John Hashe

John was known as "Old" John. He was first married to a woman who wasknown as "sickly" in Grayson County, Virginia, and married Rebecca Anderson after her death.

Montgomery County, Virginia, Brief of Wills, left his estate to his wife and sons John and William. Witnessed by Enoch Osborne, husband of daughter Jane, Thomas T. Vaughan, Robert Baker and probated May 27,1784."Southwest Virginia 1769-1800, Summers Had two additional daughters, names unknown. One married Francis Sturgill and the other a man by the name of Hall. 1) Montgomery County, Virginia, Brief of wills, left his estate to his wife and sons John and William. Witnessed by Enoch Osborne, Thomas T.Vaughan, Robert Baker and probated May 27, 1784."Southwest Virginia 1769-1800, Summers"

Grayson County A History in Words and Pictures_ was compiled and editedby Bettye-Lou Fields & Jene Hughes, Grayson County Historical Society, Independence, VA, 1976.

An article on Elk Creek written by Olive Scott Benkelman. Says Elk a district of Montgomery Co. prior to 1776. It was from this district that men signed the oath of allegiance and volunteered their services in the Rev. War. Area settled by English, Scotch-Irish and Germans who were called PA Dutch for they had come from PA via the Great Wilderness Road,through the Valley of VA and thence across Iron Mountain to settle in the Elk Creek Valley. a district of Montgomery Co. prior to 1776.

Hashe-Hash-Hache Genealogy (and allied lines) by Lella Gertrude Saylors,1970, Sparta, TN)

According to tradition passed on by word of mouth, Thomas Hache was a French Huguenot, and was our immigrant. He came to America with Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame, and while on ship, enroute to America, he fell in love with a young maiden by the last name of Osborne.

According to "Documents, etc", Oxford Dictionary, Vol. 5 (H-K), "Hash"and"Hatch"are variations in spelling of the original HACHE. p. 8 "Hache" = French p. 8 "Hasha" = Spanish - now French only. p. 109 "Hash" = French - from Hache p. 115 "Hatch" = French - Hatch in some uses now obsolete.

From: "Muster Rolls of Settlers in Virginia" ... The muster of Sir GeorgeYeardley, servants at James City, quote: pp. 222

"Richard Gregory, age 40 years, came in ship Temperance, 1620. "Anthony Jones, " 26 " " " "" " "Thomas Dunn, " 14 " " " " " " "Thomas Phildust " 15 " " " " " " "Thomas Hatch " 17 " " " " Duty , 1619 "Robert Peake " 22 " " " Margaret & John , 1623

We are inclined to believe the above Thomas (here spelled 'Hatch', age 17, arriving Jamestown, 1619, on the ship Duty, to have been our immigrant.

Tradition says he arrived single, fell in love while enroute, etc. Weshould remember however, that before 1619, the year the first shipload of young women for wives made the voyage to America, there could hardly have been a Miss Osborne aborad any ship, with whom Thomas could have fallen in love. Therefore, tradition and these dates do not tally.

Under "Documents" - we are indebited to the wonderful staff at Williamand Mary College Archives, for the John C. Hotten list that showed,"Thomas Hach to be living in the Flower de Hundred, in Virginia, 16 Feb 1623."

Before 1640, two men named Thomas Hatch arrived on the Massachusetts shores (the degree of kinship has not been established) ...See, "Thomas Hatch of Barnstable" by C.L. Pack, pp. 29.

The first one (the one on whom Pack's genealogy is built) became a "free"man, and one of the first settlers, at Dorchester, Mass., 14 May 1634.This Thomas took again the "free" man's oath, when he moved to Yarmouth, Cape Cod 7 Jan 1638,39. (Fires at Dorchester and Yarmouth destroyed town records covering the years Thomas Hatch dwelt there.)

The Barnstable County Court House burned in 1627, but on a list of those"able to bear arms" in 1643, Thomas' name appears. The marriage of his children, Jonathan and Lydia, are to be seen in the Hyanas Town Clerk's Office.

We are cognizant of Pack's "Anglo-Saxon" - "h a e c" root of our Hache-Hatch name (16th century). Surnames were first written, atte Hachebecoming Hatch; atte Water (Mr. Water); atte Wood (Mr. Atwood), etc. We however, by tradition and also by document, claim our HACHE name to have been French.

Two wills, one by Thomas, 1556-57 (spelled throughout) Hache, and another by Willyam, 29 Apr 1572 (spelled throughout) Hatch, shows the two spellings were used at the same period in Mersham, England, where these two men had been millwrights (relationship not given).

