52 Ancestors: #23, Hardy Sellers

 


Amy Johnson Crow of No Story To Small has started a challenge of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

From her blog “The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor. Not only should this get me blogging more, but also to take a deeper look at some of the people in my family tree.”

The focus of today’s posting is Hardy Sellers, My 5th Great Grandfather. 

The loss of pre Civil War record in Chesterfield County has made family research extremely difficult in this area. Much of what is known about Hardy Sellers comes from his Application for a Revolutionary War pension  which was rejected. Personally, I think this was an injustice and have multiple  examples of proof of his service during that conflict.

Hardy Sellers was born 2 March 1757 in Johnston County, North Carolina. His parents have not been identified as of this writing. He was married twice. His first wife went unknown for many years, The answer was found in a book entitled “The Book of Cooks, Some descendants' of Daniel & Ruth Moultrie Cook who married in South Carolina about 1785.” Chapter 1, Daniel Cook Family Background, page 7 states that Mary Cook married Hardy Sellers. Mary Cook was a sister of Daniel Cook and daughter of Abram Cook and Feebe Maston. ^{1 2}

Hardy Sellers married Mary Cook about 1771. This date is based on the birth of their first born, John Sellers, on 19 June 1772. Too this union was born 7 children – John, Phillip, Abraham, Phoebe, Mary, Richard and Jane. Mary Cook Sellers died abt 1820.³

Hardy next married Levina Gulledge about 1827.⁴ She was a daughter of the Rev. Joel Gulledge and Zilpha Huntley. She was born 1803 in Anson County and died Aug 1849 in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. To this union was born two children – Hardy Huntley and Zilpha Ann Sellers.

Hardy wrote his WILL on 14 Jul 1834 and it did survive in one of the surviving Equity Court records. ⁵
Hardy died on 12 Jan 1835 at the age of 77 in Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina.⁶ He is buried in the Old Sellers Cemetery.


 
 
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[1] Will Graves, Charles B. Baxley, Southern Campaigns of the America Revolution (http://www.southerncampaign.org/ : viewed and downloaded 22 April 2012), Pension application R9377, Hardy Sellers,.
[2] Virginia James Cox & Leacy Elizabeth Newell, The Book of Cooks: Some descendants' of Daniel & Ruth Moultrie Cook who married in South Carolina about 1785 (Camden, Wilcox County, Alabama: n.p., 1978), page 7.
[3] James C. Pigg, Cheraw/Chesterfield District Wills, 1750-1865: Abstracts from the Court of Common Pleas 1823-1869 (Tega Cay, South Carolina: Self-published, 1995), page 118.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] HARDY SELLERS obituary, The Southern Patriot, Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, 28 January 1835, page 2, Column 5.
[7] 1850 U. S. Census, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, mortality schedule, Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina, Page: 185; Line: 17, Lavinia Sellers; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 26 February 2013); citing National Archives Microfilm MRT573_2304.