Individual Details

DAR Lineage shows this Martin Hardin to have served in the Revolution. Some of the applicants have furnished incorrect lineage, but most are acceptable. Both Martin and Henry had daughters named Sarah and it appears some DAR applicants have confused these daughters. Martin furnished supplies, VA Public Claims.

Martin received land on Elk Run, part of his father's 642 acres patent, in his father's will. Mark Hardin's patent was described as being on Muddy Hole branch of Elk Run in what was then Stafford Co. A patent of John Windwright's was also on Muddy Hole br and he received the patent as assignee of Mark Harding. Alexander Clement was also on Elk Run, the lines of Mark Harding & Danl Feagin. Then Martin's brother John patented land in 1741, by then in Prince William, and it was described as adjacent Mark Harding & Danl Feagin and on Wainwright's Creek.

Prince William Co VA Deed Book Liber D 1738-1740
June Whitehurst Johnson, 1984
p.35/p.418-422 23 Jun 1740 Robert Jones Gent of Pr Wm to John Page. 125a in fork of Horsepen Run near the Great marsh. Land Jones bought of Alexander Beach, Beach bought of William Russell acknowledge Richmond Co Ct. 1 Aug 1716. Deeds of lease & release.
Signed: Robt Jones. Wit: Catesby Cocke, Stephen DeLisle, Martin Hardin

Deed Abstracts of Prince William Co VA 1740-41
Ruth & Sam Sparacio, 1989
p.105 Election of Burgesses, 1741
p.106 & 107 Thos. Harrison, Candidate
Henry Harding, John Holtsclaw, Jacob Holtsclaw, Martin Harding


Martin is said to have bought land from his brother Mark.

Martin must have thought not to remain here in Prince William Co since he obtained the following grants. However, he eventually sold these.

20 Jun 1748. Grant Book G, p.70
Martin Hardin of Prince William Co. ungranted land in Orange Co. 400 acres on the great fork of the Rappahannock River. Survey by George Hume. Line of Col. Francis Thornton; another tract of Thornton's, corner Thornton and William Green, Green's line, corner Green and John Weatherhall; Weatherhall's line.
22 Jun 1748. Grant Book G. p.73
Martin Hardin of Prince William Co. received another 400 acres on the great fork in Orange Co. Again surveyed by George Hume. Describes the line of Col. Francis Thornton, and line of survey made for Martin Hardin [presumably the one just above].

I suspect the "great fork" is where the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers converge very near the intersections of Culpeper, Orange & Stafford Counties.
Culpeper Co was formed out of Orange Co in 1758; the next patents reflects this change although the neighbors remained the same. Fauquier Co was formed from Prince William Co in 1759.

31 Aug 1750. Northern Neck Grants G, p.413
Martin Hardin of Prince William - tract in county of Culpeper. Survey by George Hume. Corner the said Hardin and John Roberts, Roberts line, Francis Thornton's line, sd Martin Hardin's line. 250 acres.

20 Nov 1752. Northern Neck Grants H, p.233
Martin Hardin of Prince William - tract in Culpeper of 501 acres. The East part of Pignut Ridge, adjacent John Baylis, John Ball, corner to land of Thornton.

5 Nov 1756. Northern Neck Grants H, p.729
Martin "Harden", now said to be of Orange Co [This might be a reference to his previously granted land in Orange because he's apparently still living in Prince William. This also appears to be a re-granting of the first 400 acres granted in 1748.] granted 400 acres in Culpeper. On the Great Fork of the Rapphannock, line of Col. Francis Thornton, another line of Thornton, corner of Thornton & William Green, Green & John Weatherhall.

1 Sep 1761. Northern Neck Grants K, p.327 and 328
Two small tracts of land granted to Martin Hardin, listed as being "of Culpeper". Tracts in Culpeper Co and surveyed by George Hume. 60 acres on a branch of the Hughes River. 66 acres on the North side of Hughes River, the edge of a great mountain, along a ridge, mentions a parcel of large rocks.
[These are very small tracts and seem to be quite a distance from his other lands - most of the Hughes River is in Madison Co which was cut out of Culpeper in 1793. It is in the edge of Blue Ridge mountains.]

