My Hicks family descends from William and Mary (Swango) Hicks. Mary was the daughter of Abraham Swango.

William and Mary (Swango) Hicks

William Hicks was born in 1755 in Virginia. While living in Virginia, he married Mary Swango on 2 January 1784. William Hicks died 19 Dec 1822 in Garrard County, Kentucky. Mary was born about. 1763/65 and died 24 Aug 1847 in Jessamine County, Kentucky. No cemetery record for Mary or William has been found in Jessamine County, Kentucky. William Hicks is listed on the 1810 census of Garrard County, Kentucky. William Hicks was not listed on the first census of Kentucky.

The Revolutionary War Pension Application

The Revolutionary War Pension Application (Pension Claim # 8931) of William Hicks contains a lot of information about William and his family. In June of 1818 William Hicks, aged about 62, stated under oath that he enlisted in the 12th Virginia Regiment, a continental establishment in Captain William McKee’s Company under the command of Col. James Woods, on or along the 25 day of September 1776, for the term of two years and served out his time in the corps at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and was regularly discharged in the fall of the year in 1778. He also stated that sometime in the year 1780 he again engaged in the second Virginia Regiment attachment under Col. Samuel Hawes and in Capt. Frank Cowherd’s company and served the time of eighteen months and was discharged from the same on the 17 January 1782.

William’s pension application gives the name of his wife as Mary “Swanger.” Her maiden name was almost certainly Swango since there were no Swangers in Virginia at the time. There were Swangos in the area. Mary allowed pension on her application executed 19 Nov. 1838. She was then a resident of Jessamine County, Kentucky, aged seventy-two years. An official report on file shows that she died 22 August 1847, in Jessamine County, Kentucky. In November of 1838, Suffiah Combs, a daughter of the William and wife Mary, was a resident of Jessamine County, Kentucky, she was born 20 September 1790, and was the parent’s fourth child. Her husband, Edward Combs, died in Oct. 1825.

The names and dates of the other children were shown: the first child, name not given, died when about 3 months old; Moses the next child, was born 7 Sept. 1786, Abraham was born 30th Oct. 1788; Samuel was born 16 Jan 1792; William was born 4 Dec 1794; Abaigail was born 20 May 1796.

According to correspondence in the pension file, Mary was living with William in Jessamine County, Kentucky in 1845. Although the pension application correspondence did not indicate, William who Mary was living with was the son of Mary and William.

Deposition of Suffiah Combs

The deposition of Suffiah Combs of Jessamine County, Kentucky, taken at her residence, on 07 May 1839, was used as evidence in the favor of the application of Mary, widow of William Hicks for a pension under the act of congress passed July 7, 1838. Suffiah  was forty-eight years old on the 20th day of September and  the fourth child of William Hicks and Mary Hicks. She states that her mother’s maiden name was “Mary Swanger.” (See more about this elsewhere in this article.)

She further stated that she had her father’s old pocket book, which was in her possession, and which contained the family register of the marriage of her father and mother and the ages of their children-said register occupying two pages. The handwriting was that of the deponent’s father and had been there since the deponent’s earliest collection.

The pocket book listed the date of William and Mary’s marriage and the names and dates of birth of all their children, except for their first child who died at the about the age of three months old.

Mary (Swango) Hicks

Mary was the granddaughter of William Swango and the daughter of Abraham Swango. Abraham Swango had a daughter referred to as Mariah who was born about the same time. Her name is listed in William Hicks’ Revolutionary War pension papers as “Swanger”. William Hicks was recruited for the Revolutionary War by Hugh Stephenson in Bullskin creek section of 7 May 1839.
William Hicks was recruited for the Revolutionary War by Hugh Stephenson in Bullskin creek section of Berkeley County, Virginia, now Jefferson County, West Virginia which is the same area that Hugh Stephenson and the Swangos lived and therefore lived near enough to Abraham Swango to have known his daughter, Mary/Mariah. William only had two other known children: Isaac and William. Nothing is known of their descendants. The spelling of Mary’s maiden name is listed as “Swanger” in her husband’s Revolutionary War pension papers and her father’s last name is listed as “Swanger” in a lease of land from George Washington. (Click here to see a copy of the lease.) There were Swangers living in this country at the same time, but none near the same area as Abraham Swango. It is possible that the family name was Swanger, but it is more likely that Swanger was simply a misspelling of an uncommon name. Descendants now use the spelling “Swango.”

Click here for more information on the Swango family.

William Hicks, Jr.

William Hicks, Jr. was the son of William and Mary (Swango) Hicks. William, Jr. and Rebecca owned two and one-half acres of land in Jessamine Co., KY and this is where his mother had lived. William, Jr. and Rebecca lived in Fayette, Gallatin, Jessamine and Harrison Counties, KY. William, Jr. served in the War of 1812 from August 1812 until November 1813, under the name William Hix. He served in the Captain Wyatt’s Company, 1st Regiment of Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Militia, commanded by George Trotter in 1813, as a private.

William married Rebecca Alcorn, daughter of Robert Alcorn and Susannah Turpin, 12 Jan 1815 in Fayette County, Kentucky. Click here to see more about the Alcorn family.

Rice Hicks

Rice Hicks, son of William and Rebecca (Alcorn) Hicks appears in the 1850 census in Gallatin County, Kentucky, as age 16, a son of William Hicks, 60, and his wife Rebecca. Rebecca is the Rebecca Alcorn shown in the marriage bond dated 10 January 1815, Fayette County, Kentucky. Rice Hicks married Harriett Ann Swango (also a descendant of Abraham Swango – click here to see how) on 6 April 1859 in Gallatin County, Kentucky, per their marriage license and marriage certificate.

The death certificate of Rice Hicks, dated 19 April 1915, shows his death in Jessamine County, Kentucky. His father is correctly identified as “William Hicks”, but his mother is listed as “Rebecca West”. The informant confused her middle name for her surname. The War of 1812 Pension Application for William Hicks (Jr.) indicates “Rebecca Alcorn” as the widow of William Hicks, and combined with the early Marriage Bond, proves that Rebecca was the wife of William throughout the marriage, and was, indeed, the mother of Rice.

James Hicks

James Hicks, son of Rice and Harriet (Swango) Hicks  was born on 15 May 1869 in Gallatin County, Kentucky. He died on 26 January 1952 in Carroll County, Kentucky. He married Lucy Gay Tingle (daughter of James Tingle and Elizabeth Ann Jones) on 23 October 1894 in Henry County, Kentucky at her father’s home. She was born on 17 Sep 1874 in Henry County, Kentucky. She died on 05 May 1950 in Carroll County, Kentucky.

Elizabeth Ann (Hicks) Washburn

Elizabeth Ann Hicks, daughter of James and Lucy (Tingle) Hicks.Elizabeth Ann (Hicks) Washburn, daughter of James Hicks and Lucy Gay (Tingle) Hicks, was born on 21 September 1899 in Henry County, Kentucky. For more information on the Tingle family go to: www.tinglefamily.org. She died on 30 June 1979 in Carrollton, Carroll County, Kentucky at Carroll County Memorial Hospital. She married Clarence Arnold Washburn, son of Samuel Washburn and Eliza Dillion (Gullion) Washburn, on 27 Jun 1919 in Vevey, Switzerland County, Indiana. He was born on 16 Jan 1892 in Kentucky. He died on 19 Mar 1979 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky at Veterans Administration Medical Center.