A  HISTORY  OF  THE  GILCHRISTS

 by

ROBERT W. GILCHRIST - 1997

Posted here by Kind Permission of Bob and Peggy's daughters, Erin Silvaroli and Lynley Barry,
and supplied to the Kintyre Mag by Dean Gilchrist  deanotow1@earthlink.net  Ocala, Fl.  352-854-1440

Continued......

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Fields. William C. of Fayetteville. NC’. He it was who graciously provided copies of the “McA1ester Letters,” which included: John Boyd’s 1770 letter of recommendation for John and Malcolm Gilchrist; Alexander McAlester’s letter of response in which he acknowledged the receipt of John Boyd’s letter: James McAlester’ 1771 letter of inquiry concerning the emigrants from his locale; and Alexander McAlester’s response. Mr. Fields received these and other correspondence of Colonel Alexander McAlester from his uncle who in turn was a great-great grandson of the patriot colonel.

Gilchrist, Roy A. of Durham, N.C. He has dome extensive research on the two William Gilchrists who settled near John and Malcolm Gilchrist in North Carolina. believing that he might well be a descendant.

“The Last Will and Testament of John Gilchrist” signed May 12, 1802. It is on file in the State Dept. of Archives, Raleigh, N.C. under Robeson County.

McBride, Ransom of Cary, N.C. He is an outstanding research genealogist who is presently compiling information on the McBride (McBryde) family for the eventual publication of a book. It was Mr. McBride who first discovered the information concerning John Gilchrist’s 1797 contested election to the N.C. Senate which provided valuable insight into the character of this man. The information is filed under: General Assembly Session Records, Nov. - Dec. 1797; Box #1 (in folder). “Senate Committee Reports (Privileges and Elections - Miscellaneous)” in the N.C. State Archives, Raleigh.

MacDonald, Ian of Clachan, Scotland. Once more he provided valuable information — this time involving William Gilchrist, Sr. who settled on Rockfish Creek.

“The Archibald McEachern Papers, 1748 -1859.” [P.C. 129.1 (a) Gilchrist Land Grants - Bladen
County, 1789, 1791; (b) Gilchrist Land Grants - Robeson County, 1789, 1791, 1795. 1796.
P.C. 120.2 (a) Gilchrist Land Deeds - 1770 - 1856; (b) Gilchrist Land Surveys.] North
Carolina State Archives, Raleigh.

McLean, Angus W. THE HIGHLAND SCOTS IN NORTH CAROLINA, Vols. I & II (unpublished); Lumberton, N.C., 1919. The near 700 page, two volume unfinished manuscript of North Carolina Governor Angus Wilton McLean was made available, with greatest appreciation, by Lt. Col. Victor E. Clark, Jr., the publisher-editor of the “Argyll Colony Plus” — the publication of the North Carolina Scottish Genealogical Society.

Purcell, Dr. John Edwin. THE LUMBER RIVER SCOTS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. Richmond, Va.: The William Byrd Press, 1942. (A limited number of this monumental work was reproduced in 1986 by the Mill Prong Preservation Society of Lumberton, N.C. 28358, P.O. Drawer 1087. Contained in the 839 page genealogical masterpiece is an abundance of information on the families of: McLean, Purcell, McIntyre, Torrey, Gilchrist, McBryde, and numerous allied families.

Vann Comer, James of Sanford, N.C. A professional genealogist and president of the Moore County, N.C. Genealogical Society, he has authored several books relating to Moore County. He provided much information on Malcolm Gilchrist in Moore County.

