William G Hearst

Grandfather of newspaperman William Randolph Hearst and father of U.S. Senator George Hearst.

Vital statistics

 * Son of George Hearst and Jane Pressly
 * Born William George Hearst, about 1795 near Abbeville County, South Carolina
 * Died before 1864, Franklin County, Missouri (age about 68 years old)
 * Married Elizabeth Collins in 1817, Franklin County, Missouri.

Biography
William G. Hearst was the son of George Hearst, Sr., who as a small child in October 1766 arrived in America with his parents and many siblings, on a ship of as yet unproven name in the harbor of what was then Charles Town in the royal colony of South Carolina. His grandfather John Hearst, Sr. (as well as his uncle John Hearst, Jr.) were provided benefits from the Act to Encourage Protestant Immigration including 400 acres for the grandfather and 100 acres for the uncle, with the land being describe in the respective royal grants for these two men. The first 100 acres of the acreage was for the head of the household and for any child of that head 16 years of age or older (in his own name), with 50 acres each added to the total for dependents including wife and children. Thus the grandfather had either a wife and seven children or (far less likely) eight children with no wife. The exact date of arrival is unknown and perhaps unknowable, but the Council Journal for the royal colony, which is still extant and held at the South Carolina State Archives, provides a list of passengers of one of several ships arriving that includes the father and son's names and then acreage assigned to each under the clear misspelling of John Hearse, Sr. and John Hearse, Jr.

There have been other theories of a Virginia origin for John Hearst, some promulgated by one or more genealogical treatises either obtained by or made for the Hearst publishing family or made separately for one or more of the biographies of William Randolph Hearst. These claims of a Virginia Hurst origin are in error. Although these claims are impossible to eliminate, absent promulgated new editions of the publications in which they were made, the documented arrival of the antecedent John Hearst family and the young, but at least sixteen year old, Hearst namesake on some date just prior to October 26, 1766 cannot be disputed due to the ability to locate this family, and no other similarly named family in the area of South Carolina where each set of representations places them.

Children of William George and Elizabeth Collins Hearst

 * George Hearst (1820-1891) - One of six children of couple, three sons and three daughter.