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. H E Malden (ed.). 1911. pp. 340-344. Link to page at british-history.ac.uk.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2} Adams, Charles Francis. Three Episodes of Massachusetts History: The Settlement of Boston Bay, The Antinomian Controversy, A Study of Church and Town Government. Volume I. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892. fn. 2 pp. 143-144. Link to pages at archive.org.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} "Gorges Servants," The Wessagusett Plantation, plymoutharch.tripod.com. Accessed on December 14, 2019.
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Directory. Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640. A Concise Compendium. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2} Adams, Charles Francis. History of Braintree, Massachusetts, the North Precinct of Braintree and the Town of Quincy. 1891. pp. 6-7.Link to pages at archive.org.
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins. Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. Voloume II G-O. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995. pp. 384-385. Link to page at ancestry.com.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} "Cape Cod," wikipedia.com.
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} Babson, John J. History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport. 1860. pp. 52-54, 97-98. Link to pages at archive.org.
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} Pringle, James R. History of the Town and City of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts. 1892. p. 45. Link to page at archive.org.
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1} Babson, John J. History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport. 1860. p. 187. Link to page at archive.org.
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1} Pringle, James R. History of the Town and City of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts. 1892. p. 26. Link to page at archive.org.
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} Chamberlain, George Walter. History of Weymouth, Massachusetts. Vol. 3 Genealogy of Weymouth Families. Weymouth Historical Society, 1923. p. 254. Link to page at hathitrust.org.
20. ↑ ^{20.0 20.1} Note-Book Kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, From June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641. 1885. pp. 296-297. Link to pages at archive.org.
21. ↑ ^{21.0 21.1} McCracken, George E. "John Harding of Boreham, Essex." The American Genealogist. Volume 34 (1958). pp. 199-205. Link to article at americanancestors.org.
22. ↑ ^{22.0 22.1} Shurtleff, Nathaniel B. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England. Vo. VIII. Miscellaneous Records 1633-1689. p. 190. Link to page at archive.org.
23. ↑ ^{23.0 23.1} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins. Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. Volume I A-F. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1955. pp. 558-563. Link to pages at ancestry.com.
24. ↑ ^{24.0 24.1} Morrison, Steven W. Unearthing John Done - A Plymouth Colony Late Comer. 2012. Link to paper at doanefamilyassociation.org.
25. ↑ ^{25.0 25.1} Shurtleff, Nathaniel B. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England. Vo. VIII. Miscellaneous Records 1633-1689. p. 188. Link to page at archive.org.