[Ancestor] Hays - Hayes

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Husband [Ancestor] Hays - Hayes

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• Note: This may be the same person as : [Ancestor] Hays.

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Wife

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Children

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1 M [Father] Hays - Hayes

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General Notes: Husband - [Ancestor] Hays - Hayes

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HAYS. The first mention that is made in history of the name of Hay is about the year 980, in the reign of Kennett III, of Scotland. The Danes, having invaded Scotland, were met by Kennett near Lancarty in Perthshire. The Scots, retreating through a narrow pass, were rallied by a countryman of great strength, together with his two sons. The Danes were then defeated and as a reward for his signal service the King gave him as much land in the carse of Gowrie as a falcon should fly over before alighting. A falcon being loosed flew over an extent of land six miles in length, and the stone on which it alighted is said to be known to this day [1905] as the "Falcon Stone." The land thus assigned to the Hay family was known as Errol. The King also assigned three shields or escutcheons for the arms of the family, thus indicating that the father and the two sons had been three fortunate shields of Scotland. Among the names of the Norman followers of William the Conqueror in 1066 we find De La Hays, which name is found in both England and Scotland in the twelfth century. Soon, however, the name became anglicised to Hays and Hayes; and from the Norman French De La Hays and the Scotch Hay are descended the Hay, Hays and Hayes families.
The heirs of Lord Hay of Yester in 1500 were the first of that family to change their names to Hays. Heirs spelling the name Hays inherited part of the unentailed estate. In those original Scotch and Norman families who made Scotland and England their adopted countries it is interesting to trace the similarity of their Christian names with those of the branch of the family of which we are writing, thus strongly suggesting though not proving, kindred descent. In the family of Hay whose head always bore the title of Earl of Kinnoull we find that Sir William's title descended to Sir David; from him was descended Sir Edmund Hay, of Melginch, who made a considerable figure in the reign of James VI. He was the father of Sir Patrick Hay, who was introduced at the Court of James VI by his uncle, James Hay, Viscount Doncaster, and Earl of Carlisle. He was made high chancellor of Scotland by Charles I. The third son of Patrick was elected one of the fifteen peers of the third and fourth British Parliaments. One of his daughters married John Erskine, last Earl of Mar. But to go on and trace out the names of this single branch would be unnecessary and uninteresting, as we merely speak of them for the purpose of showing how each branch has held the same Christian names.
The ancestors under consideration here joined the colonists from Highland and Lowland Scotland, and the northern shires of England, in taking up the lands of the Province of Uster in Ireland, which were confiscated by James I, in 1607, from the rebel Earl of Tyron and Tyrconnell. These colonists trace their origin to many sources. The name of each Highland clan is represented among them but the greatest profusion was of Lowland names, which though Scotch are not Celtic. So many of them were of English extraction and settled near Derry that they changed its name to Londonderry. There are also names of French derivation, the ancestors of those who bore them coming to England with William the Conqueror, and also a few with Dutch names, whose forefathers fled from the persecutions of Alva and Philip of Spain in the Netherlands. Notwithstanding their difference of ancestry, the colonists were as a unit in creed and political belief, and have to this day remained a separate and distinct people from their Celtic neighbors, who differ from them in temperament, political ideas and religion. All these colonists are designated by the name Scotch-Irish, and being a vigorous, industrious and fearless people, they soon made Northern Ireland a productive agricultural district which upheld the Crown and kept in check the bigoted natives. During their stay in Ireland of not over three generations it was the scene of two long and bloody wars, to say nothing of their continuous struggles with the native Celts. So when the English government, forgetting the battle of the Boyne, the siege of Derry and like struggles, began to reward their services with oppression, both political and religious, they again turned to a new land, one that had regard for human rights and liberties. The dangers and hardships in the new country were many, and to bravely face them required all the courage of the most intrepid spirit. ¹

1 —, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 697.