Last revised: 29 Jan 2010
Cuthbert
Head
(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.