I have found nothing linking william to this thomas and mary hixson/hickson. Someone posted this years back in ancestry and it seems everyone is just copying over and over on every ancestry site. Instead of copying what others are doing without doing research, lets stop the confusion and quite copying and let's do some old fashion researching. FYI, I came across a woman from England from the Hickson/Hixson family and she confirmed. she never came across any Duke's in her research.