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The Wexford Family of Henry & Mary HIND(S) - GIRD 

HENRY  GIRD (Sr.) married MARY HIND in 1770 in Wexford, Ireland.
 

Tradition has it that a "Miss Hines or Hind"  was from a wealthy Gentry class family of Dublin, Ireland & an "earlier GIRD" was a wealthy London Merchant who had gone to Wexford, Ireland, where he married "Miss Hinds" (sic).  Some of the GIRD BIOGRAPHIES seemed to think that her name was Charlotte Elizabeth HINES or even HEINZE". She is Miss HYNES in yet another. Recently however, the Marriage Record Listing was found in Ferns diocese of County Wexford (Ferns Marriage Licenses, Vol. 6, p. 375, Ferns, County Wexford, Ireland- Marriage Bonds Records are no longer extant; only the entries as listed.),

...Wherein it states that Henry GIRD & Mary HIND were married in 1770 in the Ferns Diocese, County Wexford, Ireland, and both were from Wexford, Ireland.

 
Sources:
From the Church of Ireland (Protestant), County Wexford, Iberius Parish Register Baptisms: 1778-1798, comes the following information: 
Baptisms:

21 September 1778. William Fredric, son of Henry and Mary GIRD

17 December 1779. George, son of Henry and Mary GIRD.

5 March 1781. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Mary GIRD.

21 July 1782. Christian, daughter of Henry and Mary GIRD.

15 October 1783. Harriet, daughter of Henry and Mary GIRD.

21 December 1785. Amelia, daughter of Henry and Mary GIRD

25 July 1786. Christopher, son of Henry and Mary GIRD.

25 March 1788. Edward, son of Henry and Mary GIRD.

14 November 1789. Joseph Christopher, son of Henry and Mary GIRD.

22 June 1792. Margaret Maria, daughter of Henry and Mary GIRD

11 May 1794. Isabelle, daughter of Henry and Mary GIRD
 
~ Other GIRDS:
5 February 1798. Ann, daughter of Sam and Susanna GIRDE.
 
~Deaths:
12 November 1787 George son of William and Barber GIRD.
 
Marriages:
SOURCE :
Ossary / Ferns / Leighlin Diocesan Marriage License Bonds
(1691 - 1845) - Marriage Bonds Records are no longer extant; only the entries as listed.
Marriage License Bonds did not list any addresses:
Eleanor GIRD.......to... Thomas FRANKLAND - 1792
Elinor GIRD..........to... Joseph DAVIS - 1793
Mary GIRD............to....Michael NOWLAN - 1778
Sarah GIRD...........to.....William BLACKWELL - 1792
 
Prerogative Wills  (1530-1810) - The Majority of prerogative wills are no longer extant. There are abstracts, compiled by Sir William Betham up to 1799. These were consulted.
Betham's Abstracts of Prerogative Wills
William GIRD of Royal hospital, dates 8 Feb., 1750, proved 13 June, 1751.

Brother: Nicholas GIRD
Elizabeth VAN (sic), wife of above (William's wife?)
children of above:
Nicholas & Mary GIRD (Williams' children?)
nieces:
Deborah PIERCE (possibly the Deborah who married James HYNES - t.a.d.2000)
Elizabeth MILL
Mary GIRD

       William GIRD, *Royal Hospital, Gent.........................................................................1751
 
Ferns Administration (Intestate) Bonds 1765-1833

       William GIRD, Wexford, *Peruke Maker  (wigmaker)............................................1793
 
Parish (Episcopal church) records.
*** It Is IMPORTANT to KEEP in MIND that many records were destroyed by fire and bombs in the years of the Rebellion and particularly during the Civil War in 1920, so many records prior to 1775 are no longer extant. There are actually two periods that have 20 year gaps. This is why Baptism records for the three older children, e.g. Henry GIRD Jr.,  John GIRD and Eleanore GIRD, & Mary GIRD  cannot be found.
However, notwithstanding the loss of these records,  we need to realize that had the GIRD Family been Catholic and/or had they not owned land of considerable size, there would not have been any records for our family at all! We should be thankful for what we can find, I suppose. The English did not keep records of the Catholic lower classes and the Catholic churches did not keep records, for the most part, of marriages or deaths. Marriage license Bonds were issued only to the upper crust prior to the 1840's, and weddings took place in the home of the bride's family - whether Catholic or Episcopal, rich or poor. Births were at home with midwives and she alone kept records of the births or families that were lucky enough to have an education and to be able to write the information in their Bibles.***
Other Relatives in Wexford and/or Dublin, Ireland:
 
The LAHEE Family
From old letters dating from in the 1790s, Henry GIRD, JR receives letters from his sister Mary GIRD and his 1st cousin, Margaret Maria LAHEE. I have not been able to determine how she is related, whether from his paternal side or from his Maternal side. In another letter to Henry Gird, Margaret Maria LAHEE closes by signing "your Loving Cousin, M. Maria Lahee", and adds : "Mother, Eliza & Emelia, join in love to you..." and in another letter from his sister, Mary Gird, Mary mentions their cousin "Emelia LAHEE". This clearly shows that LAHEE was their surname.
Henry & Mary (HIND) GIRD apparently named one of their later-born daughters after this Margaret Maria LAHEE.
 

