Question

Are there any descendants alive today whose ancestor was Captain Joshua Huddy, murdered by the Loyalists in 1782?

Comments

I was curious about him, so went searching for info. What a storied life he lived, albeit shorter than it might have been.

It sounds as if there will be a lot of information for his bio.

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Yes, you are right. My ancestor, Charles Asgill, had to pull his name out of a hat to go to the gallows to atone for Huddy's murder. I am going to the US very shortly to visit the sites associated with this story.  If a Huddy descendant exists I would dearly love to shake their hand in a show of solidarity.

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Daughters of the American Revolution has some descendants of his. The most current two generations are privacy protected, but you might still check out his profile there to see if you can do any research on some of his descendants: http://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A059625. The very last part of this entry is his Ancestor Number, which you can search with - in addition to his name - if the link doesn't go to his record directly

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Thank you for your reply. My enquiries started with DAR (my grandmother was a member) and their emailed response was: "I took a look at the DAR file.  There is no mention of a Joshua Huddy in northern NJ and especially not in Chatham or Summit.  The only mention is Salem Township or Middletown NJ which is about an hour south of Summit.  The line for Joshua Huddy and the pension for him and his wife Mary is questioned in the DAR records and the most recent person to try and tie to Huddy has a 653650 #.  All other of his lines are below the 400000 # and are not acceptable currently to DAR, with most of the lines being below the 10,000 #.  Any new line would have to prove back to Joshua Huddy himself."  I checked your link and found that I would have to pay for any further information, but in light of the above I'm just hoping some new information may emerge here.

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Well, that's a bummer. Here is something I found from a DAR chapter site: http://sites.rootsweb.com/~njcjhcdr/capt_huddy.html The chapter is located in Ocean County, New Jersey. It doesn't look as if any current members of the chapter are descended from him.

It is interesting that the DAR site doesn't indicate that there is a problem with his record other than a comment about something being on fiche, and potentially missing.

You may have already found these, but here are two sites with further info (WikiPedia also has a page for him): http://www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/general-washington-s-terrible-dilemma-2007-10-01

https://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=FOEA-print-01-02-02-2207

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Thank you again.  My first approach was to the "Joshua Huddy Chapter" of DAR, but that appears to be defunct.  I can't remember which Chapter finally responded to me, but the comment "Even Joshua Huddy's widow pleaded for his life" (from your Wiki link) is the reason I would like to shake the hand of a descendant.  Let's hope one strolls this way!

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In the event you wanted to try to become a DAR member with him as a patriot, it looks like there might be plenty of information online to support your application.

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Thank you once more for your reply. I'm a descendant of Asgill, not Huddy!  My grandmother was a member of DAR (I had family members fighting on both sides of the War of Independence) so I imagine her identity would enable me to join, but my nearest branch is in London, which is too far to travel. I don't have joining DAR in mind. Besides, it takes years and years to achieve and I'm going to the US in May this year! It also doesn't look as though there are any Huddy descendants alive today. I posted here on the off-chance that someone would know someone etc!  You never know your luck - sometimes it can turn on a sixpence.

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There may not be any with the Huddy last name, but I'm guessing there will be at least someone in the US. I found some through Ancestry in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois, and Iowa who were likely born in the mid-1800-1900 timeframe.

Good luck :)

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I don't think Huddy had sons, so descendants wouldn't carry the Huddy name in all probability.  I'm not a member of Ancestry.  Still hoping someone here will be able to help....!

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My grateful thanks to S.Wilson for the PM giving me an opening to possibly track down a Huddy descendant through a Tennessee funeral parlour. Let's see what happens!  I'll keep you posted.

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What an amazing volunteer is S.Willson - found me a Huddy descendant and put us in touch in the space of 48 hours.  Unbelievable - especially as all other approaches outside of WikiTree indicated there were no surviving Huddy descendants alive today!  My HUGE thanks.

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You are very welcome, Anne. I'm glad I was able to help :)