Benjamin Duncan was born 1764 in Kentucky, Franklin County99, and died September 09, 1820 in Kentucky, Anderson County - age 56. He married (1) Mary Bennett on February 14, 1789 in Mercer County, Kentucky. He married (2) Susannah Hawkins on November 09, 1816 in Franklin County, Kentucky, daughter of Mathew Hawkins and Hannah Maxwell.
Notes for Benjamin Duncan: Three years after Mercer County, Kentucky formed Benjamin Duncan married Mary "Polly" Bennett February 14, 1789. Benjamin purchased land on the Salt River in the early 1800s. Mary and Benjamin had at least seven children. Their last child Chloe was born in 1813. Benjamin's wife Mary died between 1813 and 1816 leaving him with at least one small child to care for.
November 9th, 1816 Benjamin married Susannah Hawkins Kilby. She was a widow with six children, five daughters under the age of ten and a son older than ten. Benjamin and Susannah had two sons Matthew and Mark. When Benjamin died September 9, 1820 Matthew was three and Mark was six months old. Susannah continued to live on the farm where she raised her children. After Susannah's death in 1845 Matthew bought Mark's share of the land and raised his children on the farm that his father Benjamin had bought. Mark and his wife Maria Bright moved west, first to Missouri then on to California.
DUNCAN RESEARCH NOTES: By Rosemary Webb Letter of Elizabeth Duncan In the genealogy room at the Anderson Public Library in Lawrenceburg, Ky I found 2 letters written to Wyatt Shely (an Anderson Co. historian who wrote for the Anderson News) by Elizabeth Duncan, daughter of William A Duncan who was the oldest son on Matthew & Mariah Duncan. Elizabeth Duncan, great granddaughter of Benjamin, was given the notes her sister had taken from their father William Duncan about his grandfather Benjamin. The letters were written October 16, 1969 and November 10, 1969"
She quotes from her sister's note "Benjamin Duncan married a widow Hawkins in Culpeper County, VA., she being his third wife." she goes on the say "he did not mention the names of the 2 earlier wives but did give names of his children but did not say to which wife they belonged. They were Nimrod, Sam, John and William. He gave the names of the two sons of Susannah Hawkins Duncan and Benjamin as Matthew and Mark but did not mention names of daughters which the will of Susannah mentions. There was no mention of the parents of Benjamin. My father gave the birth date of Benjamin as 1735 which is most unlikely as this date would make him rather an old man when he married Susannah with subsequent issue of several children...my father said that Benjamin Duncan came to Kentucky in 1787, settled on Salt River in Lincoln County, which is now Anderson...Family hearsay says he came from Culpeper County Virginia where he married Susannah Hawkins a widow, date not given...The brothers of Benjamin, Mark and Matthew fought with Braddock in Pennsylvania in 1755. No proof...could be my father has a vivid imagination, who knows...My father William, eldest child and son of Matthew and Maria Reynolds, was mentally alert in 1929, and there should be some credence to his names and dates, although he must be wrong about Benjamin's birth date...My father said he came to Kentucky in the late 1700's but have been unable to find any record of him in any census of Virginia or Kentucky, which is not unusual." (Signed) Betty Duncan -(Elizabeth B Duncan)
My conclusions: 1. When William M Duncan (1858-1941) gave this information to his daughter in 1929 he was 71 and lived another 11 years. As she said there should be some credence in the names & dates he gave. 2. Perhaps Benjamin was really this old and born in 1735 instead of 1764. This would have made him 81 when he married Susannah and not impossible to still father children. The 1810 Anderson Co. Census lists him as over 45...but it doesn't tell us how old he is. 3. Sons mentioned...Sam, John and William were not children of Mary Bennett who he married in 1789 so perhaps there was an earlier marriage. 4. If Benjamin actually had brothers, Matthew & Mark who fought with General Braddock in Pennsylvania during the French & Indian War in 1755 he most likely would have been older.
More About Benjamin Duncan: Census: 1810, Franklin County, Kentucky, page 123 - 1 male over 45.
More About Benjamin Duncan and Mary Bennett: Marriage: February 14, 1789, Mercer County, Kentucky. Marriage bondsman: 1789, Samuel Nay; Teste - Sanford Bennett.100
More About Benjamin Duncan and Susannah Hawkins: Marriage: November 09, 1816, Franklin County, Kentucky.
Benjamin Duncan (b. 1764, d. September 09, 1820)
Notes for Benjamin Duncan: