Richard HENDERSON

                   NOTE:
    This Richard has been added to account for the missing generation between Richards.  See notes.

From: http://genforum.genealogy.com/henderson/messages/11481.html
Several accounts, including two written in the early 1900s, assert that Richard Henderson, son of Thomas Henderson of Jamestown, married Mary (Polly) Washer, daughter of Ensign Washer, and raised a family in Hanover Co VA.

John N. McCue, "Henderson chronicles. A roster of descendants of Alexander Henderson of Fordell, county Fife, Scotland, three of whose sons emigrated to the American colonies, prior to 1740, and settled near Alexandria, Va", 1915, 113 pages. http://www.archive.org/details/hendersonchronic00mccu

Lucy Henderson Horton, Family history compiled by Lucy Henderson Horton, Press of the News, Franklin TN, 1922, 289 pages. http://books.google.com/books/about/Family_history_compiled_by_Lucy_Henderso.html?id=hWtVAAAAMAAJ

Both of these seemingly knowledgeable accounts, upon which most of the modern internet genealogies seem to be based, cite Richard Henderson and Polly Washer as parents of Samuel Henderson (1700-1783), the well-documented father of Judge Richard Henderson, whose Transylvania Company bought most of Kentucky and a good part of Tennessee from the Cherokee Indians in 1775.

There is a problem with this idea. First, Thomas Henderson and Ensign Washer of Jamestown must have been born in England around 1580-90. This is clearly too early for them to have been the father and father-in-law of Richard Henderson, who died in Cumberland Co VA in 1748

Another problem commonly found in contemporaneous internet genealogies is that Thomas Hendersons wife is said to have been Ursula Keeling, who must have been born in about 1684, e.g.:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dubbie/%20fleming1/pafg14.htm

Again, this is not likely for a man who was presumably born around 1585.

It is certain that the Richard Henderson who was the father of Samuel Henderson and grandfather of Judge Richard Henderson of Transylvania fame was married to a woman named Henrietta at the time of his death in 1748, as shown by his will, written 10 Feb 1745 and recorded 21 Jun 1748.

It is likely that at least one generation has been lost along the way and that there was another Richard Henderson, between Thomas and Richard the husband of Henrietta. This hypothetical Richard Henderson would have been born in the early 1600s, say 1630. He could have been the husband of Polly Washer and the husband of Henrietta (possibly Henley).