Mark Hardin is said to have sold most of his Culpeper lands in 1762 and 1769 - I have not looked at the Culpeper deeds.

Martin Hardin is found on the list of taxpayers for Hamilton Parish, Elk Run & vicinity, 1751. From the account book of Capt. John Crump, Sheriff of Prince William County. After 1759, this area became Fauquier County.
Published in the Bulletin of the Fauquier Historical Society, June 1923, p.239-242. Reprinted in the Newsletter of the Prince William County Genealogical Society, V.10, No. 6, Dec 1991, pp.43-45.

Martin Hardin is listed on the Rent Roll for Prince William County 1751, 1753, 1754. In Fauquier County in 1770. [Likely he didn't move; the new county had been formed in 1759.]
He was licensed to keep an ordinary in Prince William Co VA [on Elk Run] 26 Aug 1754 and had that license at least until 1760. He was a Justice of Fauquier in 1769.

Sometimes referred to as "Ruffle Shirt" Martin.

According to Fauquier Co. DB 5-353-355, May 1773, Kearns to Cunningham & Co., John Ashby's land was near these neighbors: Augustin Smith, John Rector,
Tilman Wever, and Martin Hardin. It was in the general vicinity of Licking
Run and the Marsh Run. (Source: 151 John K. Gott, Fauquier County,
Virginia Deeds 1759-1778 [Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 1988], p. 151)

Abstracts of Fauquier Co VA
Wills, Inventories & Accounts 1759-1800
John K. Gott
p.7
Will Book 1, p.13-14
Tilman Weaver; 14 Dec 1759
Wife Anne Elizabeth Weaver, use of plantation & land adjacent and land containing 111 acres being land I had of Martin Hardin & taken up by John Hardin [The remainder of the will abstract is found in the notes of Tilman Weaver.]
p.17; WB 1, p.56 Inventory of Thomas Seaman dec'd returned 26 Aug 1762. Appraised by E. E. Home, Martin Hardin
p.114-155 Martin Hardin was Admr of estate of Thomas Seaman

I have read that in 1770 he owed 965 acres in Fauquier Co; in 1777 only 464. But by 1772 he was living on Georges Creek in PA - Monogahela Co, VA which would become part of Pennsylvania.

Virginia's Colonial Soldiers; Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, 1988, Genealogy Publishing Co., 3rd Printing 1998. Available online at Ancestry.com
p.138 Dunmore's War 1774
Men on Pay Roll at Romney & Winchester
Capt Joseph Bowman's Roll along with Abram Kellor: Martin Hardin.
[But this reference is more likely his son of the same name.]

Copy of his Will dated Nov 20 1779 refers to his residence as Monongahela Co VA [PA] and is preserved in the Chicago Historical Society among the papers of his grandson, Gen. Martin D. Hardin. The Will may never have been recorded. Author Francis Huron states that the Monongalia Courthouse burned in 1796, but a copy of the will is in Nelson Co KY circuit court papers, sent for use in a land case of his son Mark in 1792. Wife Lydia was not named. Sons named were Mark, John, and Martin. Daughters were Mary, wife of Robert Wickliffe; Sarah, wife of Benjamin Hardin; Lydia, wife of Charles Wickliffe; Rossa, wife of John McMahon. Also named were Robert and Martin Hardin Wickliffe, sons of Charles. Executors were the three sons, Mark, John, and Martin.

