A HAXTON GENEALOGY By Bertha w.c1ark 10 Ja:mB.icaway, Boston,Mass. October, 1956 i Introduction The Origin of the Name Haxton About the year 1200 A.D. Ranulf, son of Walter de Lenorp,beca.me falconer to William the Lion, King of Sootlando That is, be was keeper of the king's hunting hawks. For his services, he was given a large estate in the Mearns (Kinoardineshire), and this estate was called,ap• propriately enough, Hawkerstown or Halkerston. For some years Ranulf's desoendants used Falconer as their family name. His grandson, for exam­ ple, styled himself "Robert Falconer of Halkertown." Gradually the name Falooner gave way to the name of the estate; and the family na.me became Halkerston. This name-form went through a myriad changes with the years and at last emerged in the forms most in use today: Haxton and Hack­ ston [l]. Before many years most of the Halkerstons had removed from Kinoar­ dinesnire to Fifeshire, and it is with the latter county that the fam­ ily has been most closely identified• One of their main seats in Fife has been Rathillet, which is a ham.let in the parish of Kilmany in the district of Cupar. You will find Cupar on any good map of Scotland. It is well inland, and lies directly north of Edinburgh, which is sepa­ rated from Fifeshire by the Firth of Forth. Some branches of the Haxton family have been armigerous; that is, entitled to a coat of arms. The armorial bearings of suoh Halkerstons are described as being "Or three hawks' heads erased gules." Their motto is, "In ardua nitor"--I press on against hardships. A Hackston Hero Presbyterianism has always been very strong in Scotland; and when the Established Church tried to take away the rights of the Presbyter• ians,the latter were strong enough to for•e the State Church to sign a Covenant guaranteeing them their liberties. Then when the Established Church later refused to abide by the terms of this Covenant, the Pres­ byteriane who fought rather than have their Covenant dishonored were called Covenanters.David Hackston of Rathillet was a Covenanter, one of the bravest of them all in the days that were darkest and the battles that were bloodiest. He fought in the battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge in 1679. The Covenanters, greatly outn~mbered and suffering from lack of ammunition, were terribly beaten. Hundreds of the~ were killed; other hundreds shipped to the Barbados to be sold as slaves. A reward of ten thousand marks was offered for the capture of David Hackston,who saved his life only by going into hiding in West Scotland, where the Covenanters were still strong. Once when he and a few of his companions went into an inn foo refreshment, the inn-keeper, not knowing who they 1 William Anderson: The Scottish Nation 2:187 (1882) 11 were, asked excitedly: 0 Did you see the posse of soldiers who left here just nowt They're out a.tter that renegade Hackston." "Oh," said David nonchalantly, "we're in the same chase ourselYes. Here's hoping we get himl" and he proceeded to regale his listeners with breath-taking sto• ries ot "the chase• [l]. But the end was near, and a terrible one it was.David's final bat­ tle was at Aird's Moss on 22 July 1680. or the Covenanters there were now onl7 23 horse and 40 foot soldiers. Hackston and Cameron led ott and succeeded in plunging through the enemy's line; but Cameron and 28 of their men tell dead; and Hackston was wounded in the head and ta.ken prisonero They carried him first to Lanark and then to Edinburgh and made a great show or his execution. First they cut off one of his arms. He showed not the slightest emotion. Then they cut off the other. Then they raised his mutilated body to the top of a scaffold and let it tall full weight to the ground. fhen the executioner ripped open his body and car~ed out his still throbbing heart and held it high that all the on• lookers might gloat oTer it. Then they cut his body into tour parts and sent one each to Leith, Glasgow, Bruntisland, and Cupar to be exhib­ ited, while the head was kept to be displayed in Edinburgh. [2]. Loving followers have since erected a tombstone to his memory in Cupar4> Even to this very year, whoever owns the Hackston manse at Rath• illet has to pay a yearly fine of "ninety pounds Scots" for what David Hackston did in 1$80, and though that sum in today's currency 1s not what it was in olden times, it still is a heavy burden on Rathillet 1 s owner. [3) • Because 1679, the year when the Covenanters were being