Person Page 1,069

Revolutionary War, 14th Regiment, Virgina, Private;According to Wiley Julian Holland, Hezekiah Holland 1 at the time of his death in Fluvanna County Virginia owned 2038 acres of land.

!From "The Hollands: A Fluvanna Family" by Minnie Lee McGehee, p. 2 "John Holland was born in 1696 and married Martha Weeks about 1735. His willis dated the seventh day of June, 1773 and is recorded in Goochland. He lists his children: John, Judith, Hezekiah, Martha, Nathaniel, Alice and Lucy. He was a fairly wealthy man who owned twenty-one slaves and considerable land. He had already provided for his sons John and Hezekiah in his lifetime, and in his will he gave to his son Nathanietl the "tract of land whereon I now live containing two hundred acres which I bought of John Moss luying on the Little Byrd Creek" in Goochland County. John stated he had also provided for his daughter Judith Parrish, and he bequeathed slaves to his other children, Martha Graves, Alice Nash and Lucy Holland.
There are members of the Holland family who have stated there were two Hezekiah Holland ancestors living in mid-eighteenth century, father and son. Two accounts stated a Hezekiah came into the area between 1740 and 1760. We searched Albemarle and Fluvanna records to find the first Holland who bought land in the Fluvanna area. (Albemarle was formed from Goochland in 1744 and Fluvanna from Albemarle in 1777.) We found no Hezekiah in Albemarle deeds or wills, and the first mention of him in Fluvanna was dated 1781. As noted above, the will of John Holland in Goochland dated 1773, lists a son Hezekiah.
HEZEKIAH HOLLND
In an attempt to verify the arrival of the Hollands in Fluvanna, we searched the Ablemarle records and found that a John Holland, Jr. Bought two parcels of land in 1768 from John Baker. One tract of 230 acres was described as "land in the Parish of St. James, Northam, on both sides of the Byrd Creek." The other adjoining tract of 400 acres was on "branches of the Byrd Creek."
In 1781 John Holland, Jr. and his wife Martha deeded these two adjoining tracts, 630 acres, to Hezekiah Holland. A comparison of the metes and bounds given in the deeds of Albemarle and Fluvanna, plus Hezekiah's will, prove that Hezekiah's home and his mill were located on the 230-acre tract. From the will of Hezekiah's father we found that John Holland Jr. was the brother of Hezekiah.
The fact that Joh, Jr. bought land from John Baker is interesting. We have no proof, but we believe John, Jr's wife was Martha Baker, the daughter of the above John Baker, who may have conveyed the land as a dowry. A Baker family were neighbors of the Hollands in Fluvanna for many years.
The two 1781 deeds of land to Hezekiah from John, Jr. speak of the stream flowing through the property as "Byrd Creek," but a plat of early 1777 recorded in Albemarle shows the stream flowing through Hezekiah's land as Kents Branch, the name written in big capital letters. We must say here that there has always been a difference of opinion as to which branch of the Byrd carried the name given in old deeds, "The Great Byrd." According to recent maps, Hezekiah's mill was located on Kents Branch of the Byrd, and the name Byrd is not given to the waterway until Kents Branch and Venable Creek come together. (The most western tributary of the Byrd is called Phill's Creek, and the most eastern is now called Little Byrd Creek, but the enter the Byrd fuarther south.)
According to fluvanna lore, Hezekiah Holland owned 7,000 acres of land on Kents Branch. This appears untrue, but according to a will recorded in Goochland County, Hezekiah's grandfather Michael Holland did own 7,000 acres. In the first land tax book of the county, 1782, we found he was taxed for a total of 1,331 acres. However, we found no deeds of purchase before that date except the 630 acres already discussed. In a deed of sale of 1795 Hezekiah noted that a 160 acre parcel he sold to John Timberlake was part of a 470-acre tract he acquired from John Holland. This could not be a part of the 630 acres he purchased from his brother, because the tract lay on the Martin Ferry Road far from the Byrd. We found no grantee deed for the 470 acres in either county.
We do not know where Hezekiah and his family lived before they made their home on the Kents Branch, nor do we know whether Hezekiah moved to Fluvanna in 1781, the year he bought the land, or later. The first record we found to give a clue was a deed dated 1782 stating that he was "of Fluvanna".
For years Hezekiah continued to buy land, and beginning in 1793 the officials listed 1,171 acres for tax purposes and carried this total until 1806 when it rose to 2,037 acres. In 1815 he sold 100 acres and at the time of his death, 1816, the tax record listed 2,038 3/4 acres. These parcels of land were all contiguous and lying on both sides of Kents Branch: it was indeed a large tract. In his will he disposed of only 1,898 3/4 acres in several parcels, which is puzzling.
