Bio under construction with new historical documents found. March 2023
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Image attached from book: "Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850" editor Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG. Willow Bend Books 2004. Heritage Books, Inc. Westminster, Maryland." pg 283.
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Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1788) was the daughter of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) and second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817). Tabitha was born in 1768 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, along the Virginia-North Carolina border as set out by British Colonist William Byrd (1728), the county of Pittsylvania itself carved from Halifax County just the year prior (1767). It was named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768, and who opposed some harsh colonial policies of the period. Maud Clement's 'History of Pittsylvania County' notes the following: "Its economy was tobacco-dominated and reliant on a growing slave labor force. It was a county without towns or a commercial center. Plantation villages on the major river thoroughfares were the only centers of trade, until the emergence of Danville (late 1790s)." Nestled in the fertile Virginia Piedmont region, it was Virginia's largest market for brightleaf tobacco. From this region, Tabitha's father, the Rev. William Murphy Sr, was a Baptist preacher, and, after the death of his first wife Martha Hodges (1724-1761), was married to second young wife Sarah Barton (1748-1817).
Sarah née Barton Murphy's paternal grandfather Isaac Barton (1680-1721) had come from County Clare, Ireland to Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1714 with wife Sarah née Vesey Barton (1685-) of County Limerick. Married in 1705, they were Irish Quakers. Sarah née Barton Murphy's father, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) was one of their seven children, born Quaker. But his dad, Isaac Barton died soon thereafter in 1721, and his mom Sarah née Vesey Barton left the Society of Friends (not without her Philadelphia community trying in earnest to convince her otherwise - see her memorial page for images & transcripts of Meeting minutes) to marry Robert Jones in 1722, the new family moved with little 3-4yr old Joshua/Josiah to Frederick County, Maryland, so he wasn't raised Quaker, but Protestant of some denomination. It was in Frederick County, Maryland that Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) married Jean/Jane duBart (1725-1760) in 1741, and Sarah née Barton Murphy was born in 1748. The family moved further south after Sarah's mother died when Sarah was only about 12, father Joshua/Josiah remarried & had them going between Rowan County, North Carolina & Franklin County, Virginia (he also went on separate expeditions to Kentucky where he died), whereby Sarah was in the area to meet the man who became her husband and Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy, married circa 1766 in Halifax County, Virginia (the spot where they married likely being the same place their first child Tabitha here was born in 1768 in Pittsylania County, newly formed from Halifax County in 1767).
When Tabitha was only 6-7 years old, the American Revolution descended upon the family (1775-1783) in Virginia. Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) was Loyal to the Crown on the side of the occupying British in the American Colonies; three other direct Murphy relations were also engaged in the conflict. Tabitha's older half-brother, also Rev William Murphy (1759-1833) Jr, fought on the side of American Independence, a Rebel. Some references place his full-brother Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) on the side of the Tories like their dad, but Joseph's own headstone and military records show he fought for Independence with the Virginia Militia. (It was an *Uncle* Joseph Murphy who was on the side of the English. The two different men have been confused.) Likewise, a David Murphy is sometimes noted as one of the brothers fighting for the British, but Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) had a son by second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy who was a full-but-younger-brother to our Tabitha here, called David Murphy (1770-1843) [Rev David Murphy Sr], who was far too young to be a fighting Loyalist or Rebel in the war 1775-1783. So that reference must also be to an uncle, misplaced generationally. Tabitha's eldest half-brother John Murphy's (1752-1818) service record isn't yet located. -- Not surprisingly, it actually appears that the older generation stayed Loyal to the Crown, while the younger generation of men sought Independence as a new country.
When Tabitha was 14-15yrs old, after the war ended in 1783, establishing the United States as a nation, her father the Baptist preacher Rev William Murphy Sr left Virginia with his family and settled near Knoxville, Tennessee. Amongst the Murphy Family who went to Knox County at that time were his second wife, Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817), their (7) children born in Virginia who were full-siblings [Tabitha (b.1768), David (b.1770), Sarah (b.1771), Dubart (b.1773), Isaac (b.1777), Jesse (b.abt 1782), & Richard (b.abt 1783)], and the (4) older children by William's first late wife Martha née Hodges Murphy (1724-1761) [John (b.1752), Keziah (b.1754), William (b.1759), & Joseph (b.1761), some already married & went with their little families].
It's there within a year of arrival that our
Miss Tabitha Murphy was married to Jesse Gentry abt 1784, at abt age 16. He was 11yrs older (1757-1834). He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, but seems to have gone to North Carolina for a few years before returning to Virginia, then on to Tennessee. Tabitha remained there in Knox County, Tennessee the remainder of her life. Her widow Jesse Gentry would go on to Kentucky.
-- For a moment, commentary on family that did not stay put in Knox County, Tennessee, because it gives clues to Tabitha née Murphy Gentry's life after marriage. "In 1795 a quartet of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1709), sons Rev William Murphy Jr (1759-1833) and Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) and by then grown son Rev David Murphy Sr (1770-1843), and a friend, Silas George, traveled to Missouri, which did not come under the American flag until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and become a state until 18 years later. Led by an Indian (sic) guide, the Murphys and George reached the present site of Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri. Spain then owning Missouri, granted 640 acres of land to whomever cleared it. The Murphys claimed their clearing, by Royal Decree in 1798, which became known as Murphy's Settlement. The father was given the area around Carter's Spring. {See the 5th Principal Meridian plots recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States, images on Sarah née Barton Murphy's page, belonging to SBM, Joseph Murphy, David Murphy & William Murphy, Jr.} Going back to Tennessee to retrieve his wife and any other children, young or wanting to join them, to all settle permanently on that land in Missouri, Rev. Murphy fell ill and died in 1799 at the house of his eldest son John Murphy (1752-1818) in Barren County, Kentucky. From waiting at the Knox County, Tennessee family home for her husband who would never return, Sarah née Barton Murphy then "resolved to settle on the claim made in eastern Missouri to her deceased husband, Rev. William Murphy. To reach the pioneer community, she set out in a keel boat down the Holston River, accompanied by a crew of her three sons, Isaac, Jesse, and Dubart, her only (surviving) daughter, Sarah (née Murphy Evans), a grandson named William Evans, aged eight, a hired hand, a(n enslaved) woman and a(n enslaved) boy. They floated to the Tennessee River, and out into the Ohio to its mouth, and thence up the Mississippi with ropes and poles, to Ste. Genevieve, covering a distance of 1,000 miles or more. The country was then infested with Indians (sic), and much of the journey was made at night, while they hid in the underbrush during the day. From Ste. Genevieve they traveled over land twenty-eight miles west to their destination, which they reached on the 18th day of June, 1802... Sarah Barton Murphy became the leader in the community her husband and sons established. She is credited with organizing the first Protestant Sunday school west of the Mississippi River and donated an acre of the town for the site of a church built of logs. It was open to all Christians." - edited for clarity & syntax 2/2023 by Sis; Published by THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. March 27, 1936.
