Dr. Martin Luther Hawkins (1780 -1840) was the son of James Hawkins (1756-1802) and Lucy Wyatt (1758-1847). This article details evidence of the lineage from James Hawkins through Dr. Martin Luther Hawkins to the Mullins family.
James Hawkins’s will[i], dated 22 Jun 1801, names his wife Lucy, states that some of his children are underage, and names David Walker and Walter Wyatt as executors. The will gives the name of only one of Hawkins’s children: Nancy, who was married to Jacob W. Walker.
James Hawkins’s will became the subject of a protracted legal case involving his heirs and the will’s executors. The following four documents resulting from that case list the children of James Hawkins, including Martin Luther Hawkins:
Document 1 – In 1811, James Hawkins’s children sued the executors of the will, David Walker and Walter Wyatt, on behalf of the children who were still underage in 1811. The bill[ii] (law suit) confirms that James and Lucy Hawkins were the parents of Martin L. Hawkins. Specifically, the first 10 lines read:
“To the Honorable Judges of the Logan Circuit
Court in Chancery Sitting, your orators Richard
Hawkins & Martin L. Hawkins State to your Honors that their father
James Hawkins (?) in the year of
(?) Departed this life leaving his wife
Lucy Hawkins and eight Children to wit
Nancy Walker wife of Jacob W. Walker,
Your Orators, James
Hawkins, Mary Hawkins, Emily Hawkins,
Edmond Hawkins & John Hawkins…”
Line 3 states explicitly that James Hawkins was the father of Martin L. Hawkins.
Document 2 – The bill[iii] shows that Martin L. Hawkins’s name was added as an Orator (and scratched out in the list of children) after the original bill was written. The reason for this alteration was this: after the original bill was written, Martin wrote a letter to the court requesting that court add his name as an Orator[iv]. In addition to the alteration, a new version of the bill was written incorporating the change.
Document 3 – 26 Aug 1817 – the heirs of James Hawkins (including Martin L. Hawkins) are listed on a document assigning power of attorney to David Walker[v].
Document 4 – 4 Oct 1821 – Indenture of David Walker to the heirs of James Hawkins, lists Martin Hawkins, heir[vi].
Documentation of birth, marriage and death dates and places
The most accurate dates for James Hawkins and Lucy Wyatt are obtained from tombstones in the Hawkins family cemetery near Russellville, Logan KY[vii]. The tombstone for James Hawkins shows his birth on 4 Sep 1756, death on 2 Nov 1802. For Lucy Wyatt, her birth date is shown as 11 Jan 1758. There is no record of their date of marriage. We can assume it was before the birth of their son Martin Luther Hawkins, therefore before 1790. They were both residents of Virginia, so we assume the marriage took place in Virginia.
Lucy’s death is recorded in “Logan County Cemeteries” as 5 Mar 1817. The death year “1817” is an error: the actual death year was 1847. The examiner of the tombstone probably interpreted a worn-away “4” as a “1”. The correct death date is recorded in a Logan Co. KY court case from April 1848[viii], in which Polina Frances Hawkins sued for her freedom. Polina was owned by Edmond Hawkins, son of James and Lucy Hawkins. James’s will of 1801 stipulated that his workers, and their descendants, should go free when his widow Lucy died. After Lucy died, her children did not free the workers, and the workers sued in Logan County court for emancipation. In this record, Lucy Hawkins date of death is stated to be “5th day of March 1847”. The Kentucky courts declined to emancipate the plaintiffs.
Lucy Hawkins wrote a will on 11 Dec 1835[ix], further confirming that she did not die in 1817.
© 2013 W. Mullins