The Hatch wing of the family seems to have been Roman Catholic, in early England... Evidence early England...Evidence:-(Excerpts:'HatchWill'"HATCH OF BARNSTABLE" pp. 18) quote:"...I give for dirge...;For masses and prayers in said church for 3-years 13s 4d; To high altar 18d-etc." Thomas Hatch of barnstable, died 1661 and left no will. His widow, Grace, furnished an inventory: "working tools, timber, and an instrument called a violin - amount, only 14 lbs. 18s." It is said that Thomas was not a man of 'note', but honest, and a good neighbor. Perhaps, owning the above violin caused his being dubbed: "rather feeble and 'effiminate'."

As evidence, that Grace (pp. 47, "Thomas Hatch of Barnstable") was hissecond wife - the two young children, Jonathan and Lydia, were allowed to live away from their father's house; Jonathan running away and whipped by authorities, where he was found and classified as a 'vagrant'...Eventually, he turned out well.

Questions: "Could the first wife of this Thomas have been 'Miss Osborne?" "May, the only wife of Thomas of Scituate, Mass. (the likely Thomas of Flower de Hundred) have been Miss Osborne?"

Unless one of these Thomas' was our "Thomas Hache" of Flower de Hundred(who could have moved up the Atlantic coast from Virginia in his searchfor a new settlement as many were doing) we lose sight of our immigrant,for the hiatus of about 100 years or, until we find John, James andWilliam Hashe (note: the C has been changed to the phoetic spelling S bythis time) coming into Fincastle County of Virginia before 1773. Fromthere we have a continuous record to the present.

The definition of the name 'Hache' means chopping or cutting. Names originally were acquired from one's occupation or locale, such as Smith being one who worked with metals, or a Mr. Miller would be one who grinded grain, or one living beneath a hill might be called Underhill.

The men in the HASH families had the ability to use tools; given a set of tools, they could fashion their needs. Down to our present time, whether they be doctors, surgeons, dentists or even a carpenter or cabinet maker, all were and still are known for their ability to use instruments"tools". It has been said of the Hash 'boy-babies' that "They were born with a money wrench in their hands".

In all the professions, more medical doctors and allied lines; fewer ministers (and this despite the ardent devotion, faith, and practice, by their rank and file) are to be found than in all other of the professions.

Their names are to be found on all patriotic rosters as Colonels,Captains, privates, etc. The Hash women were as to stature, never muscular or large, but still patriots. Many are to be found in nursing in the military services.

In "sketches" of some of our pioneer women, reported herein, show that they possessed nerves of steel. They exhibited also, strains of refinement and feminity which were typically French. We've seen specimens of their needle and scissors work (quilts, in particular) which for beauty and delicacy, defy description.

In matters of church, the Hash's have adherred mainly to the Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists.

We do not claim that our Hache-Hash's were the most enlightened, the most refined, and the most moral people on earth. But, as has been said of the French Huguenots, generally, the Hash's also, quiet and unassuming, could not and cannot be pushed!

That our immigrant descended from a noble ancestry is indicated by the Coat-of-Arms, listed for the name Hache, in "General Armory of Wales,England, Scotland, and Ireland" by Burke.

While we believe our American forebears to have been contemptuous of 'social status' based on armorial devices, we are sure, nonetheless, that they were not indifferent to 'blood'. For the more one studies history and races and families, the more he must be convinced of the marked and permanent influence of 'blood', despite all the crossings by intermarriage. We are told that every genealogist has marked and marveled at the continuance from generation to generation of someparticular type of character that was visible in the earliest known ancestor.

The Huguenot Background in France

The term Huguenot referred to any French Protestant, which in doctrine, was similar to our American Presbyterians. The origin of the word is unknown, but it is generally thought that it was a derisive term.

Under the Roman Catholic controlled government, Protestants had limited, if any, civil rights from the early part of 1500 till the end of the French Revolution in 1798. It is noted that as far back as 1535, John Calvin, the famous protestant, was forced to be constantly moving to evade persecution. We believe it was at about this time a small stream of protestants began to trickle out of France. No doubt, this trickle accellerated greatly, following the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572. We suggest that the parents of Thomas Hache escaped to England following this awful event. Excerpts from another Huguenot families history "The Mauzy Family" by R. Mauzy throws additional light on the Huguenot exodus from France. Quoting pp. 12, "...The protestants .. were allured to court; everything being arranged; on St. Bartholomew's Day ahorrid massacre was commenced in Paris and throughout France, when according to Sully, as many as 70,000 were murdered, most of them in their beds ... Of this most atrocious massacre, the French historian Thuanus observes, that no example of equal barbarity is to be found in all ... the annals of the world."

King Charles, in giving directions for the massacre of his protestant subjects added, "Take care that none escape to reproach me!"