{Incidentally, the friend Silas George who was part of the initial quartet to scout Missouri, it was his relative William George (1786-1852) who had a daughter Mahala A. "Mable" George (1803-1872) that would grow up to marry that little 8yo grandson of Sarah née Barton Murphy, William Evans (1794- ), that took the daring river rides Tennessee to Missouri landing in 1802. While his mom Sarah née Murphy Evans' resting place is unknown, her son / Sarah née Barton Murphy's grandson William Evans' page is: MEMORIAL ID 185801452; his dad George Evans (possibly Walter Evans) dates & place are also unknown.}
Tabitha had remained in Knox County, Tennessee from her circa 1784 marriage to Jesse Gentry (1757-1834). It had long been considered without Primary Source that Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768- ) perished earlier in the calendar year of 1822, only because the first sighting of her referred to as "deceased" was in a Nov-1822 re-allotment deed of land originally bequeathed descendants by Tabitha's mother Sarah Barton Murphy (d.1817) However, an earlier definitive sighting, just mentioned above, in her mother Sarah née Barton Murphy's own narrative of going from Tennessee to Missouri 1801-1802, arriving in June 1802, with her "only daughter Sarah." This means that Tabitha was deceased before that voyage, not just by/in 1822. On the flat boat rivers trip from Knox County, Tennessee to Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri headed by widow Sarah née Barton Murphy was Tabitha's only full-sister, Sarah née Murphy Evans (1771 - ), who was three years younger than Tabitha. Therefore, Tabitha was definitely deceased before at least 1801.
Most likely, Tabitha died before 1790, barely 20 years old, after a second birth. Her first birth in 1785 at age 16-17. After only married in 1784 at 15-16. Her husband, Jesse Gentry (1757-1834), is tagged as father of other sons by another wife m.1794 by 1795, still in Knox County (Martin Gentry 1795, Rev Isaac Gentry 1799). Altogether, Jesse was purportedly father of 18 children with 3-4 wives in his 76-77yrs, and he would have already been over 30 when wife Tabitha died after only two children together. We know two kids together for sure because of an 1822 land decree.
When mother Sarah née Barton Murphy died in 1817, she bequeathed land in St Francois County, Missouri to children Jesse, Isaac, David, Richard, & Dubart Murphy, and the children as heirs of her by then both deceased daughters, Tabitha née Murphy Gentry & Sarah née Murphy Evans. In Nov-1822, Jesse Murphy was living in Arkansas Territory so sold brother Isaac Murphy his acreage in Missouri, and all of the heirs' allotments were reviewed. In the 1822 deed: "...sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry," are spelled out. Those two only legally recognized children of Tabitha née Murphy Gentry and Jesse Gentry were:
(1) Mary née Gentry Keith
b. May-1785 Knox Co, Tennessee
d. 1866 Knoxville, Knox Co, TN
m. John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861)
{daughter b.1814 Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy MEMORIAL ID 69304117 --
in 1860, 75yo Mary née Gentry Keith & 78yo husband as "Jno" (short for John or Jonathan) Keith, who was also born in VA, are on the Knox Co, TN, census living w their adult married daughter 46yo as "Eveline" née Keith Lucy, her husband & their 6 children, ages 28yrs to 8mos. It's the last census either Mary or John Keith are recorded. They died in 1866 & 1861, respectively, before the next census of 1870. They had been living in their own home in 1850 when they were 65 & 68 in Knox, before moving in w their daughter.}
(2) William Gentry
b.abt 1788, Knox Co, TN
d.aftr Sept-1833 deed doc (below)
{No further details on him yet found.}
Tabitha Murphy Gentry & Jesse Gentry's younger child, William Gentry, lived on at least another 11 years past the 1822 deed document (image attached) that reallocated William's maternal grandmother's original 1817 Will bequeathments (that of Sarah Barton Murphy). In the same book as that transcribed deed, on page 287, William, abt age 45, showed up moved southeast the Limestone County, Alabama. The deed Sept-1833 says the junior William (Gentry) gave his uncle, his late mother's elder half-brother, the senior William (Murphy) power of attorney. It is unknown what happened to William Gentry's interests when his elderly uncle William Murphy died less than two months later on 2-Nov-1833 back in St Francois County, Missouri. No further records on William Gentry yet found.
"A:576 10 September 1833, William Gentry of Limestone County, Alabama, son and legal heir of Tabitha Gentry, and Jesse Gentry, wife of said Jesse, and daughter of William and Sarah Murphy, nominated William Murphy Senr. of St. Francois County, to grant, bargain, sell and dispose of interest in tract of land."
