In 1746, Joshua Hadley (I) bought 400 acres of land in Augusta County, Virginia. Later, he bought additional tracts in Virginia. Then, in 1756, Joshua Hadley (I) with Patience and his family moved to Cane Creek, North Carolina, where other members of the family and Quaker community were living. The North Carolina Governor John Archdale of the previous decades was a Quaker. These movements of families were nearly certainly down the Great Philadelphia Wagon Route, which was not more than ruts passing over the Appalachian mountains and through the endless forests, down through Virginia to the Carolinas, as shown in the map below. Cane Creek in Chatham County, North Carolina is not far from this wagon route.
“…In 1756, at the age of 53 and within a few months after his father’s death, he [Joshua senior] joined his sisters Ruth and Hannah and their families at Cane Creek, North Carolina. Patience applied for a certificate for her family to transfer to Cane Creek [Friends Meeting] with the New Garden, Pennsylvania Meeting which was granted her and her children 8 mo 28, 1756…”
“…Joshua lived only about four years after going to North Carolina. He accumulated several tracts of land and built a mill in Alamance County. He apparently established a reputation as an earlier founder of that area, because in 1931 the South Alamance Pioneer Association erected a memorial monument to him and his wife Patience at Spring Meeting…”