"When the news of this horrible transaction was received at Rome, solemn thanks were given for the 'triumph of the church militant'"

In 1598, Henry IV granted 'Toleration' to the Huguenots through the Edict of Nantes. The persecution continued because the Edict of Nantes proved to be a measure of 'toleration' in name only. And when Louis XIV revoked the measure in 1685, he swept away all pretense of government protection of the Huguenots.

In the "Mauzy Family", pp. 16, quotes, "... one of the most unjust as well as impolitic measures of Louis XIV, was the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685 ... By this barbarous act, all protestant churches were destroyed, their ministers banished and every individual was outlawed or compelled to renounce his religion. They were hunted like wild beasts,and great numbers were put to death."

The small stream of exiles, slipping out of France before 1685, now rampaged into a flood of fleeing humanity, forsaking possessions and all things dear, to salvage, if nothing more, their very lives. On pp. 16,17 of the Mauzy Family, " France lost 500,000 to 800,000 ... driven into exile. To England, ... and the colonies in America."

The statement (in "Pocahontas" by Garnet) that Captain John Smith due to injuries in a gunpowder explosion, in Virginia, was shipped out of Jamestown (for dead to the Indians) to England in 1609, "never to return to Jamestown" could give rise to a belief that 1609 was the end of Captain Smith in America. Therefore, after that date, our immigrant, Thomas Hache, could not have come 'with' Smith as claimed.

Here, researchers will be well advised to probe into historical records, where ample proof is to be found that Capt. Smith made trips back and forth between England and America over a long period of time, including at the least, the year 1628. In the book "Massachusetts", "Capt. John Smith mapped the coast of Massachusetts in 1614". And "General History of Virginia and The Summer Isles (Bermuda)" says, "Writ with his own hand" (Capt. John Smith, p. 215). P. 205 says, "My second voyage to New England in the year of our Lord, 1615, I was emploid (sic) by many friends of London and Sir Fernando Gorges ... to entertain this plantation."

Regarding the 1622 Indian Massacre, pp. 75, "Of Charles City and Capt.Smith's men slain -5". Smith's summary reported Virginia as having 31 communities, at that time ... total colonists slain, p. 347.

P. 93, "At about this time a small barke of Barnstable, which had been at the Summer Isles, Capt. Nathaniel Butler (time expired, as Governor at Summer Isles) came on sightseeing visit to Virginia. He was kindly entertained by Sir Francis Wyatt, the Governor." (Wyatt was governor at Jamestown in 1620).

Sir George Yeardley died (in VA) 1628, and Smith by reporting this event, confirms that he was there as late as that date, in 1628. He died in 1631.

When one reads, herein, of the "travails of Soul" which accompanied ourearly Hache-Hash's here in the wilderness, he may be struck with the similarity between their experiences and those of the Children of Israelin their exodus from Egypt. Pharoah (the French government) was 'behind' them and the Red Sea (Indians, disease, the unexplored wilderness and wild animals) were in 'front' of them.

With (written) permission by the publishers of "Cavaliers and Pioneers"by Nugent (an attorney), we give you an evaluation of America's settlers of the 1607-1620 period. "God sifted a whole nation that He might send His choice grain into the wilderness ... Into the wilderness of the new world I am certain God sent the choice grain of many nations, and it is upon the fruit of this planting my thoughts dwell ... I wish everyone interested in the foundations and preservation of these United States could stand in the shadow of the Old Church at Jamestown and, gazing seaward, visualize ... little ships as they approach the shores of this land ... Consecrated by the blood of noble men and courageous women ...We owe a debt of eternal gratitude ..."

John, James and William Hashe, progenitors of the Hashe family of Grayson County, came to the New River settlement in southwestern colonial Virginia, prior to 1773.

Historian Jennie (Hash) Rucker, Rock Island TN told this writer that the Hash's came into Grayson County via (what later became) West Virginia.

The late, V.L. Hash, a Phoenix AZ attorney, born in 1881 in Grayson County wrote that one branch of the family settled around Roanoke, and the other in western North Carolina.

Land west of the Allegheny Mountains was not open to patent or grant to individuals prior to 1773. It is evident that our Hash's had settled on New River, Bridle Creek, Fox Creek and Chestnut Creek prior to that time... because on the very day that the Council of Virginia authorized issuance of grants for land west of the Alleghenies, 15 Dec. 1773, William Hashe received a grant for 435 acres on Bridle Creek and John Hashe received a grant for 250 acres on New River at the mouth of Bridle Creek. James Hashe recieved a grant for 147 acres "lying on the waters of Chestnut Creek, a branch of New River".

Contrary to the opinion of some researchers, that John James and William were 'brother' ... Evidence, herewith, indicates that William was the son of this John.