{Tabitha did *not* give birth to sons Isaac b.1799 or Martin b.1795 by husband Jesse Gentry, as sometimes has been erroneously suggested, let alone his eldest boy also called Jesse Gentry b.1780 in North Carolina when Tabitha was only 11-12yrs old, still at her parent's Virginia home. Those are sons of other wives. There are as many as 16 other children, aside from Tabitha's verified two (Mary & William), that Jesse Gentry is said to have fathered during his 76-77yr lifetime of 1757-1834.}
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TRANSCRIPT FROM
ORIGINAL SOURCE DOCUMENT
Source: Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG, Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850 [Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2004], p. 283:
"A:58 26 November 1822, Jesse and Patsy Murphy of the Territory of Arkansas sold to Isaac Murphy of St. Francois, for $700, 200 arpents. This land became vested in Jesse as heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased, now in suit in St. Francois Circuit Court. [Partition on pp. 88-89 granted one part to Jesse Murphy left in his possession at the death of Sarah Murphy; second allotment to Isaac Murphy; third allotment of 82 acres to David Murphy, heir of Sarah, deceased, which was in the possession of David Murphy, Sen. at the death of Sarah; allotment four to Richard Murphy; fifth allotment of 100 acres to Dubart Murphy; sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry, heiress of Sarah Murphy, deceased; and seventh allotment to William Evans, only heir of Sarah Evans, deceased, and heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased. Partition reported on 1 December 1823. Appeal of heirs followed."
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Re: 200 arpents. "An arpent (French pronunciation: [aʁpɑ̃], sometimes called arpen) is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-metric French unit based on the Roman actus. It is used in Quebec, some areas of the United States that were part of French Louisiana, and in Mauritius and the Seychelles." -- When Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr, first scouted & then received the Royal Land Grant in 1798 of what would become the Murphy Family land referred to in the deed above (area of what we know as Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri, USA), it was pre-1820 Missouri Compromise admitting Missouri to the Union as a state in 1821, it was pre-1803 Louisiana Purchase by America from France, it was back in the final years of Spain and France volleying control of the region back and forth. Thus, the land was originally in arpents and then referred to in acres of allotments by the time the deed is being reallotted in 1822.
"French arpent land divisions are long narrow parcels of land, also called ribbon farms, usually found along the navigable streams of southern Louisiana, and also found along major waterways in other areas." (Such as the major tributary St. Francois River by Farmington that comes off the nearby mighty Mississippi River, not to mention plentiful good size streams throughout Farmington area.) "This system of land subdivision was begun by French settlers in the 18th century, according to typical French practice at the time and was continued by both the Spanish and by the American government after the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase... This method of land division provided each land-owner with river frontage as well as land suitable for cultivation and habitation."
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These are the 11 grandchildren of
Jesse Gentry (1757-1864) &
one of his wives
Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1790),
by one of their two children --
daughter & her husband --
of Mary née Gentry Keith (May-1785 - 1866) &
John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861):
(1) "Andy" Andrew Jackson Keith b.1805
MEMORIAL ID 100739206
m.Martha Ann Mitchell
(2) ? Pleasant Elizabeth Keith *or* Pleasant Gentry Keith, purportedly b.1806 [she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(3) ? Anna Crawford Keith, purportedly b.1809
[she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(4) ? Calvin Herd Keith, purportedly b.1812
[he's mentioned by family story, but can't find him in Source records]
(5) Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy b.1814
MEMORIAL ID 69304117
m.William Burl Lucy
(6) Russell Keith b.1815
MEMORIAL ID 100808290
m. Jane Harper
(7) Elmira D née Keith Miller b.1818
MEMORIAL ID 79672438
m.1.Robert Comer
m.2.Samuel Miller
(8) Mary Matilda "Matilda" née Keith Goddard b.1820
MEMORIAL ID 40231180
m. David Thomas Goddard
(9) John Wesley Keith b.1823
MEMORIAL ID 217593367
(10) Mary Catherine née Keith Johnson b.1825
MEMORIAL ID 36122512
m.Elkanah Johnson
(11) Eliza Jane née Keith Johnson b.1828
m.Jordan C Johnson
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Image attached from book: "Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850" editor Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG. Willow Bend Books 2004. Heritage Books, Inc. Westminster, Maryland." pg 283.
==
Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1788) was the daughter of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) and second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817). Tabitha was born in 1768 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, along the Virginia-North Carolina border as set out by British Colonist William Byrd (1728), the county of Pittsylvania itself carved from Halifax County just the year prior (1767). It was named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768, and who opposed some harsh colonial policies of the period. Maud Clement's 'History of Pittsylvania County' notes the following: "Its economy was tobacco-dominated and reliant on a growing slave labor force. It was a county without towns or a commercial center. Plantation villages on the major river thoroughfares were the only centers of trade, until the emergence of Danville (late 1790s)." Nestled in the fertile Virginia Piedmont region, it was Virginia's largest market for brightleaf tobacco. From this region, Tabitha's father, the Rev. William Murphy Sr, was a Baptist preacher, and, after the death of his first wife Martha Hodges (1724-1761), was married to second young wife Sarah Barton (1748-1817).
Sarah née Barton Murphy's paternal grandfather Isaac Barton (1680-1721) had come from County Clare, Ireland to Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1714 with wife Sarah née Vesey Barton (1685-) of County Limerick. Married in 1705, they were Irish Quakers. Sarah née Barton Murphy's father, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) was one of their seven children, born Quaker. But his dad, Isaac Barton died soon thereafter in 1721, and his mom Sarah née Vesey Barton left the Society of Friends (not without her Philadelphia community trying in earnest to convince her otherwise - see her memorial page for images & transcripts of Meeting minutes) to marry Robert Jones in 1722, the new family moved with little 3-4yr old Joshua/Josiah to Frederick County, Maryland, so he wasn't raised Quaker, but Protestant of some denomination. It was in Frederick County, Maryland that Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) married Jean/Jane duBart (1725-1760) in 1741, and Sarah née Barton Murphy was born in 1748. The family moved further south after Sarah's mother died when Sarah was only about 12, father Joshua/Josiah remarried & had them going between Rowan County, North Carolina & Franklin County, Virginia (he also went on separate expeditions to Kentucky where he died), whereby Sarah was in the area to meet the man who became her husband and Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy, married circa 1766 in Halifax County, Virginia (the spot where they married likely being the same place their first child Tabitha here was born in 1768 in Pittsylania County, newly formed from Halifax County in 1767).
