Last revised: 06 Mar 2014
(c. 1735 – bef. 18 Nov 1811)
My American ancestor, Adam Head, transported from England to St. Marys City, Maryland, arriving June 20, 1658. In 1668, court records reveal that Adam Head took the Oath of Office as Constable of Poplar Hill Hundred in Saint Marys County, Md.
His great-grandson, Cuthbert Head, signed the Oath of Allegiance on March 4th, 1778, in St. Marys County, Maryland. Cuthbert Head and several of his neighbors sold their property in Maryland and traveled via flatboat down the Ohio River to the shore of Virginia and then overland to Nelson County, Virginia. I have not found a firm date of arrival, however, they settled in the Pottenger Creek area of Nelson County where the 1787 Maryland League Catholics settled. A Deed on file in the Nelson County courthouse shows that Cuthbert Head purchased 500 acres of land from Charles Ewing, a land speculator, on July 30th, 1788. This Deed states “Sealed and Delivered in the presents of Leonard Johnson, Charles Masterson, Jereboam Brown, and Athanatius Thompson”, all soon to be neighbors of Cuthbert Head. (Johnson, Masterson, Brown, and Thompson were neighbors of Cuthbert Head in Maryland.) Cuthbert’s land was originally part of a land grant signed by Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia to Samuel Oldham. The land of Cuthbert Head was located on the south side of Pottenger Creek, directly across from Samuel Pottenger, who had built Pottenger Station in 1781. The Will of Cuthbert Head, written April 15th, 1798, and probated November 18th, 1811, was witnessed and signed by both Basil Hayden Sr. and Basil Hayden Jr., as well as Father William DeRohan, an early pioneer Catholic priest. Basil Hayden Sr. was the leader of the first group of the Maryland League to travel to Nelson County, Virginia in 1785, prior to becoming Nelson County, Kentucky on June 1st, 1792.