From Chicago History Museum
Hardin Family Papers, Box 1, Folder 2
In the name of God Amen. I Martin Hardin of Monongalia County in the Colony of Virginia being very weak in body, but in perfect sense and memory I praise God for it do make and ordain this my last will and testament.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Mark Hardin all the land I possess in Fauguire County also all the land I possess in Culpepper County.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my son John Hardin all the lands I possess on the waters of Sandy Creek in Monongalia County, Mill still and all the utensills thereunto belonging also a certain parcel of land lying Yohogania County containing two hundred acres more or less which I bought of George Custer on Peters Creek.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Martin Hardin a certain tract of land in Monongalia County on the waters of Georges Creek where he now lives.
Item. I give and bequeath to my daughter Mary Wickliff all that personal Estate that I lent Her soon after her marriage. Negroes excepted and them I lend her and her husband Robert Wickliff during their natural [word omitted]. but if the said Robert Wickliff should sell Mortage or convey away any of the said slaves or any part of the said slaves in order to defraud the right heirs of them the said Negroes (to wit) Kate James Hester Sarah and Nan or their future increase then I impower my executors to sue and recover such slave or slaves so sold Mortaged or convey'd away for the use of the right heirs & to take the remainder out of his hands. But if my daughter Mary Wickliff should have child or children to be equally divided amongst them and for want of such Issue I give them to Charles and Lydia Wickliff's children to be equally divided amongst them. Also I give my Daughter Mary Wickliff Twenty pounds lawful money and no more.
Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Sarah Hardin Twenty pounds current money of Virginia and no more.
Item. I give & bequeath to my daughter Lydia Wickliff Twenty pounds current of Virginia and no more. I also lend my daughter Lydia Wickliff and her husband Charles Wickliff four Negroes that they now have in their possession (to wit) one Negro woman named Frank commonly called Funk and her two children also one Negro girl named Amey and their future increase during their natural lives. I also give the said Negroes to Charles and Lydia Wickliffs children to be divided discreasonally amongst them as the said Charles Wickliff and Lydia his wife shall think fit and at what time.
Item. I give and bequeath to my daughter Rosannah McMahan Twenty pounds current money of Virginia and no more. I also lend my said daughter Rosannah McMahan and her husband John McMahan five Negroes one named Nell & her four children during their natural lives. And the said Nell and her child Hannah future increase not to be hired out or Mortaged without the consent of my executors. I also give the said Negroes to my daughter Rosannah McMahans children to be divided as she and her husband John McMahan may think fit how & when.
I also leave as much of my Estate as shall be sufficient to satisfy and pay all casts and charges for taking up and securing by a good and sufficient deed them two tracts of land given me by my son Mark for the use of Charles Wickliffs two sons, Robert and Martin Hardin Wickliff in Kentucky County each tract of Land to contain four hundred acres if to be had if not as much in some other Vacant part of the country equally as good and my will is that my executors take up the said land as soon as such lands can be taken up at least within one year after and that they make it safe and secure unto the said two sons of Charles Wickliff
Item. I give and bequeath unto my three sons Mark John & Martin Hardin every part and parcel of my estate unmentioned to be equally divided amongst them after my lawfull debts is paid. I appoint my three sons Mark John & Martin Hardin my executors in Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this seventeenth day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy nine.
Signed: Martin Hardin [Seal]
Signed sealed & Deliver'd In presence of Robt. Moore, Philip Walker, Katy Hardin.

There is believed to have been a family Bible which contained the birth dates of the children.