A). John Hashe Will, 1784, "William, my son, to share equally..." B). This "William, born @1750 fits the age group, compatible for marriage with "Ellendar" Osborne, b.1751, sister of Capt. Enoch Osborne,who married William's sister Jane Hashe b. @1751-53. C). The Revolutionary War data on William, as a son of John Hashe, has been processed and approved by the National DAR Credentials Committee.

So far, very little data on James has been found. Some researchers have suggested that John's father was also named James ... No proof submitted. By a consensus of opinion, this James has been classified as a brotherto "Old" John.

Concerning the origin of our Hash's, Grayson County's "tradition" claims the Immigrant, "together with a family" landed on the Jersey Shore..."from across the Atlantic".

Allowing for the Immigrant's landing, first, at Jamestown, single (with Capt. John (Pocahontas) Smith) "Rock Island" tradition); then , he and/or his descendants having joined other groups of the first settlers, as was common practice when they moved up the Atlantic coast, to make new, or better settlements (most travel being by boat, either up the coast or on the rivers); until finally, our Hache-Hash's were found to be landing"with a family" on the northern Virginia coast (called, later on, New Jersey). Thus, based on the premise that 4 or 5 generations had evolved in the time-lapse between the "Jamestown" and the "Jersey Shore"landings, the two 'traditions' 'from across the Atlantic' are reconciled.

From the records available, it appears that Andrew Baker was the first white settler in the (Fincastle - Grayson County) New River area. He settled on the south side of New River and on the east side of Little River, where Little River empties into New River. Andrew Baker was driven out by the indians (see Chancery Cause Newell V. Blevins, Augusta County Court, 1808) and did not return until 1765, when Ephriam Osborne, David Cox, John Cox, and others settled on New River. James Blevins purchased the Andrew Baker tract in 1771 (See ... Newell V. Blevins,supra. and WILL of David Cox). Fincastle County was abolished in 1776 and the counties of Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky were created therefrom. Wythe County was cut off from Montgomery in 1790 and Grayson was cut off from Wythe in 1792.

The Osborne, Hashe, and Phipps families all came to this section at about the same time. Benjamin Phipps (revolutionary soldier) came up from Guilford County, NC with his 4 brothers: Isaiah (settling in Virginia) John, William and Samuel, locating (at Cap Civil) just across the line in Ashe County, NC.

The Osborne, Hashe, Phipps, Reeves, Ward, Baker, Cox, and Blevins families were neighbors and friends. These families beganinter-marriages during the Revolution and have kept it up until this day.

Will of John Hashe "1784" (Pioneer: Wythe-Montgomery-Fincastle County,Virginia) "Will" taken from Montgomery County Court - Wills Book "B" p.63)

"In the Name of god, Amen! I John Hash, being very sick and weak in body,but of perfect mind and memory, thanks be to God for it, and, therefore, calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed unto all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and testament.

And first, I give my soul into the hands of God who gave it, and my body to the earth to be buried in a Christian manner, at the discretion of my executors, and as concerning such worldy estate as God hast given me, I give and bequeath in the following manner.

I give and bequeath unto my loving wife my manshun house and yhe sole benefit of all ye land on ye north side of the creek as long as she lives, and one black horse and a black mare and two white cows, one yewand a lamb and a fether bed and all ye furniture thereunto belonging, onelarge pot and a frying pan and a butter dish, one beason and sixspoons, with spinning wheels and two pair of cords and a hackle, one riding saddle with a base mon and hasters and two plates.

I give and bequeath to my son William a full and equal share with all my children of all the remaining part of my estate, except one cow each to Enoch Osborne and one to Francis Sturgill or the price of a cow to each of them.

I give and bequeath to my son Thomas all my land lying on the side of the creek as far as a small run that empties into the creek above the ford.

I give and bequeath to my son John, who I have by my second wife all my land on the lower side of the above said creek after the decease of his mother whom I have leave ye sole executor of this my last Will and Testament.

I give to Richard Hall, my grandson, a two year old red heifer.

John Hash -----------Seal

Signed, sealed, ratified and confirmed in the Year of our Lord, 1784. And in the presence of: Tests: Enoch Osborne Thomas Vaughan Robert Baker

At a Court held for Montgomery County, May 27, 1784, this Will was provenby witnesses thereto and ordered to be recorded. Tests: James McCorkle

Among the first settlers of Grayson (then called Montgomery co) Co. had come as pioneers down the old wagon road from penn. in 18th century

Rebecca ANDERSON

Elizabeth STODGILL

1. Hashe/Hash Genealogy and Allied Lines Lella Gertrude Saylors of Smryna, TN. 1970 - Nashville, TN.

2. GEDCOM File : salem gormezano 3.ged Nancy S. Gormezano. 7 APR 2004.

           Thomas Hache
John Hashe|

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