When Tabitha was only 6-7 years old, the American Revolution descended upon the family (1775-1783) in Virginia. Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) was Loyal to the Crown on the side of the occupying British in the American Colonies; three other direct Murphy relations were also engaged in the conflict. Tabitha's older half-brother, also Rev William Murphy (1759-1833) Jr, fought on the side of American Independence, a Rebel. Some references place his full-brother Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) on the side of the Tories like their dad, but Joseph's own headstone and military records show he fought for Independence with the Virginia Militia. (It was an *Uncle* Joseph Murphy who was on the side of the English. The two different men have been confused.) Likewise, a David Murphy is sometimes noted as one of the brothers fighting for the British, but Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) had a son by second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy who was a full-but-younger-brother to our Tabitha here, called David Murphy (1770-1843) [Rev David Murphy Sr], who was far too young to be a fighting Loyalist or Rebel in the war 1775-1783. So that reference must also be to an uncle, misplaced generationally. Tabitha's eldest half-brother John Murphy's (1752-1818) service record isn't yet located. -- Not surprisingly, it actually appears that the older generation stayed Loyal to the Crown, while the younger generation of men sought Independence as a new country.
When Tabitha was 14-15yrs old, after the war ended in 1783, establishing the United States as a nation, her father the Baptist preacher Rev William Murphy Sr left Virginia with his family and settled near Knoxville, Tennessee. Amongst the Murphy Family who went to Knox County at that time were his second wife, Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817), their (7) children born in Virginia who were full-siblings [Tabitha (b.1768), David (b.1770), Sarah (b.1771), Dubart (b.1773), Isaac (b.1777), Jesse (b.abt 1782), & Richard (b.abt 1783)], and the (4) older children by William's first late wife Martha née Hodges Murphy (1724-1761) [John (b.1752), Keziah (b.1754), William (b.1759), & Joseph (b.1761), some already married & went with their little families].
It's there within a year of arrival that our
Miss Tabitha Murphy was married to Jesse Gentry abt 1784, at abt age 16. He was 11yrs older (1757-1834). He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, but seems to have gone to North Carolina for a few years before returning to Virginia, then on to Tennessee. Tabitha remained there in Knox County, Tennessee the remainder of her life. Her widow Jesse Gentry would go on to Kentucky.
-- For a moment, commentary on family that did not stay put in Knox County, Tennessee, because it gives clues to Tabitha née Murphy Gentry's life after marriage. "In 1795 a quartet of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1709), sons Rev William Murphy Jr (1759-1833) and Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) and by then grown son Rev David Murphy Sr (1770-1843), and a friend, Silas George, traveled to Missouri, which did not come under the American flag until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and become a state until 18 years later. Led by an Indian (sic) guide, the Murphys and George reached the present site of Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri. Spain then owning Missouri, granted 640 acres of land to whomever cleared it. The Murphys claimed their clearing, by Royal Decree in 1798, which became known as Murphy's Settlement. The father was given the area around Carter's Spring. {See the 5th Principal Meridian plots recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States, images on Sarah née Barton Murphy's page, belonging to SBM, Joseph Murphy, David Murphy & William Murphy, Jr.} Going back to Tennessee to retrieve his wife and any other children, young or wanting to join them, to all settle permanently on that land in Missouri, Rev. Murphy fell ill and died in 1799 at the house of his eldest son John Murphy (1752-1818) in Barren County, Kentucky. From waiting at the Knox County, Tennessee family home for her husband who would never return, Sarah née Barton Murphy then "resolved to settle on the claim made in eastern Missouri to her deceased husband, Rev. William Murphy. To reach the pioneer community, she set out in a keel boat down the Holston River, accompanied by a crew of her three sons, Isaac, Jesse, and Dubart, her only (surviving) daughter, Sarah (née Murphy Evans), a grandson named William Evans, aged eight, a hired hand, a(n enslaved) woman and a(n enslaved) boy. They floated to the Tennessee River, and out into the Ohio to its mouth, and thence up the Mississippi with ropes and poles, to Ste. Genevieve, covering a distance of 1,000 miles or more. The country was then infested with Indians (sic), and much of the journey was made at night, while they hid in the underbrush during the day. From Ste. Genevieve they traveled over land twenty-eight miles west to their destination, which they reached on the 18th day of June, 1802... Sarah Barton Murphy became the leader in the community her husband and sons established. She is credited with organizing the first Protestant Sunday school west of the Mississippi River and donated an acre of the town for the site of a church built of logs. It was open to all Christians." - edited for clarity & syntax 2/2023 by Sis; Published by THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. March 27, 1936.
{Incidentally, the friend Silas George who was part of the initial quartet to scout Missouri, it was his relative William George (1786-1852) who had a daughter Mahala A. "Mable" George (1803-1872) that would grow up to marry that little 8yo grandson of Sarah née Barton Murphy, William Evans (1794- ), that took the daring river rides Tennessee to Missouri landing in 1802. While his mom Sarah née Murphy Evans' resting place is unknown, her son / Sarah née Barton Murphy's grandson William Evans' page is: MEMORIAL ID 185801452; his dad George Evans (possibly Walter Evans) dates & place are also unknown.}
Tabitha had remained in Knox County, Tennessee from her circa 1784 marriage to Jesse Gentry (1757-1834). It had long been considered without Primary Source that Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768- ) perished earlier in the calendar year of 1822, only because the first sighting of her referred to as "deceased" was in a Nov-1822 re-allotment deed of land originally bequeathed descendants by Tabitha's mother Sarah Barton Murphy (d.1817) However, an earlier definitive sighting, just mentioned above, in her mother Sarah née Barton Murphy's own narrative of going from Tennessee to Missouri 1801-1802, arriving in June 1802, with her "only daughter Sarah." This means that Tabitha was deceased before that voyage, not just by/in 1822. On the flat boat rivers trip from Knox County, Tennessee to Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri headed by widow Sarah née Barton Murphy was Tabitha's only full-sister, Sarah née Murphy Evans (1771 - ), who was three years younger than Tabitha. Therefore, Tabitha was definitely deceased before at least 1801.
