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The Hoskins of Southeastern Kentucky originated in England as Hodgkinson's. Thomas Hodgkinson (Sr.) arrived in Maryland in 1700 where he served a four year indenture. By 1722 when he was granted 100 acres in Prince Georges County the spelling of the family name had become Hoskinson. When at least four of his grandsons; John, Jesse, Josiah and Ninian left for Virginia and North Carolina the name was shortened to Hoskins. There are at least three variations on the spelling that evolved: Hoskins, Haskins and Hauskins.
The vast majority of Hoskins of Southeastern Kentucky descend from one family - John Hoskins (Sr.) and Ruth Lloyd. That being the case, the descendants of this family have been well documented. Those few other Hoskins who arrived in Kentucky in the early 1800's are the of concern in this article.
A brief discussion of the early Knox County, Kentucky records might illuminate the problem. In the 1800 Knox County tax records are recorded the following Hoskins: Jesse Hawskins, John Hawskins Sr., John Hawskins Jr., Ezekiel Hawskins and Thomas Hoskins. John Hoskins Sr. was the father of the other Hoskins listed. The following couple of years the list looked much the same except the spelling became Hoskins which it remained thereafter. In 1804 Ninnion Hoskins appeared. It is unclear whether the Ninian Hoskins who appeared was Ninian Sr. or Ninian Jr. but, which ever it was, he was either the brother of John Hoskins Sr. or the nephew. In the 1805 Knox County Sheriffs report on tax delinquencies Ninnion and Jesse Hoskins were reported to have returned to Tennessee.
In the tax rolls of 1805 two new Hoskins appeared; John (A.) Hoskins and Josiah Hoskins. At the moment it is uncertain how these two relate to the Hoskins already in Knox County. From subsequent records both John A. and Josiah Hoskins were born ca 1784/86 so it is possible they were already in Knox County but did not appear on the tax rolls until they turned twenty one. Also appearing that year was George (Henderson) Hoskins, another son of John and Ruth Lloyd Hoskins. It was in this year that John Hoskins Sr. and John Hoskins Jr. traveled to the Ohio River for a couple of years. It has been claimed by Carlo B. Hoskins that they were accompanied by Ezekiel and Jesse Hoskins but there has been no documentation found to support this. Both John Hoskins Sr. and John Hoskins Jr. appeared on Adams County, Ohio tax rolls in 1806 and 1807. It was also where John Junior's eldest son, Ezekiel was born in 1805. Both of these men returned to Knox County by 1809.
In the year 1806 Ninian Hoskins once again appears and this time it was Ninian Hoskins Jr. He resided in Knox County until 1814 when he moved to Crawford County, Indiana. Upon arriving in Indiana, this family's name was spelled Haskins. Also appearing that year was Ninian's older brother, Elisha. He remained only that year before moving north and eventually settling in Spencer County, Indiana. Given the time of their appearance in Knox County and their ages, I suspect that John A. and Josiah Hoskins were brothers of Ninian and Elisha Hoskins. However, there has been no documentation found to support this fact. It is certain that they were not sons of John and Ruth Lloyd Hoskins.
The 1810 Knox County census listed several Hoskins heads of household. One point worth noting is that there was only one Hoskins household that had any male "children" listed as over ten years of age. This was Thomas Hoskins who had a son, Thomas Hoskins Jr. who was listed as 10 - 16. I make this point to illustrate a major dilemma that I have. Early research done on the Hoskins family indicated that Levi Hoskins (my third great grandfather) was the son of a Thomas Hoskins Sr. and that he had a brother named Thomas Jr. Levi Hoskins was born ca 1794/96 and should have been listed in the 1810 Knox County census as over the age of ten if he was a son of Thomas Hoskins. It is clear from the listing for Thomas Hoskins that only one male over the age of ten was listed, not two.