hounded about and their estates con.riscated, was just the year when our James Haxton came to America, we have wondered if he may not have been of the Covenanter group, perhaps even close of kin to David of Rathillet. whose father is known to have been named James [4]. The private rec­ ords of the Halkerston family were pillaged and burnt by the Duke or Rothes in Covenanting Days [4); and so one cannot get data on the fam­ ily. Mr. David Carswell, whose parents and grandparents owned Rathillet mansion for many years and who has known much of the lia.ckston family, writes me that David never married. So if there is close relationship, it must be only through a collateral line; but all of us who bear the name of Haxton or who have Haxton blood coursing through our Teins can feel a thrill of pride that we can claim, even it only distantly, kin­ ship with one who has so honored the name. l J.H.Burton:Hist.ofScotland 3 Rev.Andrew L.Ireland of Kilmany Po219 Parish, Cupar 2 James Gibson:Tombstones or 4 Miss Isabel M.Allen of the Scots the Covenanters, pp.54 rr. Ancestry Research Society iii Some of the abbreTiations used in this manuscript Arch.= Archaeological Bapt.= Baptist Biog.= Biographical Cem. = Cemetery Ch. = Church CiT. = Civil Co. = County Col.= Colonial; or Collection Com.= Commemorative d.y. = died young Epis.= Episcopal Gen.= Genealogy; or Genealogical Hist.= History; or Historical Ibid.= Ibidem (in the same place) Mag.= Magazine Mile= Military Ms. = Manuscript Narr.= Narragansett N.K. = North Kingstown N.S. = Nova Scotia Prob.= Probate; or probably Prov.= Providence Rec.= Records Reg.= Register Soc.= Society Sup.= Superior Vol.= Volume V.R. = Vital Records Wash.= Washington iv Our Numbering System This is primarily a genealogy of the descendants of James Haxton who came to America in 1679. Numbers, duplicated in red• have been assigned to each of his descendants who became head of a family with children. While much of the manuscript ~I~ being typed, we thought that the Haxtons of Coshocton County,Ohio,Ap,obably a branch ot this old New England group and assigned them numbers accordingly. We are now convinced that in so thinking we were wrong, and that Robert of Chartiers, Cross Creek, and Coshocton County was founder of an entirely distinct Haxton line. We are therefore listing below in separate tables the numbers that apply to the line of James and those that apply to the line of Robert 6 The Line of James 1 James 1 (Mary ?Westcott) PPol-4 2 James 2[James 1) {Hannah) pp.S-6 3 William 2[Jamea l] (Elizabeth) ~P•7-9 4 Benjamin 2[James l] (Anne Smith} pp.9-12 56 Thomas----------- 3 [William 2 Ja..mes l] {Mary Weaver) p.13 7 Nathaniel )[William a James 1) (Ruth Sabin) pp.14-15 8 Benjamin 3[Willirun. 2 James l] (Phebe Wood;Violette Wickes) pp.15•16 9 John )[William 2 James l] (----) p.17 10 Andrew 3[Benj.2 Jas.l](Abigail Woodin;Elizabeth Watrous-Sherman)ppol8-2: 11 Jeremiah 3[Benj.2 Jas.l] (Amey Sweet; Rhoda Akin) pp.21-22a 12 James Levi[Benj.2 Jas.1] (Molby Bennett) pp.23-25 13 Benjamin J[Benj.2 Jas.lJ (Mary) pp.25-27 14 William 4[Nathaniel 3 Wm.2 Jas.l] (Molly Allen) pp.27-28 15 William 4[Benj.3 Wm.2 Jns.l] (Candis} Po29 l.5½Thomas 4[Benj.3 Wm.2 Jas.l](Susa..-rma Ade.ms;Rest Bennett) Po30 16 ---------- 17 Jeremiah 4[And.3 Benj.2 Jas.l](Elizabeth King) pp.34-35 18 Benjamin 4[And.3 Benj.2 Jas.l](Sally Benjamin;Sarah Morton;Martha Weeks) pp.36-38 19 Timothy 4[And.3 nenjo2 Jas.l] (Abigail Osborne) pp.J9-39a 20 Andrew 4[And.3 Benjo2 Jas.l] (Abbie Palmer) p.39a 21 Abe 4[And.3 Benj.2 Jas.1] {Susanna Smith) pp.40-41 22 Willi8.Ill 4[Jer.J Benj.2 Jas.l](Ruth Tibbitts) pp.42-43 23 ----------- 24 Benjamin 4[Jer.3 Benj.2 Jas.l] (Almira Van der burgh;Sarah Wooley)44-45 25 James Bennet 4[Jas.Levi 3 Benj.2 Jas.l] (----) p.46 26 John 4[Benj.J & 2 Jas.l] (----) p.47 27 Eli 4[Benj. 3 & 2 Jas.l] (Hannah) pp.48-49 28 Dyer 4[Benj.J & 2 Jas.l](Charlotte Weed-Brown;Sarah Hoyt)pp.50-51 29 Benjamin 4(& 3 & 2 Jas.l)(Sarah Lovejoy;Beda ?Norton-Kinney)pp.52-54 30 Jeremiah 4(?Benj.3 & 2 Jas.l](Abigail Holley) pp.55-56 31 Je..mes ?5[Wm.4 Nath'l 3 Wm.2 Jas.l](Sarah} p.57 32 ---------- 33 ---------- 34 ---------- V The Line of James, conto 35 King Andrew 5(Jer.4 And.3 Benj.2 Jas.l] (Mary Donihue)p.61 36 Washington 5[BenJ.4 And.3 Benj.2 Jas.l](Sophia M.Taylor)p.62 37 Andrew Be5[Benj.4 And.3 Benj.2 Jas.l](Mary Britton;Myra Raymond)63~64 37tSamuel ???5(And.4 &3 Benj.2 Jas.l](Elizabeth Beach) p.65 (This Samuel probably belongs to the other line.