The HATTON Family of Wexford, Ireland


The HATTONS of County Wexford, Ireland were shipbuilders, involved with the East India Company, (hereafter Ref. E.I.C.) who operated out of the port at Wexford. Henry GIRD SR., was said to have been the captain of his own sailing vessel, and was of the land owning Gentry class in Wexford, a business man of some importance and wealth. Could he have been a Privateer for the E.I.C. (East India Company). The FRANKLAND Family, of his son-in-law, Thomas FRANKLAND, had been involved with the the East India Company, since the 1600s, living in India, no doubt involved with the Tea trade. Family heirlooms in the Frankland family included many items brought back from India and the Orient. Are these clues to an E. I. C. connection ?

This one is perhaps the one which is most puzzling. Were the HATTON family related to the GIRD or HINDS families or was the name only given in honor of a family friend or someone for whom they had great respect? Since Henry GIRD, JR. did not appear in any records or documents as " Henry Hatton GIRD (II)" until after 1801, one would have to assume that either his father was Henry Hatton GIRD (I), or that  Henry GIRD JR took the name "Hatton" himself for a middle name some reason. Nonetheless, there is a story behind that middle name, "HATTON",  and I hope to find it one day.

 The HATTONS of Wexford Ireland

THE HATTONS OF WEXFORD and IRELAND - records from a Canadian Hatton

You will also notice in this Hatton genealogy, the missing years of IRISH records, except perhaps pertaining to those who were killed in the 1798 massacres and historically noted.
                  See Hatton Coat of Arms 

 

 The EAST India Company &
The Virginia Company - from the E. I. C. official website
" In the early days of the seventeenth century the small circle of influential merchants in the City of London who formed the East India Company in 1600 had their fingers in a number of other trading pies. The Governor of the East India Company in its first decade, Sir Thomas Smyth, was also the first Governor of the Virginia Company founded in 1606, and the two Companies shared their headquarters in Smyth's house, along with that of the Levant Company. The Virginia Company was the first British colonial enterprise in North America, following on the naming of that state after the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I. The Virginia Company founded the colonial port of Jamestown on Chesapeake Bay, now a Colonial Heritage site.
Whilst the East India Company brought new goods and fashions to Europe, America was never far behind. The light cottons of India were well-suited to the humid summers of the South Eastern American states, and calicoes, chintzes, silks, spices, coffee, cocoa and Chinese earthenware as well as tea all found their way across the water, mainly shipped by private traders (privateers- t.a.d.) from the Company's warehouses in London. Even after Independence, the East India Company remained a highly competitive importer of goods into the United States, resulting in occasional flare-ups such as the trade war between 1812 and 1814."

  The FRANKLAND'S and the E.I.C. of Wexford, Ireland

The Franklands were merchants and traders, involved with the East India Company since the 1600's, having been assigned as Company Governor in Bengal, India, where at least three generations of FRANKLANDS were born.
Thomas Edward FRANKLAND of Wexford, Ireland, was a son of the Sir William FRANKLAND, Thomas E. married Eleanore GIRD in Wexford, Ireland.  Sir William was who was born in Bengal, India. He was later knighted in Dublin, Ireland and served as a member of Parliament from 1670-1685. He was a Merchant in Bengal, India, as well as in Sussex, England, and later in Dublin, Ireland for the FINDON Co., of Munford Square.
No Spouse found for Sir William FRANKLAND, but it is believed she had ties to Ireland, hence their son, Thomas Edward Frankland was born there & apparently raised there, perhaps by Maternal grandparents or some kin of his mother.

It is believed that the FRANKLAND family moved from the Yorkshire, England area to Wexford, Ireland to facilitate their E.I.C. trade.  One descendant has a family memento - a leather wallet with the words, 'Thomas E. Frankland, Wexford'  printed on it.
Thomas E FRANKLAND (1st) married Eleanor "Ellen" Gird in 1792, and they had a son, Thomas E. (2nd) about 1793, when they came to Virginia. According to Frankland sources, Eleanor Gird was the daughter of the ship's captain, Henry GIRD, SR.. In the home of one daughter of Thomas & Ellen FRANKLAND there was kept upon the fireplace mantel items that were said to have come from merchant trips to India, including elephant tusks, "ivories", that her father brought back with him upon returning home to Virginia. (* from the records of Beverly (Bell) SIZEMORE & the records of Ashby HOY, who are both FRANKLAND descendants).

It hardly seems likely that all this would just be coincidental.

 

The Old Wooden Bridge of WEXFORD

"By the Laws having been made and agreed on, in June, 1794, the Wooden Bridge was begun...and finished by Cox, in 1795." - from the Griffiths Chronicles, pp 259 - 264

To be continued...

POSSIBILITIES
Henry Gird SR.  may never have actually lived in America with his older children. New information seems to indicate that Henry GIRD SR. and Mary stayed in Wexford, Ireland.  It is probable that he only came to America to transport his adult children here and perhaps for visits and/or business.   It could also be that their coming to America was to be, in part, a Family business venture. Henry Gird sr. was not a stranger to investing capitol in business deals. 
Henry & Mary GIRD had younger children still at home and business involvements in Wexford that had just been inaugurated, so it does not seem likely that he would have had any plans to remove from Ireland, at least at that time.  Perhaps they may have planned to go to America at a later date. In several letters, dated 1792, there is much reference to the "Sick Mary", one of the younger children and sister to Henry Gird JR.  Perhaps they feared she could not make the trip over.  Henry GIRD Sr  and Mary HINDS-GIRD both were born and raised in County Wexford, Ireland. They married there, had their children there and raised their family there. They lived out their lives and we can only assume, they died in Wexford, Ireland. 
 
 still under construction 

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