| Notes |
- Earliest known paternal ancestor of PNH. He was probably in Virginia before his arrival in Maryland, possibly before 1665. He and his wife arrived in Maryland 1678, according to the notes of Dr. Lois Green Carr. His surname was also spelled Heyden.
Generations of Hayden family researchers, including Patrick himself, have spent a lot of energy examining the ancestry of this Francis Heydon, ancestor of the Maryland and Kentucky Haydens. It's been asserted that he was the same Francis Hayden that was christened in Watford, Hertfordshire on 14 Aug 1628, and that he was a great-grandson of the armigerous Francis Heydon who married Frances Longueville. Unfortunately, there are too many inconsistencies within this narrative. There is no positive proof that the Francis who died in Maryland in 1694 is the same person who was born in Watford in 1628. And there are significant problems both with the much-reproduced idea that Francis's father was the Edward Heydon who married Ellenor Whitehead--and with the equally-widespread idea that this Edward's father, another Edward Hayden who married a Frances Burr, was the same Edward as the eldest son of Francis Hayden who married Frances Longueville.
It's also widely asserted that the Watford Heydons were secret Catholics -- see, for instance, this Find a Grave page for Francis, which says, echoing decades of Hayden family legend, that "[i]n the year 1535 a Haydon family friend, Sir Thomas More, was beheaded, because he wouldn't denounce his Catholic faith. The Haydon family were devout Catholics, and feared for their lives. They and many other Catholic families had to worship in secret or probably be put to death." There is no evidence that the Watford Heydons were socially acquainted with Thomas More, and there is no evidence whatsoever that they were Catholic recusants. Indeed, the armigerous Francis Heydon (1540-1606) of Watford, supposedly the great-grandfather of Francis-the-Maryland-immigrant, husband of Frances Longueville, was granted a market in Watford in the 1590s by Queen Elizabeth -- who was very much not in the habit of granting valuable political favors to anyone associated with a family that had the suspicion of recusancy attached to it. The immigrant Francis Heydon, like many generations of his descendants, was a vigorously orthodox Roman Catholic of great ferocity, which further argues against his supposed descent from the visibly pliable and conformist Watford family.
Will of Francis Heydon:
In the name of God Amen the 30th of Aprill 1697 I ffrencis Heyden of St. Marys County in the province of Maryland being Sick in Body but of good and pfect Memory thanks be to Almighty God; Doe make Constitute ordaine and Declare this my last Will and Testament in Manner and fforme ffollowing Revoaking and Dis anulling by these psents att and every Testament & Testaments Will and Wills heretofore by me made and Declared either by Word or Writing and this is to be taken only for my Last Will and Testament and nowe other First I Comitt my Soule unto Almighty God Who Gave it me And my body to be buried by my Executrix then Doe hereby Constitute and appoint Thomasin Heyden my Now Wife Sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament and I Doe Give and bequeath unto ye Said Thomasin all my Lands Goods and Chatles and Whatsoever else Doth or Ought Appartaine or belong unto me Desiring her to pay all my Due Debts and Incumbrances with (sic) I have Contracted I Say I Doe Devise and bequeath unto her all my Lands and Chatles to her and her heirs for Ever In Witness whereof I have herunto Sett my hand and Seale the Day and Yeare above Specified
/s/ Ffra: Heydon (Seale)
Signed, and Sealed in prsents of us
John Bla. Carbury
John Morris
Tho Newton (his mark)|
On the back of the ffore Goeing Will It was Thuss Endorsed Viz
June ye 12th 1697
The within Wrighten will was proved before me According to Law as wittness my hand and Bore the Day and Yeare above Written.
[Hall of Records, Wills, Liber 6, ff. 134-135.]
Date of Francis's will (and of his death):
From "The Hiden Family" by Martha Woodruff Hiden, in Genealogies of Virginia Families, from Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, volume II. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1981:
"Francis died 1694 testate, (Wills 6, p. 134) leaving his wife Thomasine executrix and sole legatee. His will, witnessed by Jno. Ba. Carberry, John Morris and Thomas Newton, is dated April 30, 1697 and proved June 12, 1694. That '1697' is an error is proved by a suit brought in 1694 by Thomas Allman against Thomasine Heyden (Provincial Court Judgments T. L. #1 (1694-96) pp. 117, 185, 194). The sheriff reported that he had replevied certain personal property of the defendant. The suit could not have been brought in Thomasine's name had her husband been alive, hence we know Francis died prior to June 12, 1694 when his will was offered for probate."
In her Maryland and Virginia Colonials: Genealogies of Some Colonial Families (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1991), Sharon J. Doliante agrees with Ms. Hiden on this issue, and adds that "It will be noted that [Francis and Thomasina's eldest child] Penelope styled herself 'dau. & heiress of Francis Heydon, deceased', in 1696."
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
- Bef 1694
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