Most likely, Tabitha died before 1790, barely 20 years old, after a second birth. Her first birth in 1785 at age 16-17. After only married in 1784 at 15-16. Her husband, Jesse Gentry (1757-1834), is tagged as father of other sons by another wife m.1794 by 1795, still in Knox County (Martin Gentry 1795, Rev Isaac Gentry 1799). Altogether, Jesse was purportedly father of 18 children with 3-4 wives in his 76-77yrs, and he would have already been over 30 when wife Tabitha died after only two children together. We know two kids together for sure because of an 1822 land decree.
When mother Sarah née Barton Murphy died in 1817, she bequeathed land in St Francois County, Missouri to children Jesse, Isaac, David, Richard, & Dubart Murphy, and the children as heirs of her by then both deceased daughters, Tabitha née Murphy Gentry & Sarah née Murphy Evans. In Nov-1822, Jesse Murphy was living in Arkansas Territory so sold brother Isaac Murphy his acreage in Missouri, and all of the heirs' allotments were reviewed. In the 1822 deed: "...sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry," are spelled out. Those two only legally recognized children of Tabitha née Murphy Gentry and Jesse Gentry were:
(1) Mary née Gentry Keith
b. May-1785 Knox Co, Tennessee
d. 1866 Knoxville, Knox Co, TN
m. John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861)
{daughter b.1814 Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy MEMORIAL ID 69304117 --
in 1860, 75yo Mary née Gentry Keith & 78yo husband as "Jno" (short for John or Jonathan) Keith, who was also born in VA, are on the Knox Co, TN, census living w their adult married daughter 46yo as "Eveline" née Keith Lucy, her husband & their 6 children, ages 28yrs to 8mos. It's the last census either Mary or John Keith are recorded. They died in 1866 & 1861, respectively, before the next census of 1870. They had been living in their own home in 1850 when they were 65 & 68 in Knox, before moving in w their daughter.}
(2) William Gentry
b.abt 1788, Knox Co, TN
d.aftr Sept-1833 deed doc (below)
{No further details on him yet found.}
Tabitha Murphy Gentry & Jesse Gentry's younger child, William Gentry, lived on at least another 11 years past the 1822 deed document (image attached) that reallocated William's maternal grandmother's original 1817 Will bequeathments (that of Sarah Barton Murphy). In the same book as that transcribed deed, on page 287, William, abt age 45, showed up moved southeast the Limestone County, Alabama. The deed Sept-1833 says the junior William (Gentry) gave his uncle, his late mother's elder half-brother, the senior William (Murphy) power of attorney. It is unknown what happened to William Gentry's interests when his elderly uncle William Murphy died less than two months later on 2-Nov-1833 back in St Francois County, Missouri. No further records on William Gentry yet found.
"A:576 10 September 1833, William Gentry of Limestone County, Alabama, son and legal heir of Tabitha Gentry, and Jesse Gentry, wife of said Jesse, and daughter of William and Sarah Murphy, nominated William Murphy Senr. of St. Francois County, to grant, bargain, sell and dispose of interest in tract of land."
{Tabitha did *not* give birth to sons Isaac b.1799 or Martin b.1795 by husband Jesse Gentry, as sometimes has been erroneously suggested, let alone his eldest boy also called Jesse Gentry b.1780 in North Carolina when Tabitha was only 11-12yrs old, still at her parent's Virginia home. Those are sons of other wives. There are as many as 16 other children, aside from Tabitha's verified two (Mary & William), that Jesse Gentry is said to have fathered during his 76-77yr lifetime of 1757-1834.}
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TRANSCRIPT FROM
ORIGINAL SOURCE DOCUMENT
Source: Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG, Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850 [Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2004], p. 283:
"A:58 26 November 1822, Jesse and Patsy Murphy of the Territory of Arkansas sold to Isaac Murphy of St. Francois, for $700, 200 arpents. This land became vested in Jesse as heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased, now in suit in St. Francois Circuit Court. [Partition on pp. 88-89 granted one part to Jesse Murphy left in his possession at the death of Sarah Murphy; second allotment to Isaac Murphy; third allotment of 82 acres to David Murphy, heir of Sarah, deceased, which was in the possession of David Murphy, Sen. at the death of Sarah; allotment four to Richard Murphy; fifth allotment of 100 acres to Dubart Murphy; sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry, heiress of Sarah Murphy, deceased; and seventh allotment to William Evans, only heir of Sarah Evans, deceased, and heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased. Partition reported on 1 December 1823. Appeal of heirs followed."
==
Re: 200 arpents. "An arpent (French pronunciation: [aʁpɑ̃], sometimes called arpen) is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-metric French unit based on the Roman actus. It is used in Quebec, some areas of the United States that were part of French Louisiana, and in Mauritius and the Seychelles." -- When Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr, first scouted & then received the Royal Land Grant in 1798 of what would become the Murphy Family land referred to in the deed above (area of what we know as Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri, USA), it was pre-1820 Missouri Compromise admitting Missouri to the Union as a state in 1821, it was pre-1803 Louisiana Purchase by America from France, it was back in the final years of Spain and France volleying control of the region back and forth. Thus, the land was originally in arpents and then referred to in acres of allotments by the time the deed is being reallotted in 1822.
"French arpent land divisions are long narrow parcels of land, also called ribbon farms, usually found along the navigable streams of southern Louisiana, and also found along major waterways in other areas." (Such as the major tributary St. Francois River by Farmington that comes off the nearby mighty Mississippi River, not to mention plentiful good size streams throughout Farmington area.) "This system of land subdivision was begun by French settlers in the 18th century, according to typical French practice at the time and was continued by both the Spanish and by the American government after the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase... This method of land division provided each land-owner with river frontage as well as land suitable for cultivation and habitation."