The following biography has more errors than any I have ever seen - it is no wonder so much confusing material is found concerning this family:
Bios: Selected Bios A-J : History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, 1882: Fayette Co, PA
p 697
HARDIN
The brothers JOHN HARDIN and MARTIN HARDIN have already been mentioned as among the first settlers in the Monongahela Valley. All of Martin Hardin's family afterwards removed to Kentucky and became prominent citizens of that State. [No, Martin himself and at least one daughter died in Virginia.] They are mentioned in Marshall's HISTORY OF KENTUCKY in which it is stated that Martin Hardin, who was the father of the somewhat famous Colonel John Hardin of Kentucky, emigrated from Fauquier County, Virginia, to Georges Creek in Fayette County, Penna, within what is now Nicholson township when his son John was twelve years old. That was in 1765. [No, Martin was a Justice in Prince William Co as late as 1769.] Not long after their arrival on Georges Creek there came Indian troubles and the situation of the settlers became precarious and alarming, but they held their position and did not abandon their possessions as was the case with many other settlers.
The location of John Hardin Sr was upon a tract of land called "Choice" containing three hundred and nineteen and a quarter acres and allowance. The warrant for this tract was dated April 17, 1769. It was surveyed May 22d of the same year. On this tract he made his residence and lived on it till his death. [I have not located either of these warrants, this one or the one following to Martin, but regardless, Maj. John Hardin Sr. died in Kentucky. But the author does not make clear who he means by "his". Maj. John's son, John [called "the miller", because of his ownership of mills] remained in Virginia throughout his life. I will refer to the eldest John as Maj. John for clarity]
Martin Hardin located a tract named "Harbout" of three hundred and seventeen and a quarter acres and allowance, warranted April 17, 1769, and surveyed the 22d of May, 1770. He emigrated to Kentucky in or soon after the year 1780. [Martin died in Monongalia, 1779 - he never went to Kentucky, although his three sons did.] His son John Hardin, afterwards Colonel John Hardin, went to Kentucky in that year and took up lands for himself and friends in Nelson County in that State, but returned to Fayette County and remained here six years longer before he finally removed to Kentucky.
In Dunmore's War of 1774 John Hardin Jr [These notes apparently refer to Col. John who was a son of Martin. Maj. John Hardin also had a son John, who was referred to as John, the miller, and John, the miller, had a John Jr as well as an illegitimate son John called "Jack". So any reference to a "Jr" must be examined carefully.] served with a militia company as an ensign. In the Revolution in the year 1776 he joined the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment and became a lieutenant in one of the companies.
In December, 1779, he resigned and returned home to Georges Creek, declining the proffered promotion to the rank of major in the new regiment. In 1784 he received the nomination for sheriff of Fayette County, and was returned to the Executive Council as one of the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes.
On that occasion and under those circumstances General James Wilkinson asked the Council to commission Hardin as sheriff in a letter addressed to President Dickinson of the Council (Penna Archives x. 610) dated November, 1784, and running as follows:
"...On the present return of the Election for Fayette County, Major John Harden stands second for the Sheriff's Office; permit me briefly to state to your Excellency this man's merit without detracting from that of his competitor. Mr Harden served in the alert of the Army under Generals (then Colonels) Morgan and Butler in the Northern Campaign 1777. His rank was that of a Lieutenant, and I can, as the Adjutant General of the Army Gates, assert that he was exposed to more danger, encountered greater Fatigue, and performed more real service than any other officer of his Station. With Parties never exceeding 20 men, he in the Course of the Campaign made upwards of sixty Prisoners, and at a Personal Rencounter in the rear of the Enemie's position, he killed a Mohawk express & brought in the dispatches which he was conveying from General Burgoyne to the Commanding Officer at Ticonderoga with the loss only (indeed) of a Lock
of Hair, which the Indian's Fire carried away. It is sufficient for me Sir to testify his merits; the Justice which characterizes your administration will do the rest."
In 1786 he removed his family to the new settlement in Kentucky, where his father and brothers had preceded him. [Still referring to Col. John - his father had never moved to Kentucky.] In the same year he volunteered under George Rogers Clark for the expedition against the Indians on the Wabash and was appointed quartermaster. He was afterwards engaged in the succeeding Indian campaign in Ohio and Indiana, and rose to the rank of colonel. He was killed in the campaign against the Miami villages in the
fall of 1792. A son of his was killed February 23, 1847, at the battle of Buena Vista under General Taylor in Mexico.
Miss Martha Hardin, a granddaughter of John Hardin Sr [Impossible for her to be a granddaughter of the above Maj. John as implied, probably a g granddaughter or gg granddaughter of either John or Martin. I did find her in the Fayette Co PA Census, 1880, in Nicholson Twp, age 81, b. PA as were her parents. She was living with Mary J. Piersol, age 35. She was also there in 1860 & 1870, but I didn't find her anywhere in 1850], now living in Nicholson township, Fayette County, Penna, in her eighty sixth year, gives the following account of the family of which she is a member:
The Hardins, she says, came originally from France. [unproved] John Hardin Sr, Martin Hardin and Lydia Hardin, who became Mrs Tobin, were brothers and sister. [This is an impossible grouping. The Lydia who married Thomas Tobin was a daughter of the Benjamin, son of Maj. John, and Sarah Ellen, dau of Martin. She had a brother Martin, but no brother named John.] John Hardin Sr married Isabella Shubranch [This is John, the miller, who remained in Fayette Co PA - he is probably the one Martha keeps calling John "Sr". He was the eldest son of Maj. John. He had no brother named Martin and no sister named Lydia.] by whom he had eleven children: John Hardin; Absalom Hardin; Henry Hardin; Nestor Hardin; George Hardin; Cato Hardin; Hector Hardin; Mary Ann Hardin; Miriam Hardin; Matilda Hardin; and Alice Hardin. He died in Fayette County and his wife survived him many years. [He also had an illegitimate son John, called "Jack", recognized in his will. Jack went to KY with many of his cousins.]
Martin Hardin married Elizabeth Hoagland [Martin Hardin, father of Col. John was married to Lydia Waters - the name Lydia appears in this family but not the family of Maj. John], by whom he had seven children [Martin who married Lydia Waters had at least nine children.] besides Colonel John Hardin. Martin Hardin emigrated from Fayette County, as before mentioned, to Kentucky and lived in that latter State until his
death [No, he died in Virginia in 1779 - Martha could never have known him. His son named Martin married 2nd the widow Elizabeth Truman - was she nee Elizabeth Hoaglan? He died in Kentucky 1848 & she could have known him.], though he revisited his old home in (then) Springhill township, and the narrator recollects that when she was a little girl she saw him here on one of those visits. All the Hardins of Kentucky, she says, are his descendants. [No, many of the Hardins are descendants of Maj. John and many are descendants of unrelated Hardins. It's quite a common surname.]
Lydia Hardin, sister of John Hardin and Martin Hardin, married Thomas Tobin, from which marriage came the family of Tobins of Fayette County.
I have never been able to figure out where she got this relationship. Martin Hardin did not name a son Martin but he did have children named John [Col. John], Martin who died in KY in 1848, and Lydia [but she married a Wickliffe - the Lydia who married Tobin was her niece. The niece Lydia had a brother Martin, but no brother John.]. This seems to be the only time these names appear as siblings. There aren't that many Lydias. Apparently Martha mixed her generations at will.