The information that led to the belief that Levi's father was Thomas Hoskins Sr. and that he had a brother, Thomas Hoskins Jr., had to do with an 1845 deed which stated that "Levi and wife Sally, Hiram and wife Polly, Thomas and wife Patsy, and William Hoskins" were sons of Thomas Hoskins. That deed, found by Carlo Brittain Hoskins in the early 1900's, led other researchers to believe that Levi's father was a Thomas Hoskins. They believed that "Levi and wife Sally" referred to Levi Hoskins and his wife Sarah "Sally" Miracle. The reference to "Thomas and wife Patsy" was a key problem since Thomas Hoskins Jr. married Elizabeth "Betsy" Brewster. This deed was actually referring to the sons of Thomas (Jr.) and Elizabeth Brewster Hoskins. Thomas Hoskins Jr. died early in 1830 before the census was taken, evidenced by the fact that Elizabeth Hoskins was listed as head of household. In records of the 1831 Harlan County Court the clerk was ordered to settle with the administrators of Thomas Hoskins, deceased.
Thomas Junior's sons: Levi married Sarah (Sally) Burns, Hiram married Mary (Polly) Hendrickson, Thomas married Martha (Patsy) Knox and William Hoskins. They settled the deed in 1845 when William reached the age of 21. Levi and Sarah Burns Hoskins remained in Harlan/Bell Co. while Hiram and Polly Hendrickson Hoskins went to Missouri where he died in 1862 serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. Thomas and Pasty Knox Hoskins traveled to Missouri then on to Kansas where he fought for the Union in the Civil War. I do not know what became of William Hoskins but he and brother Thomas were in Pulaski County, Kentucky for the 1850 census.
Levi Hoskins first appeared on the Knox County tax rolls in 1817 when he paid tax on 20 acres on Pucketts Creek. The following year he paid tax on property on Brownies Creek. The earliest record I can find for Levi was his marriage to Sarah Miracle on 20 June 1816 in Knox County.
Since Levi Hoskins was not counted in a Hoskins household during the 1810 Knox County census, I am wondering if he may have been listed in the home of a stepfather. Part of that reasoning is that there was a Moses Hoskins born ca 1798/99 who married in Clay County, Kentucky in 1819 to a Margaret Clements (Helton), a widow. His permission to marry was signed by a Robert Williams, his stepfather. I found this Robert Williams in Knox County on the 1809 tax rolls. He also may have been the "Bat" Williams who was listed in the 1810 Knox County census but this is not certain. If this Bat was Robert Williams, he had two males listed as 10 -16 and one under 10.
One key point of the census listing is that Bat Williams was listed as 26 - 44 with the female listed as over 45. Robert Williams eventually turned up in Perry County, Kentucky in 1821. Moses Hoskins resided in a portion of Perry County that eventually became Magoffin County. The second key feature of the census listing was the younger male listed as under 10 years of age. A William Hoskins, born 1800/01, also resided in Perry County who had tentatively been identified as a son of Thomas Hoskins Sr. I now believe that this William Hoskins was more likely another stepson of Robert Williams. What has not been determined is the possible biological father and mother of Moses Hoskins.
There is evidence of other Hoskins, traveling with John, Jesse, Ninian and Josiah Hoskins in the 1770's and 1780's in Washington County, North Carolina. Washington County, North Carolina became the state of Tennessee in 1796. This is a different county altogether from current day Washington County, North Carolina. In 1783 a Thomas Hoskins witnessed a deed for John and Ruth Hoskins when they sold property to Samuel Tate in Washington County. Thomas, the son of John and Ruth Hoskins, was born ca 1768 and at age 15 would probably have been too young to be a valid witness to such a deed. In 1787 a Thomas Hoskins was taxed for one poll in the same county, indicating a birth date of at least 1766 or before. Again, this Thomas Hoskins would be too old to be the son of John and Ruth Lloyd Hoskins. Anthony Hoskins, a well known Hoskins researcher, speculates that this Thomas Hoskins was Thomas Hoskinson Jr. and that he had accompanied his four sons to Virginia and Washington County, North Carolina. While he in fact may have left Maryland with his sons, Thomas Hoskinson Jr. would more than likely have been exempt from the tax due to his age, which would have been around 69 to 75.
In 1787 an Elisha Hoskins paid tax on 100 acres and one poll in Washington County. Elisha, the son of Ninian Hoskins, would have been too young to pay poll tax in 1787. In 1778 a C. S. Hoskins paid a poll tax also in Washington County. There was an Elias Hoskins married to an Elizabeth Kellums who had at least three sons and a daughter who migrated from Tennessee to Illinois and spelled the name Hauskins. An Elias Hoskins was taxed in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1799 and in Anderson County, Tennessee in 1802. It is unclear if Elias and Elisha Hoskins were the same person.
