Bertie  COUNTY  NC  BIOS - Hardy - MacArthur families

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Abstracted from the Bertie Ledger-Advance, Friday, September 21, 1945
 
MOTHER OF GEN. MacARTHUR FROM BERTIE COUNTY STOCK
 
(Editors Note:  John Edward Tyler, the author of the
interesting and informative story below about the ancestors
of General Douglas MacArthur who first lived in America in
Bertie county, lives at Roxobel.  He is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. E.R. Tyler)

Mr. Tyler, who is a student of Bertie County history, says
not only was General MacArthur descended from Bertie County
people but his researches have shown him that many other
famous names of those who have made and are making history
today have connections in this county.  Mr. Tyler, whose
work is painstaking and authoritative as well as
interestingly presented has promised to contribute other
articles on Bertie county history from time to time.

By John Edward Tyler

When thinking of a person's forebears we sometimes forget
the numerous other blood streams which go to make up the man
but concentrate only on the family name of the father.  As a
result, through the ages the family names of the women who
have married into the father's family often pass into
oblivion.  The Spanish take care of this neglect very
neatly.  They have an old custom of placing the mother's
name after the surname and in this way the name of more than
one side of a family is preserved for posterity.

The name of General Douglas MacArthur like those of other
military leaders of this World War II will be written in the
annals of American history and remembered as long as this
civilization continues to exist.  But the fact the same
amount of Hardy blood flows in the General's veins as does
MacArthur will soon be forgotten by the public. The present
General MacArthur's mother was born Pinkney Hardy.  She was
the daughter of Thomas Hardy whose ancestors were among the
earliest settlers of North Carolina and Bertie County.

It seems that the first appearance of the Hardy family in
the county was about 1695.  At that time our present county
of Bertie was a part of Albemarle county which was divided
into precincts.  From the records of Albemarle county it is
shown that on October 7, 1695 one John Hardy came into court
to prove his rights for the importation of himself and his
family.  These rights were in reference to "headrights" for
which he received for himself a grant of fifty acres of land
and the same amount for each additional person brought into
the colony.  The other members of the family who came with
him were Charity, William, Mary, John, Jr., Thomas and Jacob
Hardy.  

From the accessable data John Hardy must have been one of
the Prime old gentlemen of Bertie.  His name appears often
in matters of state and among those lists of men whose
interest in public affairs made them leaders of the
community.  His will is dated 1719 and speaks of his wife,
Rebecca, daughters, Mary and Elizabeth and brothers,
William, Thomas and Jacob Hardy.  One of the testators of
the will was Thomas Pollock who once served as governor of
the colony.  

Elizabeth the daughter of John Hardy, married Nathaniel
Hill, a kinsman of the Hon. Whitmel Hill, a prominent
statesman of his day.  

Another member of the Hardy clan, Matthew of Bertie county,
married in 1741, Penelope Gale Little, daughter of
Christopher Gale, the first Chief Justice of North Carolina.
She was also the widow of William Little, another Chief
Jutice.  

Among General MacArthur's predecessors we find the will of
William Hardy probated in Bertie county in 1784.  It
mentions his children, Elizabeth, Benjamin and Lamb Hardy,
also his brothers, Edward and Jesse Hardy.  

In this line is next the will of Lamb Hardy, son of William
Hardy, recorded in Bertie county in 1797.  There is named
his wife Winnefred, children Elizabeth, William Parrott and
Thomas Hardy.  Lamb Hardy was evidently a Methodist minister
from Bertie county. From Mr. John B. Watkins of Henderson,
NC, it is learned that Lamb Hardy's sons, Thomas and William
Parrott Hardy, moved to Norfolk and there made a
considerable fortune as cotton commissioners.  

In the year 1858 Thomas Hardy brought a place in the present
Vance county, NC known as "Burnside. It was there that he
sent his family as refugees from the fighting area about
Norfolk during the Civil War.  This Thomas Hardy was the
grandfather of General Douglas MacArthur.  He died in 1880. 
His will is recorded in Vance county.  

Among Thomas Hardy's children were sons Thomas, Jr. and John
Hardy and daughter Pinkney Hardy.  This daughter Pinkney
Hardy (Miss Pinky) was married in 1870 to General Arthur
MacArthur at New Orleans.  

These were the parents of General Douglas MacArthur, the
soldier whom the United States has chosen to settle the
affairs of a bigoted Japan--the soldier to whom the Allied
Nations owe such gratitude for his great contribution in
defeating the ambitious regimes of ruling the world.