By tradition Hezekiah Holland was the builder of his mill and house, and we believe that the ad quod damun proceeding, dated 1807, supports local lore. The document states, "A water Grist Mill heretofore erected and now owned by Hezekiah Holland across the Byrd Creek." The Court of Justices granted permission to raise the height of the dam, but stated the "Dam should not exceed the height of twenty feet from the bed of the said Creek." The remains of the abutment of the dam still stand today, the highest dam we have found in our county. The mill land lies on the very old road called "Henry's Track", or "Lawyers Road", named for the Henry brothers and used by Patrick Henry to come from Louis to Court in Fluvanna and to visit his brother William who lived on the Hardware River.
Most sources state Hezekiah was born in 1742, and the 1782 "Heads of Households" record shows he was head of a household of nine white people and three black. On February 20, 1765, he married Mary Walker, presumably of Goochland, the county where the groom was reared.......by 1782 Mary had six or seven children and she must have travelled in a wagon packed with family and household necessities with some milk cows and other farm animals in tow. .....Susie V. shepard, a field worker for the Federal Writers Project in 1936, wrote of the house, then still standing, "virgin pine was used in the construction" of both the mill and the house and "ancient hand tools were used and the work done slowly and carefully."
The Original house was two rooms which became three in a row with a hallway and stairs between each room. The stairways to the the attic bedrooms were enclosed by walls and doors; the doors had very old fashioned latches. There was no basement and no dormer windows in the roof. The earliest chimney was built of rock, the second one of brick. The early rooms had wainscoting with pine boards nineteen inches wide. The rrom on the west was ceiled with wood above the chair rail, and Shepherd noted that Mollie Holland, showing this room to her, referred to it as "the champer, a word that is never heard now, for the the mother's room-the very heart of the house for the healing of body, mind and spirit."
A part of the mill was still standing in 1936 and Shepherd recorded a rock basement with walls three feet thick with typical huge heartpine sills and pine frame and weatherboarding. Like other creek mills, it had an overshot wheetl, but unlike others, in later years the mill ground not only corn, but whear; it became a "merchant mill", which not only served the immediate locality, but also shipped wheat and flour to distant markets.
The 1810 census listed Hezekiah and his wife and one son - Shandy Walker, the youngest-and twenty-nine blacks. Shandy had not yet married, and it was he who carried on the work of the mill after his father's death.
Hezekiah did not sign any of the petitions sent to the General Assembly in regard to founding the county in 1777, and, as stated, the first record we found of Hezekiah in Fluvanna was dated 1782. In the history of Lyles Baptist church written by Paul A. Thompson, however, Hezekiah is listed one of the Dissenters to the Church of England who helped form the Baptist demonination. The earliest church roster of Lyles, dated from August 2, 1799 to June, 1815, shows Hezekiah's name very near the top of the list. It also lists a Molly Holland and we believe this woman was Hezekiah's wife, Mary, who lived until 1822.
In his will, dated 1816, Hezekiah gave his wife one-half interest in the mill and the 230-acre tract, several slaves, cattle and household furniture and 315 acres "on which my son Hezekiah formerly lived." Hezekiah stated he had already provided a share of his estate to his sons Michael, John and Hezekiah and his daughter Catherine, so to them he left slaves. He had also provided for Margaret, but she had died, so to his son-in-law Obidiah Moore, he left money. To his other three children he gave "all that part of my estate" already given, plus a slave to each one. He also willed land to Dolly, 140 aceres; to Major, 200 acres; to Richard, 170 acres; and 125 3/4 acres to Dolly's son, David H. Morris.
To Shandy he gave a total of 360 acres, his sawmill, and one-half share in the grist mill. After the deceas of his mother, Shandy was to receive the other one-half of the mill and the 230 acre tract on which the mill and home were situated.......
the court records of the settlement of the estate indicate the personal property was sold and the money divided. His personal estate was valued at $11,445.03, over two-thirds of which was from the sale of his slaves. At the time of his death he had several lots of lumber at his sawmill and 8,000 pounds of tobacco to be sold (the tobacco brought $500). His estate was divided among eight heirs.
In 1822 all the heirs deeded land to Richard, Shandy W., John, Major and Catherine Timberlake, members of the family still living in Fluvanna. In 1825 John had 63 3/4 acres; Shandy W. 798 1/2 acres; Major, 63 acres; and Richard, 573 1/4 acres. Shandy bought more land from John and Richard, so by 1829, he owned 921 3/4 acres of his father's holdings.
Children of Hezekiah Holland
Hezekiah's will of 1816 proves eight of his nine children were still living. Most of the following information was found in sensus records, deeds and marriage and death records.
............VII Hezekiah Holland, Jr.-the fourth son was given his father's name but he did not stay in Fluvanna. His father's will mentions land where Hezekiah formerly lived, so he was gone by 1816. He and his wife Frances made their home in Warren County, Kentucky."