Some references to Hoskins in addition to John, Jesse, Josiah and Ninian Hoskins:
"Jesse and a small group of settlers arrived in the northeastern portion of Tennessee at about the time of the formation of the Watauga Association. When the first court was established in 1777 in Washington County, N. C., the names of Abraham Hoskins, Constable; Ning Hoskins; Elijah Hoskins; Jesse Hoskins, Constable; John Hoskins and Ruth Hoskins, his wife; Josiah Hoskins; and James Hoskins were listed in the proceedings of the court. It is possible that all or part of the above mentioned Hoskinses were related but the writers have found no proof of this." From Jesse Hoskins Tennessee Pioneer and his Descendants
Ca 1792 in the vicinity of Old Russellville and Whitesburg were the following: Samuel Riggs, James Roddy, Caleb Witt, William Pulliam, William B. Roddy and James Hoskins. From Tennessee Cousins by James Worth Ray
A summons to Washington County's first court in February on Monday the 23rd; 1778 was given and one of the first acts was the appointment of assessors who were to assess all the taxable property of the inhabitants on the heads of families. These assessment returns were to be given to a collector. This 1778 list appeared to have had seven or eight assessors. Of these selected few assessors were, Jessie Hoskins, Josiah Hoskins and Elias (Ligh) Hoskins. February 26th; 1779, this court ordered that Richard Wilson serve as Constable in Captain Hoskins's district. [From the Hoskins Archives of James R. Hoskins]
In the year 1778 Washington County, North Carolina, we found John and Ruth Hoskins. The second meeting of this County Court that was held in May, 1778 at the home of Col. Charles Robertson, there were selected twenty five men to form the first grand jury for the county. Of those empanelled and sworn were John and Ninian Hoskins. Other Hoskins in the area during this time period from 1778 to 1800 were, Abraham Hoskins, who was a Constable, Elijah Hoskins, Jessie Hoskins, who also was a Constable, Josiah Hoskins, Joseph Hoskins, and Thomas Hoskins. [From the Hoskins Archives of James R. Hoskins]
The Hoskinson-Hoskins and others who dared to face dangers of an unbroken wilderness settled in the valleys of the Clinch and Halston Rivers. These early ancestors that settled in Tennessee and Kentucky had a life and death struggle with the Indians. One of those daring backwoodsmen was Capt. Thomas Hoskins. Our records state: Captain Thomas Hoskins was in the Indian Wars with an expedition from North Carolina and fought in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. The record states Captain Thomas Hoskins fought with an Old Indian Chief. The Old Chief had told of a dream in which he saw blood. Captain Thomas killed the Old Indian Chief. Due to evidence in our researched material, this Captain Thomas Hoskins was probably a son or grandson of Thomas and Ann Hoskinson of Rock Creek Parish, Maryland. [From the Hoskins Archives of James R. Hoskins]
Collectively, these events indicate that there were, in fact, other Hoskins older than the sons of John and Ninian Hoskins living in the same area at the same time as were John, Jesse, Ninian and Josiah Hoskins. Josiah Hoskins was killed fighting Indians in Sumner County, Tennessee in 1784 and is therefore unlikely to be the father of any of these "mystery" Hoskins. All of the children of Jesse Hoskins were documented in a journal kept by himself and, after his death, by his son John. This is in NO WAY proof that these other Hoskins mentioned in Washington County, North Carolina were sons of Thomas Hoskinson Jr.
I am confident that some of these other Hoskins were from the Maryland Hoskinson/Hoskins Family. The exact relationship remains UNPROVEN but I have elected to show a ________ Hoskins as a son of Thomas Hoskinson Jr. in order that John A., Josiah and Levi Hoskins and their descendants are included in this genealogy report.
There is INSUFFICIENT PROOF that Josiah and John A. Hoskins were brothers or that they were brothers of Levi Hoskins. On the other hand, all three are clearly related to the other Hoskins found in early Knox and Harlan counties. They all lived in the same area often sharing property lines with the other Hoskins. If anyone is able to shed some light on these three plus Moses Hoskins I would appreciate hearing from you.
David Hoskins
Go to the: Genealogy Report