Person:William Gay (19)

William Gay is an Early Settler of Augusta County, Virginia [[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

(II) William Gay of the Little Calfpasture, who died 1767.

Beside William, the decedent (who died in 1755), there was another William Gay in the Calf Pasture. His relationship to the other Gays does not appear. He was not the son of the other William or, so far as we know, of any other of the Calfpasture pioneers. I think that it was he (and not the decedent of 1755) who was the grantee in the deed dated May I5, 1754, Beverley to William Gay, 410 acres in Calf Pasture on both sides of Little River; cor. Wm. Gay's land; line of Rev. Mr. Hindman's land (Augusta Deeds 6:279).

My reasons are these: If the deed were to William Gay, who died in 1755, and who already had land adjacent to the parcel conveyed, it would have been natural to say "cor. of said Wm. Gay's land," and not merely "corner of Wm. Gay's land." Moreover this 41o-acre parcel is clearly the bound in deeds of 1762 and 1763 where the words "corner William Gay" are used, which would be unlikely if the reference was to a William Gay who had been dead seven or eight years (Chalkley, III, 388, 398). William Gay was administrator of John Meeks; his bond with Ralph Laverty and Joseph Wachob as sureties is dated February 18, 1761 (Chalkley, III, 6 i ). On August 18, 1767, John Wahub's bond with Joseph Vachub and Henry Gay, sureties, as administrator of William Gay was approved and in the same year William Gay's estate was appraised (Chalkley, III, 99, 103). I find no record of the name of this William's wife but from the appear- ance of the Vachub family above and in the references below one might guess that this William had a Vachub wife rather than the other or perhaps, as well as the other. Of children I find no mention beyond William2 (Wil- liam,1 who d. I 767). On March I 5, 1768, William Gay, orphan of William Gay, deceased, was bound to John Wahub (Chalkley, I, 145). He was probably the William Gay who was in the Company of Capt. Kinkead, from Augusta, in the Revolution (Gwathmey). In 1779 a William Gay was on a petition against a new county west of the Shenandoah Mt. (Morton, Bath, I70).

In 1782 a William Gay was a Rockbridge taxable with only one horse to his credit (Morton, Rockbridge, 372). In I785, a William Gay was returned "no inhabitant" in Augusta (Chalkley, I, 243). However, on September 27, 1785, William Gay and Mary Craig, daughter of Alex. Craig, were married by the Rev. Archibald Scott. On their marriage bond William Armstrong was surety and John Elliott, witness (Chalkley, II, 28 I, 346). On July I 7, 1787, there was a report in Augusta of persons who had refused to give their taxes to a Commissioner, which included Wm. Guy and Joanes Henderson (Chalkley, I, 250).

It will be recalled that Joanes Henderson was the father-in-law of Henry3 Gay. In I 790 among the "Insolvents and Delinquents" in Vance's District, we find: Alex. Craig, Sr., removed to French Broad [Tennessee]; Henry Gay, do; William Gay, do (Chalkley, II, 425). And yet under date of August i6, I79I, we find an Augusta order that depositions were to be taken of William Gay and Joseph Wahub, about to remove to Kentucky (Chalkley, I, 266). The foregoing references are by no means consistent and it is not impossible that we are here concerned with two Williams and not with one, but if there is a second to deal with I do not know where to place him and it is clear that who- ever he was, he had some connection with other Gays, particularly the Henry Gay family.