BENJAMIN GILBERT, JR

By: M.K. Gilbert Jr.

Benjamin Gilbert, Jr. was a Revolutionary War soldier from Bedford County, Virginia, who 
served in the Southern theater of the war.  From his sworn declaration, which is in the 
National Archives in Washington, D.C., and a copy of which is in the library of the Carroll 
County Historical Society, in McKenzie, Tennessee, we know that he was at a  general muster	 
in Campbell County, Virginia and that he was at the Battle of Guilford County House, North 
Carolina, as also were his brother, Michael Gilbert, and Benjamin's future brother-in-law, 
John McKenzie.
At the close of the war Benjamin married Emily McKenzie in Campbell County, Virginia 
in 1783, and they moved to the State of Georgia, near the present town of Sparta.  Emily's
brother, John McKenzie, also a Virginian, also settled in the same locality in Georgia and 
there in 1792 he married Martha (Patsy)Bonner who was also from Virginia.
Benjamin and Emily Gilbert resided in Georgia for nearly thirty years and raised a family 
of five sons and six daughters.  Then about the year 1815 they took up residence in Kentucky
near the present town of Mattoon in Crittenden County.  In the 1820's some of them, 
including Benjamin and Emily, moved southward and were among the earliest settlers of 
present Weakley and Carroll counties, Tennessee.  John and Patsy McKenzie also left Georgia,
in 1816 or 1817, and after residing in Maury County, Tennessee for about eleven years, they
also moved to the Weakley - Carroll area of Tennessee, arriving there in 1828.  Later the 
town of McKenzie was named for a member of their family.
Benjamin and Emilly Glbert lived out their lives in Weakley and Carroll Counties.  He died 
about 1832 and she died about 1845.  Some of their sons and daughters married and raised 
families in the area, and some present-day residents may recognize themselves or their 
neighbors as descendants.
The sons of Benjamin and Emily Gilbert married as follows; Robert married Matilda Fowler, 
Jonathan married Frances Busey, Molton married Nancy Cain, Martin married Elizabeth Boyd, 
Randle returned to Georgia, and we do not know his wife's name.
The daughters of Benjamin and Emilly Gilbert married as follows; Betty married Barney C. 
Kyle, Sally married Byas Hogard, Annie married Ryland Heath, Nancy married Harrison Ezzell,
Jemima Exa married William H. McLeskey,  Martha married Mr. Bomar.
Through the marriages of their daughters and granddaughters, Benjamin and Emilly Gilbert 
have had descendants who family names included the following:  Abernathy, Allen, Bomar, 
Bowman, Brantley, Bristow, Brooks, Brown, Burnett, Carnahan, Collier, Cooper, Costen, 
Covington, Cowan, Cox, Crider, Davis, Duvall, Everett, Ezzell, Fisk, Forbis, Ford, Fritts, 
Gilkey, Grady, Granade, Halliburton, Harris, Haynes, Heath, Henderson, Hendrix, Herron, 
Hobbs, Hogard, Holland, Hughes, Hunter, Holloman, Howerton, Ikard, Kneiss, Kyle, Lowery, 
Maxwell, May, McChesney, McClanahan, McDonald, McLeskey, McNelley, McRae, Meade, Munday, 
Peebles, Perdue, Phillips, Quaid, Randle, Rosenkranz, Ross, Seele, Shannon, Simonton, 
Slayton, Smith, Snead, Stolts, Stroish, Thomas, Truitt, Vaughan, Weldon, Wilborn, Wiley, 
William, Yarno, and others.