Martha Elizabeth Hayley

PROOF CLASS: FATHER = DIRECT (Owen, 18 Sep 2026). Catharine McClellan's Madison Co., Tenn. deed of gift, reg. 5 Dec 1851, calls Martha E. and Newton C. Hayley her grandchildren, children "of Benjamin" and "Benjamin Hayley their father". PROOF CLASS: MOTHER = DIRECT (Owen, 18 Sep 2026). The same 1851 deed makes them children of "my daughter Martha F. Hayley"; the 1843 quit claim has her "formerly Martha F McClellan". Mariah T. Fleming, m. 1846, is the stepmother. AUDITED 10 Aug 2026 — a spouse family was REMOVED; a candidate father was NOT entered. F130, which married her to a bare-surname person "/Loretz/" carrying no given name, no events and no citations, was deleted this date as chronologically impossible. She died 5 Aug 1873 while her husband William Achille Plunkett lived until 1922, so there was no widow remarriage; she married Plunkett by about 1858, her eldest child being born 1859 and she herself in 1840, leaving no window for a prior marriage; and she is enumerated with the Plunkett household in the 1870 census. The Loretz surname belongs to her DAUGHTER, Henrietta Matilda "Hallie" Plunkett, who carries the alternate name Henrietta "Hattie" Plunkett Loretz. The husband shell had been attached to the mother. No replacement marriage was created for Hallie: a surname alone is not a spouse. FATHER ENTERED 18 Sep 2026, SUPERSEDING THIS PARAGRAPH AS IT ORIGINALLY STOOD (it read "PARENTS REMAIN UNKNOWN ... is NOT entered because no document states the relationship"). Benjamin Hayley - b. 18 Jan 1802 Virginia per Find a Grave, which is informant-class and is NOT entered as a fact; d. Des Arc, Prairie County, Arkansas BEFORE 22 FEB 1872 by record, which IS entered - innkeeper, is now entered as her father - on a case that was ARGUMENT-class when he was entered on the morning of 18 Sep 2026 and was raised to DIRECT the same evening. See the 18 Sep 2026 block at the foot of this note for the two probate records. The six lines that follow were assembled 10 Aug 2026, BEFORE any probate was found, and they now stand as CORROBORATION rather than as the whole case - which is the order that matters, because they were not selected to fit the record. Six converging circumstantial lines: Oak Grove Cemetery holds exactly three Hayley burials; her 1840 birth fills the gap in his children's 1835, 1838, [gap], 1842 sequence; her eldest son is William BENJAMIN Plunkett; her husband captained Company K of the 37th Arkansas, in which Patrick Henry Hayley served; and Goodspeed's Erwin sketch shows one Des Arc mercantile partner taking P. H. Haley in 1859 and "Mr. Plunkett" after the war. Caution: the same Find a Grave contributor built all three memorials in one week, asserted Benjamin's paternity three times, and withheld it for Martha. RECORD LOSS DOES NOT APPLY HERE: the documented Prairie County loss is the Brownsville clerk's office fire of September 1852, earlier than everything relevant. The 1857 marriage survives and is cited as S49, and Benjamin Hayley's 1872 Prairie County probate should still exist. [FULFILLED 18 Sep 2026: it does, and it was found - Prairie Co. Probate Court Records v. F-G 1869-1878, DGS 007117209. This sentence was a PRE-REGISTERED PREDICTION made 10 Aug 2026 and it came true, which is worth more than the same evidence found without it.] Her Tennessee birth is sourced only to Find a Grave, so the tree and Find a Grave are ONE INFORMANT counted twice. SETTLES IT: the 1850 census, Shelby County, Tennessee. Evidence: ancestry/sources/plunkett-hayley-2026-08-10/ (63 files). Report: ancestry/agent-report-plunkett-hayley-2026-08-10.md. AUDITED 18 Sep 2026 - THE DOCUMENTARY LEG THE SIX CIRCUMSTANTIAL LINES WERE WAITING FOR. Registers K694-K697; case written up once, at proof-summary-196-hayley-father-2026-09-18.md. BENJAMIN HAYLEY DIED INTESTATE AND HIS PRAIRIE CO. ESTATE WAS ADMINISTERED 1872-1877. Two records, both on FS full-text, DGS 007117209 = FHL 1013882 = 'Probate Court records v. F-G 1869-1878' (found via FS catalog koha:2901; the 16 Sep /search/film/ 404 on the FHL number was a WRONG IDENTIFIER SPACE, not a negative - K692). (1) ORDER OF DISTRIBUTION, p. 410, April Term, 14 Apr 1876 (ark 3:1:3QSQ-G9W3-W9XS, cit 7157): the administrator prays leave to distribute, "showing to the Court, that the heirs of said Estate are W. A. Haley Jas I. Haley J H Haley F. M. Haley and M C Vaden & the heirs of M E Plunkett". SIX SHARES. She is dead by then, so hers passes to her own heirs per stirpes. (2) GRANT OF ADMINISTRATION, in vacation, 22 Feb 1872 (ark 3:1:3QS7-99W3-W397, cit 7158): letters issue on the petition of "R. H. Hall & W A Plunkett two of the heir at law of the Estate of Benjamin Haley Deceased". THE CORRELATION, AND NEITHER RECORD WAS MADE TO FIT IT: in Feb 1872 her husband W A Plunkett petitions as an heir at law - a husband's standing is IN RIGHT OF HIS WIFE, and she was then alive; by Apr 1876 the share reads "the heirs of M E Plunkett" - per stirpes, she is dead. She died 5 Aug 1873, between the two. A third, independent touch: in 1875 W A Plunkett stands SURETY on the administrator's bond. And administration opening 22 Feb 1872 independently corroborates the 27 Jan 1872 death date, which was informant-class (K157). WHY THIS WAS ARGUMENT UNTIL 18 SEP 2026 (EVENING), AND WHY IT IS NOW DIRECT: no page of the Prairie Co. probate uses a kinship word - the court says "heirs" and "heirs at law", so on that evidence alone the parentage was an inference from intestate distribution, and an heir at law need not be a child. THAT REASONING STILL STANDS FOR THE PROBATE and is why the probate alone could never be better than ARGUMENT. It is superseded as the GRADE because a Madison Co., Tennessee deed of gift of 1851 states the filiation outright - see the 18 Sep (evening) block at the foot of this note. THE ONE ANOMALY, RECORDED RATHER THAN SMOOTHED OVER: R. H. Hall petitions as an heir at law in Feb 1872 but is ABSENT from the 1876 list of six. NOTE, and it is an inference from OCR parallels and not a reading of the manuscript: the SAME 1872 proceeding gives the two petitioners as "R. H. Hall & W A Plunkett" and the two sureties as "R H Haley and W. H. Plunkett". K690 already established that W A / W H Plunkett is ONE man OCR'd two ways on this series; by the same parallel R. H. Hall is probably R. H. HALEY, i.e. a son, which would make the Feb 1872 petition a son plus a son-in-law. Whether the 1876 list's "J H Haley" is an R/J misread of the same man is NOT decidable from OCR and needs the image. SCOPED ZEROS FROM THE SAME SWEEP, WHICH MUST NOT BE RESTATED WIDER (K697): on this DGS "Martha Hayley", "Martha E Hayley", "Martha E Plunkett" and "Sarah J Hayley" all return 0 - HER NAME APPEARS ONLY AS THE INITIALS "M E Plunkett". And "order of distribution" returns 0 because the clerk writes "prays an order authorizing him to distribute said fund" - that zero measures the PHRASE, not the ACT. THE DOWER ROUTE NAMED HERE IS DEAD, AND THE ABSENCE IS ITSELF EVIDENCE (K699, 18 Sep 2026). DGS 007117209 was swept COMPLETE - "dower" 40 of 40 hits retrieved, "widow" 92 of 92, "relict" 31 of 31, every page's whole transcript scanned - and Benjamin's own estate file reconstructed at 29 pages running 1872-1877. There is no dower assignment and no widow anywhere in it. The zero is admissible because the identical query FOUND other estates' dowers in the same volume (E. S. McCain, 1876, "the allotment and setting off of dower"; Joseph W Harrell's widow, 1875), so the instrument demonstrably covers the defect. CONSEQUENCE: Benjamin's wife was already dead when he died. A surviving widow's dower would have had to be assigned or released before his ~160 acres and Des Arc town lots could be sold, and she is party to none of it, takes no share in the 1876 distribution of six, and is named on none of the 29 pages. State that as "no widow survived him", never as "he had no wife" - this woman had a mother, and what the sweep establishes is a DATE: she died before 22 Feb 1872. THE MOTHER IS THEREFORE NOT CANDIDATE-LESS, AND SHE IS NOT IN THIS PROBATE. The 1850 census of Madison Co., Tennessee, dwelling 256, READ ON THE MANUSCRIPT (K387), has Benjamin Hailey 48, N.C., farmer, real estate 4000, and on the next line "Mariah" 46, N.C.; the index adds John D. 17, Mary E C 16, Patrick H. 15, Frances M. 12, Martha E. 10 and C N 8, all Tennessee-born. Martha E. at 10 is this woman - and "C N" is the NEWTON C. HAYLEY of the 