 

Chapter IV

THE GILCHRISTS IN SOUTH ALABAMA

Deeply rooted in the Gilchrists, as with others from Scotland and including the Irish, was a strongly established Celtic influence, characteristics of which were readily observable. The native Celtic bonding to the land was still very strong among the second generation North Carolina Scots who moved into the Deep South in the early 1800’s. Instead of the new environment changing this nature, it nurtured it, thereby encouraging the formation of a culture closely attached to the land. The people who arrived to claim the land established large families which would cluster in just one area or community Over many generations, much as their ancestors had done in Scotland. The town of Brantley, Alabama became so filled with Gilchrists and their kinsmen in the early 1900’s that it became cause for one young lady to woefully assert that in order to find some one she could marry she had to move. The family was and would remain a major focus of the Scots and their descendents - as well as the church. But, interestingly, the second generation Scots who moved into the South arrived before the Presbyterian Church, thus causing most to join the Baptists whose congregational form of church government as well as basic doctrinal beliefs were in keeping with most of those held by the Scots. The Scots were attracted to the Deep South for much the same reasons their parents had been drawn to North Carolina: a bountiful land that would provide an abundance of space for their families, their livestock, and for such enjoyments as hunting game. Yet, in what would seemingly be a paradox: combined with the “laid-back” nature of these people was the undeniable love for a “good fight” — an aggressiveness that for centuries had prevented the English from carrying out the anglicization of their ancestors. It would be this aggressiveness that would enable them to endure the hardships involved in carving out a place for themselves in a new land. By the middle 1800’s the South was clearly an extension of the Celtic culture that had been established by the Scottish immigrants to North Carolina in the second half of the 1700’s. It would be no mere accident that the flag agreed upon by the southern Confederacy in 1861 would bear a strange likeness to Scotland’s “Bonny Blue Flag.”

Among the new settlers was Gilbert Gilchrist and his family. The sixth child and fourth son of his parents John and Effie McMillan Gilchrist of Robeson County, North Carolina, he was born in 1780, the tenth anniversary of his parents arrival from Scotland, which may account for why he was often referred to as “Gilbert Scotland Gilchrist.” Named for his maternal grandfather, Gilbert became a planter like his father, and older brothers. He married Nancy McPherson of Cumberland County, whose father, Daniel, was a Presbyterian minister; Nancy’s sister, Mary, became the wife of Gilbert’s older brother, Archibald.

The family was actively involved in the Presbyterian church as evidenced by the fact that Gilbert served as an elder in the Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church in neighboring Richmond County (now Scotland County) from about 1806 until 1826. With the completion of the new Antioch Presbyterian Church, much nearer home, he moved his church membership becoming with his second wife, Mary Currie. charter members.

Gilbert married Mary Currie the year following Nancy McPherson’s untimely death in, it is believed, 1823. Nancy’s death had left Gilbert with nine children, the youngest of which was three years old. Mary, who it is believed was a niece of Flora McKay Currie, the second wife of Gilbert’s father John Sr., was twenty years younger than Gilbert. From this marriage would come nine more children:

CHILDREN OF GILBERT AND NANCY MCPHERSON GILCHRIST

FLORA GILCHRIST (1808 - 1892)
She married John Little (May 6. 1802 - Jan. 26, 1848); there were nine children.
Four of their sons would fight in the North Carolina infantry during the Civil
War.

2 EFFIE GILCHRIST (1810 - Sept. 20, 1890)
She married John M. Hughes; there were six children

3 SALLIE GILCHRIST (Oct. 15, 1811 - Nov. 20, 1905)
She married Alexander H. Currie; there were ten children. It is probable that he and Mary Currie were first cousins.

4. DANIEL MCPHERSON GILCHRIST (1813 - 1902)
He married Elizabeth Williams; there were fourteen children. When his father moved to Barbour County, Alabama, Daniel was the oldest of the children to move with the family. In Barbour County he became a large landowner~ Some of his descendants still live in and around Eufaula, Ala.; there are others who moved to Texas.

5 MARY ANNGILCHRIST(1814- 1855)
She married David McNeill and in 1836 moved to Mississippi. There were no children.

6. MALCOLM GILCHRIST (Jan. 8, 1815 - Sept. 22, 1882)
On Dec. 31, 1846 he married Eliza Jane Head (Sept. 28,1828 - Jan. 4, 1901); there were ten children. He did not move from North Carolina to Barbour County, Ala., along with the others, arriving, instead, in 1841. He became a large landowner like his father and brothers: Daniel and John. About 1854 he moved to neighboring Coffee County, Ala., settling near the community of Bullock where two are buried.

