Benjamin Gilbert and Elizabeth Walton
Husband Benjamin Gilbert 1 2
Born: Abt 1711 Christened: Died: 8 Jun 1780 3 Buried:
Father: Joseph Gilbert (Abt 1675-1765) 4 Mother: Rachel Taylor (1664- ) 4
Marriage: 1760 1
Other Spouse: Sarah Mason ( -1759) 1 - 1731 1
Wife Elizabeth Walton 1
Born: 1725 1 Christened: Died: 1810 1 Buried:
Father: Benjamin Walton ( - ) 1 Mother: Rebecca Homer ( - ) 1
Other Spouse: Bryan Peart ( - ) 1
Children
1 M Jesse Gilbert 1
Born: 4 May 1761 1 Christened: Died: 10 Mar 1829 1 Buried:Spouse: Sarah Harding ( - ) 1 Marr: 26 Mar 1780 1
2 F Rebecca Gilbert 1
Born: 1763 1 Christened: Died: 23 Aug 1842 1 Buried:Spouse: Joseph Rakestraw ( - ) 1 Marr: 29 Aug 1785 1
3 M Abner Gilbert 1 2 5
Born: 2 Mar 1765 1 Christened: Died: 31 May 1831 1 Buried:Spouse: Ann Cooper (1768-1846) 1 5 Marr: 18 Jan 1799 1
4 F Elizabeth Gilbert 1
Born: 14 Sep 1767 1 Christened: Died: 26 Dec 1857 1 Buried:Spouse: David Webster ( - ) 1 Marr: 1786 1
General Notes: Husband - Benjamin Gilbert
He settled on a farm which his father purchased for him in Richland, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where eight of his children were born. In 1749 he removed to a mill in Makefield, Bucks County, but in 1755, at the request of his father, returned to Byberry to take charge of the farm. He also purchased, in 1758, a farm of about one hundred and thirty-six acres near his father's, and erected a mill thereon to which he removed the next year. His mind was not wholly absorbed in his business, and in 1748 he published a pamphlet of forty-eight pages in defense of the principles of the Society of Friends regarding war. Again, in 1769, he published a volume of about two hundred and fifty pages on "perfection" and "universal redemption," followed in 1770 by a volume of one hundred and thirty-nine pages on these and cognate subjects. By the will of his father Benjamin Gilbert inherited the homestead in Byberry.
Either from a love of change or to provide a large estate for his younger children, he disposed of his mill property in Byberry, in the spring of 1775, and soon after removed to lands he purchased on Mahoning creek, in Northampton (later Carbon) County, Pennsylvania, about nine miles from the Lehigh river and on the frontiers of the settlements in Pennsylvania. Here he erected a dwelling house, barn and grist and saw mills, and seemed to be in prosperous circumstances, but on the 25th of the 4th month, 1780, about sunrise, a party of eleven Indians appeared on the scene and made prisoners of Benjamin Gilbert, Elizabeth his wife, their four children, Jesse, Rebecca, Abner and Elizabeth; Thomas and Benjamin Peart, sons of Elizabeth Gilbert; Joseph Gilbert, son of Benjamin by his first wife; Sarah Gilbert, wife of Jesse, recently married; Elizabeth Peart, wife of Benjamin, and their infant child, Elizabeth; Benjamin Gilbert, aged eleven, son of John Gilbert, of Philadelphia; Andrew Harrigar, a hired man of Benjamin Gilbert, and Abigail Dodson, a neighbor's daughter, who had come that morning to the mill; in all fifteen persons. After securing such plunder as they wished the Indians set fire to the buildings and hastened away with their captives toward Niagara, which they reached about a month later. On this journey the prisoners suffered great hardships as well as much abuse, and Benjamin Gilbert was condemned to death, but through the earnest pleadings of his wife the savages were induced to abandon their design. According to the custom they were compelled to "run the gauntlet," upon their arrival at the Indian town, and with clubs and stones they were sorely beaten and bruised. Through the kind intervention of the British officers at Niagara Fort Benjamin Gilbert, his wife, their son Jesse and his wife were soon released, and not long after were sent down the St. Lawrence by boat to Montreal; but owing to the hardships through which he had passed and the exposure in open boats, Benjamin Gilbert died on 6 Mo. 8, 1780, and was buried the next morning under an oak near the fort of Coeur de Lac (or Coteau du Lac). The other captives were mostly adopted by various families of Indians in the place of relatives who had been killed, and were for a time widely separated; but at length, through the persistent efforts of the mother and the aid of the British officers, all were liberated and in the year 1782 were enabled to return to their former home and kindred. A narrative of their captivity, compiled by William Walton, believed to have been a brother to Elizabeth Gilbert, was published in 1784, and several editions have since appeared; the latest and best being issued by The Burrowes Brothers Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904. The Gilberts being connected with many of the prominent families of Byberry and vicinity, their capture caused much excitement as well as sorrow and anxiety.
Benjamin Gilbert, Jr., son of the captive, learning that his relatives were in the neighborhood of Montreal, made his way thither about the time the last of them had obtained their release, and assisted them in their homeward journey. They did not return to the Mahoning settlement, but to Byberry, where they arrived 9 Mo. 28, 1782. Two of Elizabeth Gilbert's brothers, Benjamin and Daniel Walton, who married her step-daughters, removed to Fallowfield township, Chester County, and she spent the last years of her life in that vicinity.
Abner Gilbert was in his eighthteenth year when he returned from captivity to Byberry, the place of his nativity. When about nineteen or twenty he worked with Silas Parry at masoning; he also did something at coopering in the winters, and lived with his brother Jesse. He likewise took a share of his father's land in Byberry, but sold it and removed with Jesse Gilbert and his family to Fallowfield, Chester County, in 1791. His half-brother, Benjamin Gilbert, having purchased lands in Westmoreland county, had removed and settled there about 1787. Benjamin owned a mill and farm in those parts, and being advanced in years and having no children persuaded Abner to come and superintend his business, with expectation of making him his principal heir. Accordingly the latter went there in the spring of 1798, and being pleased with the prospect returned eastward about the close of the year to get a wife in the person of Ann Cooper, of Sadsbury, Lancaster County. They should have been married according to the discipline of Friends, which required a declaration of their intentions about five weeks prior to the wedding, but there being reasons for an early return to Westmoreland County they took the shorter method of marriage by a justice of the peace, on the 18th of 1st Mo., 1799, and made the journey to their future home by horseback in mid-winter. There being much snow that year the bride did not see the earth for several weeks after her arrival. They made an acknowledgment to Friends for the way of their marriage and were ever after members in good standing of the Sewickley Meeting. Abner Gilbert realized the inheritance of a large portion of Benjamin's estate. This included a tract of nearly three hundred acres in Huntingdon township (now Sewickley), patented to James Hunter, of Philadelphia, June 9, 1772, under the name of "Clover Hill." "Abner Gilbert departed this life the 31st day of the 5th month, 1831, aged about sixty-five (66) years; and his memory is precious to his surviving friends, relatives and acquaintances, as a sincere Christian and an upright-hearted honest man."
General Notes: Wife - Elizabeth Walton
She was born 3 Mo. 27, 1725; and died 8 Mo. 5, 1810.
1 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 472.
2 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 373.
3 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 473.
4 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 471.
5
J. Smith Futhey & Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881), Pg 503.
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