1851 deed of gift, so the index had garbled his initials. But 1850 has NO RELATIONSHIP COLUMN, so that is co-residence and not filiation, which is why the census alone never decided this. ⛔ THE REMAINDER OF THIS PARAGRAPH AS IT STOOD ON THE MORNING OF 18 SEP 2026 IS SUPERSEDED AND HAS BEEN DELETED RATHER THAN LEFT STANDING AGAINST THE CLASS LINE ABOVE: it argued that the manuscript "Mariah" conflicted irreducibly with the 1827 Jackson Gazette notice, and that a daughter born in 1840 was therefore attributable to either woman. The evening of the same day settled it - they ARE two successive wives, Mariah did not marry Benjamin until 25 Nov 1846, and a record DOES state the relationship. See the 18 Sep (evening) block at the foot of this note. THE NAMED UPGRADE WAS RUN ON 18 SEP 2026 (EVENING) AND IT FIRED. The controlled Madison Co., Tennessee marriage sweep returned exactly ONE Benjamin marriage in the county for 1838-1852: Benjamin Hayley x Mariah T Fleming, 25 Nov 1846 (FamilySearch collection 1619127; 8 raw index entries = 4 distinct marriages; the one fuzzy surname query returned Haley, Hayley, Hailey AND Heayley, so spelling coverage is demonstrated by the result set rather than asserted). CONTROLS BOTH WAYS: negative control (a must-miss token, deliberately not reproduced here), same filters, 0 results; positive control "Smith", Madison Co., 1838-1846, 156 entries spanning 1841, 1842, 1843 and 1844 - so the pre-1846 window is densely populated and "no earlier Benjamin" is a real negative, not a coverage hole. THE SWEEP COULD NOT BE RUN BACK TO 1827 AND NEVER WILL BE: Madison Co. has NO marriage records before 1838 (documented record loss 1821-1837, corroborated by the holdings - the earliest filmed volume is "Marriage records, 1838-1871"). So K364's 1827 notice can never be corroborated by a county marriage record; DO NOT send a session to hunt the 1827 bond. It is instead corroborated by the 1843 quit claim, which calls her "formerly Martha F McClellan". ALSO STILL OWED, free, AND NOW WORTH MORE THAN IT WAS: the NEXT IMAGE of the 1850 schedule - the household splits across two images and six of its eight members have never been seen on a manuscript (a missing measurement, not a negative; take the image ark off a CHILD's record page, and not image 108). It matters more because the 12 Nov 1846 deed of gift names Mariah's OWN three Fleming children, so whether any member of the 1850 household is carried under the surname Fleming is now a live question. DGS 007117210 and 007117097 remain free and unread. EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE CONCERNING THE PRAIRIE CO., ARKANSAS PROBATE IS FAMILYSEARCH OCR, NOT THE MANUSCRIPT. The arks are recorded so the images can be read; K689 warns you cannot compute a frame number from a page number on this series. THIS CAVEAT DOES NOT COVER THE 18 SEP (EVENING) BLOCK BELOW, which states per document what was read on the image and what was not. AUDITED 18 Sep 2026 (evening) - BOTH HALVES RAISED TO DIRECT, AND THE MOTHER IS ENTERED. Registers K701-K708. The mother's case is written up once, at ancestry/proof-summary-196-hayley-mother-2026-09-18.md, whose own recommendation of UNDERDETERMINED is superseded by a banner at its head. Do not re-derive it. THE DECIDING RECORD, READ ON THE MANUSCRIPT (cit 7159). Madison Co., Tenn., deed of gift, Catharine McClellan to Benjamin Hayley, registered 5 Dec 1851, ark 3:1:3Q9M-C39N-CS37-X: "I Catharine McClellan of the County of Madison and State of Tennessee for the natural love and affection I have & entertain for my grand children Martha E. Hayley and Newton C. Hayley, children of Benjamin and my daughter Martha F. Hayley, I give to the said Martha E. Hayley the sum of two hundred dollars and to Newton C. Hayley the sum of one hundred dollars, that being the amount that I bequeathed to them in my last Will and testament, which sums are placed in the hands of Benjamin Hayley their father, as Trustee, for their use and benefit, to be placed out at interest until they become of age or Marry". IT STATES THE RELATIONSHIP THREE TIMES IN ONE SENTENCE: they are her GRANDCHILDREN; they are children "of Benjamin and my daughter Martha F. Hayley"; and Benjamin is "their