==
These are the 11 grandchildren of
Jesse Gentry (1757-1864) &
one of his wives
Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1790),
by one of their two children --
daughter & her husband --
of Mary née Gentry Keith (May-1785 - 1866) &
John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861):
(1) "Andy" Andrew Jackson Keith b.1805
MEMORIAL ID 100739206
m.Martha Ann Mitchell
(2) ? Pleasant Elizabeth Keith *or* Pleasant Gentry Keith, purportedly b.1806 [she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(3) ? Anna Crawford Keith, purportedly b.1809
[she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(4) ? Calvin Herd Keith, purportedly b.1812
[he's mentioned by family story, but can't find him in Source records]
(5) Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy b.1814
MEMORIAL ID 69304117
m.William Burl Lucy
(6) Russell Keith b.1815
MEMORIAL ID 100808290
m. Jane Harper
(7) Elmira D née Keith Miller b.1818
MEMORIAL ID 79672438
m.1.Robert Comer
m.2.Samuel Miller
(8) Mary Matilda "Matilda" née Keith Goddard b.1820
MEMORIAL ID 40231180
m. David Thomas Goddard
(9) John Wesley Keith b.1823
MEMORIAL ID 217593367
(10) Mary Catherine née Keith Johnson b.1825
MEMORIAL ID 36122512
m.Elkanah Johnson
(11) Eliza Jane née Keith Johnson b.1828
m.Jordan C Johnson
Bio under construction with new historical documents found. March 2023
==
Image attached from book: "Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850" editor Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG. Willow Bend Books 2004. Heritage Books, Inc. Westminster, Maryland." pg 283.
==
Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1788) was the daughter of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) and second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817). Tabitha was born in 1768 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, along the Virginia-North Carolina border as set out by British Colonist William Byrd (1728), the county of Pittsylvania itself carved from Halifax County just the year prior (1767). It was named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768, and who opposed some harsh colonial policies of the period. Maud Clement's 'History of Pittsylvania County' notes the following: "Its economy was tobacco-dominated and reliant on a growing slave labor force. It was a county without towns or a commercial center. Plantation villages on the major river thoroughfares were the only centers of trade, until the emergence of Danville (late 1790s)." Nestled in the fertile Virginia Piedmont region, it was Virginia's largest market for brightleaf tobacco. From this region, Tabitha's father, the Rev. William Murphy Sr, was a Baptist preacher, and, after the death of his first wife Martha Hodges (1724-1761), was married to second young wife Sarah Barton (1748-1817).
Sarah née Barton Murphy's paternal grandfather Isaac Barton (1680-1721) had come from County Clare, Ireland to Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1714 with wife Sarah née Vesey Barton (1685-) of County Limerick. Married in 1705, they were Irish Quakers. Sarah née Barton Murphy's father, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) was one of their seven children, born Quaker. But his dad, Isaac Barton died soon thereafter in 1721, and his mom Sarah née Vesey Barton left the Society of Friends (not without her Philadelphia community trying in earnest to convince her otherwise - see her memorial page for images & transcripts of Meeting minutes) to marry Robert Jones in 1722, the new family moved with little 3-4yr old Joshua/Josiah to Frederick County, Maryland, so he wasn't raised Quaker, but Protestant of some denomination. It was in Frederick County, Maryland that Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) married Jean/Jane duBart (1725-1760) in 1741, and Sarah née Barton Murphy was born in 1748. The family moved further south after Sarah's mother died when Sarah was only about 12, father Joshua/Josiah remarried & had them going between Rowan County, North Carolina & Franklin County, Virginia (he also went on separate expeditions to Kentucky where he died), whereby Sarah was in the area to meet the man who became her husband and Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy, married circa 1766 in Halifax County, Virginia (the spot where they married likely being the same place their first child Tabitha here was born in 1768 in Pittsylania County, newly formed from Halifax County in 1767).
When Tabitha was only 6-7 years old, the American Revolution descended upon the family (1775-1783) in Virginia. Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) was Loyal to the Crown on the side of the occupying British in the American Colonies; three other direct Murphy relations were also engaged in the conflict. Tabitha's older half-brother, also Rev William Murphy (1759-1833) Jr, fought on the side of American Independence, a Rebel. Some references place his full-brother Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) on the side of the Tories like their dad, but Joseph's own headstone and military records show he fought for Independence with the Virginia Militia. (It was an *Uncle* Joseph Murphy who was on the side of the English. The two different men have been confused.) Likewise, a David Murphy is sometimes noted as one of the brothers fighting for the British, but Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) had a son by second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy who was a full-but-younger-brother to our Tabitha here, called David Murphy (1770-1843) [Rev David Murphy Sr], who was far too young to be a fighting Loyalist or Rebel in the war 1775-1783. So that reference must also be to an uncle, misplaced generationally. Tabitha's eldest half-brother John Murphy's (1752-1818) service record isn't yet located. -- Not surprisingly, it actually appears that the older generation stayed Loyal to the Crown, while the younger generation of men sought Independence as a new country.
When Tabitha was 14-15yrs old, after the war ended in 1783, establishing the United States as a nation, her father the Baptist preacher Rev William Murphy Sr left Virginia with his family and settled near Knoxville, Tennessee. Amongst the Murphy Family who went to Knox County at that time were his second wife, Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817), their (7) children born in Virginia who were full-siblings [Tabitha (b.1768), David (b.1770), Sarah (b.1771), Dubart (b.1773), Isaac (b.1777), Jesse (b.abt 1782), & Richard (b.abt 1783)], and the (4) older children by William's first late wife Martha née Hodges Murphy (1724-1761) [John (b.1752), Keziah (b.1754), William (b.1759), & Joseph (b.1761), some already married & went with their little families].
It's there within a year of arrival that our
Miss Tabitha Murphy was married to Jesse Gentry abt 1784, at abt age 16. He was 11yrs older (1757-1834). He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, but seems to have gone to North Carolina for a few years before returning to Virginia, then on to Tennessee. Tabitha remained there in Knox County, Tennessee the remainder of her life. Her widow Jesse Gentry would go on to Kentucky.