Birth	Abt 1716	Northumberland County, Virginia
Marriage	1739	Lydia Waters
Military	1776	Furnished material aid, Revolutionary War
Death	20 Nov 1779	Monongalia County, Virginia

Spouse	Lydia Waters (1720 - 1760)
Child	Mary Hardin (1741 - )
Child	Sarah Ellen Hardin (1743 - 1826)
Child	Hannah Hardin (1745 - 1784)
Child	Lydia Hardin (1748 - )
Child	Mark "Horse Racer" Hardin (1750 - 1835)
Child	Col. John Hardin (1753 - 1792)
Child	Catherine Hardin (1755 - )
Child	Martin Hardin (1757 - 1848)
Child	Rosanna Hardin (1760 - 1789)

Father	MARK HARDIN ( - 1735)
Mother	MARY ?HOGUE ( - 1735)
Sibling	Maj. JOHN HARDIN (1710 - 1789)
Sibling	Henry Hardin (1712 - 1797)
Sibling	Mark Hardin (1718 - )
Sibling	Martha Hardin (1722 - )
Sibling	Abigail Hardin (1724 - )
Sibling	Mary Hardin (1726 - 1752)
Sibling	ANNE "Nancy" HARDIN (1728 - 1777)
Sibling	Elizabeth Hardin (1730 - )
Sibling	Alis Hardin (1732 - 1777)