William Gilbert

William Gilbert

William Gilbert, of Scotch-Irish (Ulster-Scot) heritage, came to America and settled first in Philadelphia, where he met and married Sarah McCanless, who was born there in 1737. They traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, from Philadelphia and then came to Old Tryon County.

In 1777 and 1778, he was assessor of taxes and, in 1778, collector of taxes. Mr. Gilbert held the office of justice of the peace in Old Tryon County, taking his seat in July, 1778. In 1779, he represented Tryon in the North Carolina House of Commons.

On February 8th, 1779, he was forced to resign his commission as justice of the peace on the charge of duplicating his vouchers as commissary of militia of Tryon County. His guilt or innocence can never be known. Despite the charge, when Rutherford County was formed from Old Tryon, Gilbert represented the new county in the North Carolina House of Commons. He was selected in 1779, 1780, 1782, and 1783.

Gilbert was appointed justice of the peace for Rutherford County in 1781. At the October, 1781, term of the Rutherford County Court, he was chosen chairman of the court. The court vindicated him of the legislative charge of duplicating his vouchers by an order in October 1781, reading "On motion of William Gilbert, Esq., and testimony produced to the satisfaction of the court, it is ordered that the opinion of the court be entered on the records, to-wit: It is the opinion of the court that the said William Gilbert is not guilty of the charge laid against to the General Assembly, and we do certify that the said William Gilbert never plundered, nor was guilty of plundering, to our knowledge."

Gilbert was charged with treason, because Ferguson used the Gilbert home as his headquarters. Lyman Draper in his definitive history, King's Mountain and Its Heroes, on page 159, states Gilbert "was a Loyal friend of King George." In 1897, Flournoy Rivers wrote in a Nashville newspaper that "Draper seemed to have presumed that Gilbert was a Loyalist simply because Major Ferguson camped at Gilbert Town, as though an invading army would ever quarter on a friend while in an enemy's country. As a fact, the Assembly was then sitting at Hillsborough and Gilbert, being the county's representative in the House of Commons, was most likely absent there, and Ferguson, in his absence, most probably quartered on [Gilbert] as an object lesson by way of making treason odious, as it were."

http://www.overmountainvictory.org/Gtown.htm

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/14365239/person/105931827/media/1

Gilbert Town Makes National Register

August - September 2006 , Gilbert Town, Rutherford, NC

RUTHERFORDTON -- Gilbert Town, the site of the first county sear in North Carolina, has been listed on the prestigious Nation Register of Historic Places. The public will have an opportunity to celebrate the new designation on Oct. 5 at 9 a.m. at a gathering of historians at the Tanner Companies property near Gilbert Town. Rutherford County historians will join re-enactors of the Overmountain Victory Trail Marchers as they recreate their days in the area while on the way to Kings Mountain;. The marchers camped at Gilbert Town on Oct. 4, 1789, enroute to Kings Mountain where the Revolutionary War battle at Kings Mountain was fought. Historians consider the battle the turning point of the Revolutionary War.

The designation has been an ongoing project for 3 and 1/2 years, said Rutherford County Historical Society President Robin Lattimore. County Historian Nancy Ferguson, a long-time champion of Gilbert Town and of its significance both to the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War, began a process for the national delegation, said Heritage Tourism Executive Director Frankie McWhorter. "I am glad and I'm proud of Rutherford County's heritage," Ferguson said. "We have the most Revoltionary War heritage of any other place in the southeaster United States," Ferguson added. She has researched history regarding Gilbert Town for many years.

In order to recieve the designation on the National Register, Ferguson requested a grant application. Once prepared, it went to the American Battlefield Protection Agency, a branch of the National Park Service, US Department of Interior, to secure funds to hire a consultant to develop an application to the National Register.

The Historical Marker reads:

GILBERT TOWN

Established in 1779

The first county seat of Rutherford County, also the first county seat in Western North Carolina. Name for William Gilbert

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https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/gilbert-william

William Gilbert, legislator and Revolutionary War figure, was born in Ireland and as an infant was brought to Massachusetts by his parents. In Pennsylvania, about 1760, he married Sarah McCandless against her parents' wishes and moved to western North Carolina. Beginning in 1769, he purchased land and cattle until he became the largest taxpayer and property holder in Tryon (now Rutherford) County. Gilbert paid the passage of a number of Irish laborers whom he employed in his farming endeavors. His home and farms became known as Gilbert Town.

Active in local politics, Gilbert served as juror, justice of the peace, and member of the court of pleas and quarter sessions from 1770 to 1775. In 1775, he and twenty-five other Whigs signed the "Association Oath" as members of the Tryon Committee of Public Safety. During the American Revolution he acted as a commissary for the militia in the Tryon area. In 1779 he represented Tryon County in the General Assembly, where he presented local bills and was concerned with the improvement of river navigation and Indian affairs. Later that year, after a six-month inquiry, he was expelled from the Assembly for "intentionally defrauding the publick." Rutherford County (created out of Tryon in 1779) immediately reelected him in 1780 and again in 1782 and 1783.

Gilbert Town was the highwater mark of Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ferguson's northward advance in September 1780. Ferguson kept his troops there because of Gilbert's reputation as a "warm Whig." Mrs. Gilbert also had used the home as an arms storage point for the Whigs. Controversy raged when wounded British Major James Dunlap, whom Ferguson left behind in the Gilbert home, was murdered by a group of avenging Whigs. After the Battle of Kings Mountain, Tory prisoners were executed at Gilbert Town. From 1775 to 1783, Gilbert continued to serve as justice of the peace, tax assessor and collector, and member and chairman of the Rutherford Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. His home, which also doubled as a tavern, was used as the county seat during this period.

In 1784, charges were again brought against Gilbert and the General Assembly, finding him guilty of forgery, removed him as justice of the peace in Rutherford. He sold his property to his son-in-law, North Carolina legislator Major James Holland, and moved to Charleston, S.C. There he lost a great deal of his property, and several of his children died in epidemics. Returning to Rutherford, he remained embattled in countless law suits over real estate and in personal disputes. After his death, this fiery Irishman's 5,000-acre tract in Tennessee and his land in North Carolina were snarled in litigation until 1806. Surviving him were his wife and three children, John, Alexander McCandless, and Sarah Gilbert Holland. Mrs. Gilbert died at Major Holland's home in Maury County, Tenn., on 22 Dec. 1822.