David Hines & Bob Baird Research

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    This is research by David Hines that supports the fact that Graddy Herring was married to Peggy Holmes. Based on this information I believe that David is right. Also, remember, one of Graddy's sons is named Hillery Holmes Herring.  And our own Robert Holmes Herring carries this family name. More evidence to support this assumption.

    David is descended through the Holmes side of the family. He contacted me and graciously mailed me this information. Our Herring family owe many thanks to our distant cousin for this work.

    Bob Baird has done extensive genealogical research that suggests that Graddy's first wife was Jean Ivey. Therefore, Peggy Holmes must have been his second wife. Bob is descended from the Ivey family line.

As written by David Hines

    The first document is dated 1801. It is the division of the John Holmes land between Elizabeth Herring (Ichabod's wife) and Peggy Holmes. Note that it appears that this Elizabeth Herring was the sister of Peggy Holmes. You probably have determined from the 1800 census that Graddy was living at home unmarried in the home of Anthony, who was to live until circa 1806. You also are familiar with the 1810 census, showing the ages of the children in Graddy's household. 

    In 1816 Carraway Hines owed taxes on 155 acres north of the Neuse. The second document 2A and 2B is dated 1820. It is the sale of 155 acres belonging to Carraway and Peggy Hines. The land is sold to Enoch Cobb. Graddy Herring holds the widow's dower. 

    The third document bears the date 1822. The other half of the John Holmes land is sold to Enoch Cobb by Ichabod Herring, Elizabeth Herring (Ichabod's wife) and Graddy Herring. Please note that this Ichabod is Graddy's brother.

    The fourth document includes the words of Graddy Herring himself as he talks about the history of the Anthony Herring 640 acres that played such a part in the history of that stretch along the Neuse in Craven/Johnston/Wayne county. The Anthony in question would not be the patriarch - but rather a slightly more recent one: Graddy's uncle. (As you know, Anthony and Michael were sons of Samuel.) At one point in Graddy's musings, he mentions the land connected with John Holmes or the land bordering it as being that that passed through the ownership of Marmaduke Rawls. Perhaps you can tell if he is talking about the land itself or the bordering plot. I mention that, because John Holmes got land in the area at different times. One such event was a patent for 310 acres. By the old math that is twice 155, the number of acres presented to each of the Holmes sisters. 

    Do you see much doubt that Graddy Herring got the land from Peggy Holmes upon marriage and gave it to their daughter, Peggy, wife of Carraway Hines? As you compare the description of the land that was to go to Peggy Holmes with that that Peggy and Carraway Hines sold in 1820, you will see that the only thing changed is that the name Elizabeth Herring has been replaced with Graddy Herring when the stake at the corner is mentioned. It seems it should say Ichabod instead of Graddy at that point. Note, however, that Graddy and Ichabod both sell the land to Cobb.

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As written by Bob Baird

There is no inconsistency with the notion that Graddy Herring may have had two wives. The deeds reference seem to clearly show that Peggy Holmes was unmarried on 14 August 1801. Thus it remains possible that he was married to Jean Ivey at the time of the 1798 deed, and remarried to Peggy Holmes after the 1801 deed. That is, the deeds do not speak to the question of whether he had an earlier marriage to a wife who may have died after 1798.

Some means of establishing whether or not Graddy Herring had a child born before early 1802 would obviously be useful, since any such child would probably not be one of Peggy Holmes. Bryant Herring's age is 30-40 in both 1830 and 1840 and is 50 in 1850. If he was indeed born about 1800 then it raises the obvious question of how he could have been the son of Peggy Holmes, who was still single in August 1801. (Presumably, she was not only single but not pregnant in August 1801, meaning that her first child was probably not born until mid 1802 at the earliest.) I note, though, that Graddy Herring's 1820 household did not include any males over 16 -- though I suppose a 20-year old son could have been elsewhere. 

Well, we don't know that the lost deed of 1798 was for land. It could have been for a slave, as his two deeds of gift to his other daughters were.

But his land was mainly located on either side of the present Wayne-Lenoir county line, just above the Neuse. Much of that land was owned by his son John Ivey when he died in 1812. At that time, it was roughly 1200 acres which was bisected by the county line.

The only reasons to suspect Graddy Herring married Jean Ivey is (a) the Robert Ivey to Jean Herring deed and (b) the fact that Graddy Herring and Robert Ivey Jr. were co-administrators of John Ivey and guardians of his minor children. At that time in NC, administration of estates was normally granted to relatives of the deceased in a specific hierarchy of relationships. The fact that John Ivey's brother Robert Ivey and Graddy Herring were co-administrators strongly suggests that Graddy may have been a brother-in-law. Since we know John Ivey had married a Hart … that leaves only the possibility that Graddy was married to an Ivey.

Anther possibility to consider is whether Graddy Herring may have been related to the widow Elizabeth Miller, to whom John Ivey was married for 4-5 years prior to his death. She was the mother of the two youngest Ivey children. That might be another way of explaining Graddy Herring's administration of his estate and his guardianship of Ivey's children. However, he did not play a role in the guardianship of her Miller children, and I didn't see any evidence of a relationship with her after she became the wife of James Skipper.

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Patrick Earl Herring, Sr.
E-Mail: imaherring@yahoo.com

Last Updated: 04/26/2005