7. MARGARET GILCHRIST (About 1816-17 - 1857)
She married John Quattlebaum; there were no children.

8 ISABELLA GILCHRIST (About 18 18-19 - 1840’s)

9~ CATHERINE GILCHRIST (Dec. 25. 1821 - 1901)
She married Samuel Deloach of Georgia: there were four children, two of whom died in infancy.

THE CHILDREN OF GILBERT AND MARY CURRIE GILCHRIST

C. H. GILCHRIST (1825 - 1864)
It is believed that he remained in North Carolina and was reared by one of Gilbert’s three older daughters. There is virtually no information concerning this individual, nor is he named in Gilbert’s will, causing some to question whether he existed. Nevertheless, his name is one listed in THE LUMBER RIVER SCOTS.

2 JOHN MCINTYRE GILCHRIST (Aug. 28, 1827 - 1887)
He moved with his parents to Barbour County, Alabama where he later married Dorinda Calhoun, a great-niece of John C. Calhoun of South Carolina; there were twelve children. Following his father’s death in 1857 he moved his family and mother to Butler County, Ala. , settling near Greenville. He enlisted in the Confederate army and was promoted to the rank of captain. He was a plantation owner and a legislator. He and his wife are buried in the Bethel Cemetery near Greenville.

3 CAROLINE ISABELLE GILCHRIST (July 23, 1829 - Sept. 13, 1864) She married James W. Blakely; there were four children.

4~ NANCY MCPHERSON GILCHRIST (July 19. 1831 - Nov. 7, 1888)
She married Joseph Thigpen; there were no children. They later moved to Texas, and she is buried in the Bullard Cemetery near Tyler.

5 ANGUS JACKSON GILCHRIST (Aug. 24, 1833 - Jan. 14, 1888)
He married Kate Douglas; there were eight children. The family moved to Texas settling near the community of Wills Point. The eighth child, Gilbert (Gibb) Gilchrist, served for two terms as Chairman of the Texas State Highway Commission before becoming Dean of the School of Engineering at Texas A.&M. University in the 1940’s. The small community of Gilchrist, located on the Texas coast outside of Galveston, is believed named for this individual.

6. GILBERT SCOTLAND GILCHRIST, II (Jan. 12, 1836 - 1912)
He was the first of his parents’ children to be born in Barbour County, Ala. He married Zilpha Ann Blow; there were eleven children. Following his father’s death in 1857 he moved to Smith County, Texas, settling near Tyler. During the Civil War he served in Company C., Texas Cavalry. After the war he moved to Cherokee County, settling near Mt. Selman. He is buried in the Bullard Cemetery near Tyler.

7 ADOLINE MARTHA GILCHRIST (Mar. 22, 1838 - July 28, 1913)
She married John Hook; there were four children. They are buried in Panola, Ala
 

More next issue

The Late Bob and Peg Gilchrist

    Robert W. Gilchrist (1939 - 1998 ) of Titusville, Florida and his wife Peggy, were killed in a tragic automobile accident on April 8, 1998. Both were dedicated teachers and active members of the Park Avenue Baptist Church for over 30 years. Bob specialised in history. Shortly before the accident, he was a guest speaker at the dedication of the restored Mill Prong House near Raeford, North Carolina which was built by his 4th Great Grandfather, John Gilchrist, in 1802. Bob loved his family history, and had planned his third trip to Scotland to renew friendships and continue his research. He made many significant contributions to his heritage, and was honored by the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh with a request for a copy of his 1997 book.   In his memory, portions of this 1997 book have also been placed on the internet at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~steve/robertwg/  in the hope that it will kindle the interests of others to follow his footprints and continue his quest for knowledge of the Gilchrist family.

Wee Drams   E-mails, comments, queries and enlightenment from around the world

Page  2:       A History of the Gilchrists...............continued

Page  3:       E-mails - Machrihanish and Fessenden

Page  4:       The Kintyre Armours - A New Approach to the First Generation

Page  5:       The Campbeltown Book  - You must look at this!

Page  6:       The MacKeith Family at Kilmichael

Page 7:        By Hill and Shore - Angus Martin

Page 8:        The Rev. Alexander Stewart (1755 - 1798)