-- For a moment, commentary on family that did not stay put in Knox County, Tennessee, because it gives clues to Tabitha née Murphy Gentry's life after marriage. "In 1795 a quartet of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1709), sons Rev William Murphy Jr (1759-1833) and Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) and by then grown son Rev David Murphy Sr (1770-1843), and a friend, Silas George, traveled to Missouri, which did not come under the American flag until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and become a state until 18 years later. Led by an Indian (sic) guide, the Murphys and George reached the present site of Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri. Spain then owning Missouri, granted 640 acres of land to whomever cleared it. The Murphys claimed their clearing, by Royal Decree in 1798, which became known as Murphy's Settlement. The father was given the area around Carter's Spring. {See the 5th Principal Meridian plots recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States, images on Sarah née Barton Murphy's page, belonging to SBM, Joseph Murphy, David Murphy & William Murphy, Jr.} Going back to Tennessee to retrieve his wife and any other children, young or wanting to join them, to all settle permanently on that land in Missouri, Rev. Murphy fell ill and died in 1799 at the house of his eldest son John Murphy (1752-1818) in Barren County, Kentucky. From waiting at the Knox County, Tennessee family home for her husband who would never return, Sarah née Barton Murphy then "resolved to settle on the claim made in eastern Missouri to her deceased husband, Rev. William Murphy. To reach the pioneer community, she set out in a keel boat down the Holston River, accompanied by a crew of her three sons, Isaac, Jesse, and Dubart, her only (surviving) daughter, Sarah (née Murphy Evans), a grandson named William Evans, aged eight, a hired hand, a(n enslaved) woman and a(n enslaved) boy. They floated to the Tennessee River, and out into the Ohio to its mouth, and thence up the Mississippi with ropes and poles, to Ste. Genevieve, covering a distance of 1,000 miles or more. The country was then infested with Indians (sic), and much of the journey was made at night, while they hid in the underbrush during the day. From Ste. Genevieve they traveled over land twenty-eight miles west to their destination, which they reached on the 18th day of June, 1802... Sarah Barton Murphy became the leader in the community her husband and sons established. She is credited with organizing the first Protestant Sunday school west of the Mississippi River and donated an acre of the town for the site of a church built of logs. It was open to all Christians." - edited for clarity & syntax 2/2023 by Sis; Published by THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. March 27, 1936.
{Incidentally, the friend Silas George who was part of the initial quartet to scout Missouri, it was his relative William George (1786-1852) who had a daughter Mahala A. "Mable" George (1803-1872) that would grow up to marry that little 8yo grandson of Sarah née Barton Murphy, William Evans (1794- ), that took the daring river rides Tennessee to Missouri landing in 1802. While his mom Sarah née Murphy Evans' resting place is unknown, her son / Sarah née Barton Murphy's grandson William Evans' page is: MEMORIAL ID 185801452; his dad George Evans (possibly Walter Evans) dates & place are also unknown.}
Tabitha had remained in Knox County, Tennessee from her circa 1784 marriage to Jesse Gentry (1757-1834). It had long been considered without Primary Source that Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768- ) perished earlier in the calendar year of 1822, only because the first sighting of her referred to as "deceased" was in a Nov-1822 re-allotment deed of land originally bequeathed descendants by Tabitha's mother Sarah Barton Murphy (d.1817) However, an earlier definitive sighting, just mentioned above, in her mother Sarah née Barton Murphy's own narrative of going from Tennessee to Missouri 1801-1802, arriving in June 1802, with her "only daughter Sarah." This means that Tabitha was deceased before that voyage, not just by/in 1822. On the flat boat rivers trip from Knox County, Tennessee to Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri headed by widow Sarah née Barton Murphy was Tabitha's only full-sister, Sarah née Murphy Evans (1771 - ), who was three years younger than Tabitha. Therefore, Tabitha was definitely deceased before at least 1801.
Most likely, Tabitha died before 1790, barely 20 years old, after a second birth. Her first birth in 1785 at age 16-17. After only married in 1784 at 15-16. Her husband, Jesse Gentry (1757-1834), is tagged as father of other sons by another wife m.1794 by 1795, still in Knox County (Martin Gentry 1795, Rev Isaac Gentry 1799). Altogether, Jesse was purportedly father of 18 children with 3-4 wives in his 76-77yrs, and he would have already been over 30 when wife Tabitha died after only two children together. We know two kids together for sure because of an 1822 land decree.
When mother Sarah née Barton Murphy died in 1817, she bequeathed land in St Francois County, Missouri to children Jesse, Isaac, David, Richard, & Dubart Murphy, and the children as heirs of her by then both deceased daughters, Tabitha née Murphy Gentry & Sarah née Murphy Evans. In Nov-1822, Jesse Murphy was living in Arkansas Territory so sold brother Isaac Murphy his acreage in Missouri, and all of the heirs' allotments were reviewed. In the 1822 deed: "...sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry," are spelled out. Those two only legally recognized children of Tabitha née Murphy Gentry and Jesse Gentry were:
(1) Mary née Gentry Keith
b. May-1785 Knox Co, Tennessee
d. 1866 Knoxville, Knox Co, TN
m. John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861)
{daughter b.1814 Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy MEMORIAL ID 69304117 --
in 1860, 75yo Mary née Gentry Keith & 78yo husband as "Jno" (short for John or Jonathan) Keith, who was also born in VA, are on the Knox Co, TN, census living w their adult married daughter 46yo as "Eveline" née Keith Lucy, her husband & their 6 children, ages 28yrs to 8mos. It's the last census either Mary or John Keith are recorded. They died in 1866 & 1861, respectively, before the next census of 1870. They had been living in their own home in 1850 when they were 65 & 68 in Knox, before moving in w their daughter.}
(2) William Gentry
b.abt 1788, Knox Co, TN
d.aftr Sept-1833 deed doc (below)
{No further details on him yet found.}
Tabitha Murphy Gentry & Jesse Gentry's younger child, William Gentry, lived on at least another 11 years past the 1822 deed document (image attached) that reallocated William's maternal grandmother's original 1817 Will bequeathments (that of Sarah Barton Murphy). In the same book as that transcribed deed, on page 287, William, abt age 45, showed up moved southeast the Limestone County, Alabama. The deed Sept-1833 says the junior William (Gentry) gave his uncle, his late mother's elder half-brother, the senior William (Murphy) power of attorney. It is unknown what happened to William Gentry's interests when his elderly uncle William Murphy died less than two months later on 2-Nov-1833 back in St Francois County, Missouri. No further records on William Gentry yet found.