father". That is shape A under proof-standard.md 2c, for both halves at once, and it is why neither half is ARGUMENT any more. IDENTITY, WHICH IS NOT ASSUMED. "Martha E. Hayley" is [196] - born 30 Jun 1840, so aged 11 at the deed. "Newton C. Hayley" is the 1850 index's garbled "C N", aged 8 (K363), which means the deed's two named children are exactly the two youngest of the 1850 Madison Co. household. And the Tennessee-to-Arkansas bridge, which this lane had been inferring from correlation since 1 Sep, is now stated: Isabella C. McClellan's will, proven November Term 1857 (cit 7163, clause read on the manuscript), gives "one-eighth to the children of Martha Hayley, deceased, who was the wife of Benjamin Hayley, NOW OF ARKANSAS" - her children taking per stirpes, structurally the same device by which "the heirs of M E Plunkett" took [196]'s share in Prairie Co. in 1876. THE WIFE SEQUENCE IS NOW CONTINUOUS AND DOCUMENTED, WHICH IS WHAT KILLED THE MARIAH READING. 23 Mar 1841: wife MARTHA F., who signs "Martha F Hayley" under seal and is certified by the clerk among "the bargainors" (cit 7160). 3 Nov 1843: "Benjamin Hayley and Martha F. his wife formerly Martha F McClellan" (cit 7161). 25 Nov 1846: he marries MARIAH T. FLEMING (cit 7164). 1850 and 1852: "Mariah" / "Maria" his wife. ⛔ MARIAH IS THEREFORE THE STEPMOTHER, NOT THE MOTHER, AND THE 1846 DEED PROVES IT INDEPENDENTLY OF THE MARRIAGE INDEX: thirteen days before that marriage, on 12 Nov 1846, Mariah T. Fleming executed a deed of gift to "my three Children (Viz) Robert W. Fleming, Cloe A. A. Fleming and Frances E. Fleming" - and BENJAMIN HAYLEY WITNESSED IT (cit 7162, read on the manuscript). A marriage settlement, putting a widow's property beyond a new husband's coverture. In Nov 1846 her children were three Flemings; [196] was born in June 1840. SO THE CONFLICT THIS NOTE CARRIED THIS MORNING IS DISSOLVED, NOT ADJUDICATED. "Mariah" (1850 manuscript, K387) and "Martha F. McClellan" (1827 notice, K364) were never two readings of one woman. They are two successive wives, which is the possibility K700 named as load-bearing and could not then decide. WHAT WAS READ ON THE IMAGE AND WHAT WAS NOT - PER DOCUMENT, because filing a partial read as a complete one is the K499 error. READ ON THE MANUSCRIPT: the 1851 deed of gift (cit 7159, the deciding clause); the 1857 will clause (cit 7163); the 1846 Fleming deed of gift in full - body, children, witnesses and signature (cit 7162). READ ON THE MANUSCRIPT IN PART: the 1841 settlement (cit 7160) - the heirs recital was read and re-cropped at 2.6x, but its signature and acknowledgement blocks are OCR only. OCR ONLY, NOT YET SEEN ON THE IMAGE: the 1843 quit claim (cit 7161), whose OCR is visibly rough. INDEX ONLY, NO IMAGE EXISTS: the 25 Nov 1846 marriage (cit 7164). HER OWN FAMILY IS DOCUMENTED AND DELIBERATELY NOT ENTERED. The 1841 settlement and the 1843 quit claim between them give John McClellan of Madison Co., Tenn. (living 1841, making advancements; deceased by 1843) and Catharine McClellan, with children William B., Albert G., Samuel C., James D., John J. A., Bennet/Burnet T./F., Robert N., Elizabeth S. (m. Radford Weathers, called Susan Withers in the 1857 will) and Martha F. (m. Benjamin Hayley). NOBODY FROM THIS LIST WAS CREATED BY THIS WRITE. ⛔ Before minting any of them, RE-READ THE MIDDLE INITIALS ON THE IMAGE: the OCR renders the same men three ways ("Legater"/"Legatees", "Bennet F"/"Bennett T"/"Burnell T", "A L Binnel"), and the 1857 will gives a "Robert Newton McClellan" and a "John D." where the 1841 deed has "John J. A.". MARTHA F.'s DEATH IS BOUNDED BY RECORDS, NOT GUESSED: alive and signing 23 Mar 1841; Benjamin remarries 25 Nov 1846; so she died BEFORE 25 Nov 1846, which is how her death event is encoded. The 1843 quit claim recites her as his wife in the present tense but it is OCR only, so it is NOT used to narrow the bound. No record says where she died and no place is recorded. ENSLAVED PEOPLE NAMED IN THESE RECORDS, recorded because they must not be lost in a parentage note: CAROLINE, aged about fourteen, conveyed by Mariah T. Fleming to her three children on 12 Nov 1846 together with "her increase". She belongs in the project's enslaved-people register.