Family:Robert Gay and Margaret Lockridge (1)

Caution! There are many errors in research of the Gay family of Augusta County, Virginia. It is highly suggested that the following source be consulted before any changes are made to this family.

Gay Families of Augusta and Rockbridge Counties, Virginia Author(s): Robert H. Montgomery Source: The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Apr., 1951), pp. 195-215 Published by: Virginia Historical Society

(I) Robert Gay, who died in 1762.

Robert Gay in 1745 acquired from Patton and Lewis 5I9 acres on the East side of the Great River in the Calf Pasture, corner to Doneley's land (Orange Deeds IO: I37) and on Novem- ber 2I, I746, James Carter, millwright, conveyed to Robert Gay 300 acres, part of a tract granted to Patton and Lewis on Calfpasture River "corner to John Campbell's land" (Chalkley, III, p. 257). The first parcel can be identified as Lot 9 on the map of I 744 (Henry Gay had Lot 7 and the second as Lot 22. The distance between the two was 8 or Io miles and my first thought was to place two Roberts in the Great Calfpasture, one with Lot 9, the other with Lot 22. However, the following succession of deeds proves, I think, that one Robert owned both parcels:

1751, 28 August. Wm. Campbell and Sarah and Robert Grey [Gay] and Margaret to Thomas Gillam [Gilham] 200 acres, Calfpasture, where Wm. and Robert live. Delivered: Thomas Adam, 2d September 1774 (Chalkley, III, 297).

1764, 25 August. Thomas Gilham and Margaret to John Corolile 200 acres in Calfpasture bounded by land in possession of Robert Gay's orphans and Samuel Campbell's land, William Will's land (Chalkley, III, p. 415). [This is easily identified as the 200 acres described in the deed of August 28, 1751, I00 of which came from Lot 22. The remaining 200 acres of Lot 22 was conveyed as follows:]

1791, i6 September James Guy and Elizabeth his wife of Augusta Co. to Thomas Douthat of the same Co., 200 acres on the head of a great river of the Calfpasture part of 300 acres conveyed to Robert Guy by James Carter by deed dated I746 of which said Robert Guy the said James Guy is son and heir, ioo acres now in possession of Thomas Adams. No wit- nesses. Ack. September 1794 (Augusta Deeds, 28:248).

1773, i8 August. James Gay, son and heir at law of Robert Gay, dec'd of the County of Augusta, conveyed to Robert Gay and John his brothers of said county 5i9 acres in the Calfpasture, bounded among other bounds by land formerly Doraley, Samuel Hodge. No witnesses, no release of dower. The deed was delivered to Robt. Gay May I 7, 1799 (Augusta Deeds, Book 19:4II; Chalkley, III, p. 534).

The following items from Chalkley seem to apply to this Robert Gay:

On February IIy, 1745. Wm. Smith and Ro. Gay were appointed over- seers of a road. Notwithstanding an item dated February 17, I748, stating the intention of one Robert Gay to leave the colony (id., I, p. 37), we find a Robert Gay in a list of May 20, 1752, over whom Wm. Smith was to be overseer "in Calf posture," which list also included William, John and Sam- uel Gay. And again on March, 19, 1753, he is one of the inhabitants of Calfpasture who petitioned for a mill on the place of Andrew Loughridge, "who has lately settled there." On August 20, I755, he is found as a surety with Wm. Eliot and PRo. Campbell for the executors of the will of William Gay of the Calf Pasture. In 1758, we find two entries indicating that Rob- ert Gay has gone out of the Colony, but if he went, he returned to be Jacob Clements' appraiser with Andrew Lockridge and Robert Bratton in March I I, 1760.

Next we find on February I 7, 1762, Margaret Gay and Andrew Lock- ridge giving bond (with William and Robert Lockridge) as administrators of Robert Gay. His appraisement filed May i 8, I 762 was by Robert Bratton, John Graham and Andrew Fulton (Chalkley, III, 69).

With the exception of a few other items of no genealogical value, the above is all I know about this decedent of I 762. My inferences are:

Robert' Gay (probably brother of William, John and James, maybe of Samuel) had wife Margaret and at least three children:

(i) James2 (Robertl), the heir at law. One may guess that he was not of age in 1762 -the mention of Robert Gay's "orphans" points to that inference. His deed of 1773 to his brothers, above, may have been an attempt to make a fair division of the father's land. His wife was Elizabeth. I offer as a guess that she was the Elizabeth Gay mentioned in the will of John Dunlap of Rockbridge, dated Feb. 25, I804, proved in Rockbridge, April 3, I804, wherein he names son Alexander; dau. Elizabeth Gay, and her son Robert Gay, 3,ooo acres including the old town of Cilicotta on the Ohio; son James; daughter Ann Bratton; daughter Mary Hodge; her son Sam'l Hodge, Lebanon Meeting House. Chalkley, II, io8; see also will of Ann Dunlap, widow of John, wherein daughter Betsey Gay is mentioned. Will dated May Ig, i8o8; re- corded in Rockbridge, April 3, i8o0 (Chalkley, II, i92). I also guess that this was the James who was on the 1782 list of tithables in Capt. James Bratton's Company, which would place him in the Calf Pasture presumably as owner of part of Lot 22, supr.

(2) Robert2 (Robertl). It is unlikely because of his age that this was the second husband of Sarah Gay, daughter of Henry Gay. The will of Robert, Sarah's husband, dated August I, I8I5, is abstracted in the article "John Gay of Sadsbury." Nor is it at all probable that he was the Robert Gay of Rockbridge, who d. 1791, leaving two grandsons and a granddaughter. See below. Robert2 (Robertl) appears to have been alive in 1799, when, as appears above, a deed to him and his brother of Lot 7 was delivered to him. Lot 7 in 1782 was in Rockbridge County and I think that this Robert was on the 1782 list of Rockbridge taxables (Morton, Rockbridge, page 370). He may have been the Robert Gay who founded the family in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, but I think not. If so, this article is incorrect in ascribing that family to Robert2 (Jamesl). This Robert may have been the Robert Guy who was surety on the marriage bond of Thomas Guy and Mary Swearingen (Chalkley, II, 295).

(3) John2 (Robertl). He, I believe, may have been on the list of Rockbridge tax- ables of 1782 as John Gay, Jr. (Morton, Rockbridge, page 370). On Feb. IS, 1779, John Gay with James Blake and William Gillespie, was witness to a will of Charles Donnelly of the Cow Pasture. John Gay was dead I7 June 1783 when will was proved (Chalkley, III, i66). On August 15, I786 Wm. Connell and John Gillespie were to be summoned to produce the will of John Guy, deceased (Chalkley, I, 246).

Note: Much of the foregoing in this section is guess work and I venture another guess and that is that Margaret, widow of Robertl Gay, decedent of 1762, married John Ramsey who in 1766 bought 220 acres in the Cowpasture "below Donnelley" (Morton, Bath, p. 28).