Robert Hester (c1710? – 1770) He was clearly the eldest son. He made at least one purchase of 200 acres in Hanover County prior to 1742 (which is, alas, among its lost records), as he and his wife “Barbary” sold the land in 1746 when it was in Louisa County.
The 1748 will of Abraham Cook shows that he had married Barbara Cook, probably about 1735.
While he gifted his siblings in 1748 with 1,400 acres of his father’s land, Robert Hester kept for himself his father’s 400-acre patent of 1731 on the North Anna, which he and his wife Barbara sold on 28 February 1761.
He also evidently kept Francis Hester’s original land in Hanover County, which was described as Robert Hester’s when processioned in 1755, 1759, and 1763.
Thereafter it was processioned as the land of Charles Hester. Robert Hester also retained at least 200 acres of his father’s other grants in Louisa County, and bought 225 acres in 1751.
He appears in the Louisa tithables lists for St. Martin’s parish in 1767, 1768, and 1769 with 630 acres.
His will was written in Louisa County on 6 November 1769 and proved on 12 March 1770. Barbara survived him and was named executrix. Robert Hester left to his son Abraham Hester 300 acres in Mecklenburg County which he had patented in 1745, and on which Abraham then lived. The will split another 516 acre tract in Mecklenburg between sons James Hester and Nathan Hester, and gave the 430 acres he lived on in Louisa County to his son Charles Hester. Minor sons Francis and Samuel were given money. The will bequeathed one slave each to his married daughters Sarah Smith, Agnes Walton, and Barbara Walton, and their heirs. Four daughters received bequests to be delivered when they reached the age of eighteen: Anne Hester, Susannah Hester, Mary Hester, and Elizabeth Hester. The personal estate was inventoried in both Louisa and Mecklenburg. Robert Hester’s Louisa County inventory consisted of several slaves and modest stock valued at a total of £427. Barbara Hester was taxed on five tithables and 431 acres in 1770. She appears in a Louisa court record in 1771, but that same year she moved to Mecklenburg County, Virginia where she is mentioned frequently in its records. Her own will was dated 28 October 1793 and proved 14 June 1802. Her estate went to her son Samuel, who was named executor.
The children of Robert Hester and Barbara Cook from other records were: Abraham Hester, James Hester, Charles Hester, Sarah Hester (wife of David Smith), Nathan Hester, Agnes Hester(wife of Simeon Walton), Barbara Hester (wife of Edward Walton), Anne Hester (wife of Edward Lewis, and later of a Vaughn), Susannah Hester, Francis Hester, Elizabeth Hester, and Samuel Hester.