Felix Haywood Gilbert, Sr.

A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA. DAR Ancestor # A045096

Felix Heywood Gilbert was the younger son of Felix, Sr.

In his will he named four married daughters and two sons. William Grant Gilbert was the oldest son.

Reubin Wright was one of the witnesses on the will.

The will was proven on February 24, 1801.

Images 203 and 204.

JEFFERSON PAPERS

Augusta County, Virginia, 1769

(Memorandum Books, 1769)

19. William Waterson49 (Augusta) v. Felix Gilbert (Augusta). Enter petn. for 230 acres Augusta on Cub run patd. by def. June 5. 1765. for cult. impr. and Q. rents.

49. Here is the first set of multiple caveats and petitions brought by a group of TJ’s [Thomas Jefferson's] clients who had their eyes on nothing less than all the delinquent lands in Augusta County (see MB 29 July 1769, legal notations). Besides William Waterson, the group consisted of Hugh Donaghe, Andrew Johnston, and John Madison, Jr., whom TJ called the “primum mobile” (MB 15 Oct. 1769, legal notations). This “company,” as TJ termed it, was completely unsuccessful and, after filing almost 500 actions, TJ received in fee only two horses worth a total of £55 for his “very great trouble in these matters” (Case Book, Nos. 211-15). For a full discussion of this massive land scheme, see Dewey, Jefferson Lawyer, p. 35-44.

Memorandum Books, 1771

WASHINGTON PAPERS

To George Washington from Godfrey Bumgardner, 30 October 1796

Footnote 4: "Augusta County [Virginia] merchant Felix Gilbert served as a justice of that county in the 1760s. Around 1786, he moved to Wilkes County, Georgia."

Diary Entry: September 30th, 1784

30th. Set out early—Captn. Hite returning home and travelled 11 or 12 Miles along the River, until I had passed thro’ the gap. Then bearing more westerly by one Bryan’s 1—the widow Smiths 2 and one Gilberts,3 I arrived at Mr. Lewis’s about Sundown, after riding about 40 Miles—leaving Rockingham C[our]t House to my right about 2 Miles.4

Footnote 3: Felix Gilbert for many years kept a store near Cub Run about five miles southeast of Harrisonburg. Although an Augusta County justice as early as 1763, he did not become a Rockingham justice when the new county was formed. In May 1778 the Rockingham County court “convicted him of speaking treasonable words” against the Patriot cause (CHALKLEY, 2:364). He apparently moved to Wilkes County, Ga., about 1786 after empowering an agent to collect the many debts owed him in Rockingham (John Preston to Francis Preston, 26 Dec. 1786, PRESTON, 47; WAYLAND [2], 219).

To George Washington from Peter Hog, 14 May 1756

[T]his afternoon Felix Gilberts9 Came up from Armstrongs & told me that on Wed. Evening Nicolas Canute being out a hunting as he sat on a tree to Listen for his Dogs was Shot at by 5 dift pieces. [O]n starting up he saw an Indn running up to him wt. a Tomhawk & another rung a Cross to head him.

Footnote 9: In 1756 a man named Felix Gilbert was a soldier in Capt. George Wilson’s Augusta militia company. He was probably the same man who later became a merchant in Augusta County, a justice of the county, and a member of the Augusta Parish vestry.