Hudgins

The Hudgins family are connected to Muriel Pearce through her mother Nell Acree, who was the grandaughter of Lucy Rebecca Davis, whose mother was Amelia (Mildred) Hudgins (1802-1869) .

The Hudgins were a large family, and were numerous in the area of eastern tidewater Virginia that includes Matthews County (which encompasses Gwynn's Island) and Gloucester County.In addition to farming, the Hudgins had a heritage as builders. The early generations were shipbuilders in England and America.

Amelia Hudgins's parents were both members of the Hudgins family (presumably cousins). Her father was Jesse Hudgins (1775-1860), who was a well-known furniture maker whose work is on display at the Gwynn's Island Museum. His father was John Perin Hudgins (1758-1812) who married Sarah Minter. Amelia's mother was Mary Hudgins, daughter of John "Noble" Hudgins (1758-1803)  and Amelia Foster (1780-1794).  John Noble Hudgins was the son of Humphrey Hudgins.

Name Origin

In a collection of manorial documents possessed by the estate of Robert Blondell of Nottage Court in Llandaff, Wales, one dated 1505 shows the original Welsh spelling as follows: RHWWTTCHEN (which reportedly means, 'Lord of the Far
Seas'.) At some time a man with that name moved from Wales to Liverpool in Lancastershire County, England. The English authorities found it difficult to pronounce the name as it was spelled but simple to spell it phonetically as it sounded to them. It started with a gutteral Celtic rolling "Rh" followed by a sound like "udd"-in the middle and ending with a soft sound like "jinz". It was simplified by phonetics into Hudgins, pronounced Hud-Jinz.

Most of the Hudgins in Virginia were descendants of Robert Hudgins, a wealthy shipbuilder. His father was believed to be Timothy Hudgins. Robert Hudgins was born in England, the first to be born outside of Wales and he  had homes in Wales and England.

He had four sons,William, Lewis, John and Robert, who all emigrated to America in  

With only 94 square miles of land, Mathews is one of the smallest of Virginia's counties. It was originally delineated circa 1651 as Kingston Parish within neighboring Gloucester County. In 1791, the Virginia General Assembly designated it as a separate county and named it for a prominent American Revolutionary War officer, General Thomas Mathews of Norfolk. In 1776, the last of Virginia's Royal Governors, Lord Dunmore, was driven from the colony's shores by Continental cannons at Cricket Hill across from Gwynn's Island. The county has also served as an important shipbuilding center, especially during the 1830s. 

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Whitfield Landing, situated on the east side of Horn Harbor off Gully Branch Road, was erected by Jesse Hudgins (1775-1860), c. 1805