"A:576 10 September 1833, William Gentry of Limestone County, Alabama, son and legal heir of Tabitha Gentry, and Jesse Gentry, wife of said Jesse, and daughter of William and Sarah Murphy, nominated William Murphy Senr. of St. Francois County, to grant, bargain, sell and dispose of interest in tract of land."
{Tabitha did *not* give birth to sons Isaac b.1799 or Martin b.1795 by husband Jesse Gentry, as sometimes has been erroneously suggested, let alone his eldest boy also called Jesse Gentry b.1780 in North Carolina when Tabitha was only 11-12yrs old, still at her parent's Virginia home. Those are sons of other wives. There are as many as 16 other children, aside from Tabitha's verified two (Mary & William), that Jesse Gentry is said to have fathered during his 76-77yr lifetime of 1757-1834.}
==
TRANSCRIPT FROM
ORIGINAL SOURCE DOCUMENT
Source: Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG, Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850 [Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2004], p. 283:
"A:58 26 November 1822, Jesse and Patsy Murphy of the Territory of Arkansas sold to Isaac Murphy of St. Francois, for $700, 200 arpents. This land became vested in Jesse as heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased, now in suit in St. Francois Circuit Court. [Partition on pp. 88-89 granted one part to Jesse Murphy left in his possession at the death of Sarah Murphy; second allotment to Isaac Murphy; third allotment of 82 acres to David Murphy, heir of Sarah, deceased, which was in the possession of David Murphy, Sen. at the death of Sarah; allotment four to Richard Murphy; fifth allotment of 100 acres to Dubart Murphy; sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry, heiress of Sarah Murphy, deceased; and seventh allotment to William Evans, only heir of Sarah Evans, deceased, and heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased. Partition reported on 1 December 1823. Appeal of heirs followed."
==
Re: 200 arpents. "An arpent (French pronunciation: [aʁpɑ̃], sometimes called arpen) is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-metric French unit based on the Roman actus. It is used in Quebec, some areas of the United States that were part of French Louisiana, and in Mauritius and the Seychelles." -- When Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr, first scouted & then received the Royal Land Grant in 1798 of what would become the Murphy Family land referred to in the deed above (area of what we know as Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri, USA), it was pre-1820 Missouri Compromise admitting Missouri to the Union as a state in 1821, it was pre-1803 Louisiana Purchase by America from France, it was back in the final years of Spain and France volleying control of the region back and forth. Thus, the land was originally in arpents and then referred to in acres of allotments by the time the deed is being reallotted in 1822.
"French arpent land divisions are long narrow parcels of land, also called ribbon farms, usually found along the navigable streams of southern Louisiana, and also found along major waterways in other areas." (Such as the major tributary St. Francois River by Farmington that comes off the nearby mighty Mississippi River, not to mention plentiful good size streams throughout Farmington area.) "This system of land subdivision was begun by French settlers in the 18th century, according to typical French practice at the time and was continued by both the Spanish and by the American government after the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase... This method of land division provided each land-owner with river frontage as well as land suitable for cultivation and habitation."
==
These are the 11 grandchildren of
Jesse Gentry (1757-1864) &
one of his wives
Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1790),
by one of their two children --
daughter & her husband --
of Mary née Gentry Keith (May-1785 - 1866) &
John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861):
(1) "Andy" Andrew Jackson Keith b.1805
MEMORIAL ID 100739206
m.Martha Ann Mitchell
(2) ? Pleasant Elizabeth Keith *or* Pleasant Gentry Keith, purportedly b.1806 [she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(3) ? Anna Crawford Keith, purportedly b.1809
[she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(4) ? Calvin Herd Keith, purportedly b.1812
[he's mentioned by family story, but can't find him in Source records]
(5) Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy b.1814
MEMORIAL ID 69304117
m.William Burl Lucy
(6) Russell Keith b.1815
MEMORIAL ID 100808290
m. Jane Harper
(7) Elmira D née Keith Miller b.1818
MEMORIAL ID 79672438
m.1.Robert Comer
m.2.Samuel Miller
(8) Mary Matilda "Matilda" née Keith Goddard b.1820
MEMORIAL ID 40231180
m. David Thomas Goddard
(9) John Wesley Keith b.1823
MEMORIAL ID 217593367
(10) Mary Catherine née Keith Johnson b.1825
MEMORIAL ID 36122512
m.Elkanah Johnson
(11) Eliza Jane née Keith Johnson b.1828
m.Jordan C Johnson
==
Image attached from book: "Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850" editor Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG. Willow Bend Books 2004. Heritage Books, Inc. Westminster, Maryland." pg 283.
==
Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1788) was the daughter of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) and second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817). Tabitha was born in 1768 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, along the Virginia-North Carolina border as set out by British Colonist William Byrd (1728), the county of Pittsylvania itself carved from Halifax County just the year prior (1767). It was named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768, and who opposed some harsh colonial policies of the period. Maud Clement's 'History of Pittsylvania County' notes the following: "Its economy was tobacco-dominated and reliant on a growing slave labor force. It was a county without towns or a commercial center. Plantation villages on the major river thoroughfares were the only centers of trade, until the emergence of Danville (late 1790s)." Nestled in the fertile Virginia Piedmont region, it was Virginia's largest market for brightleaf tobacco. From this region, Tabitha's father, the Rev. William Murphy Sr, was a Baptist preacher, and, after the death of his first wife Martha Hodges (1724-1761), was married to second young wife Sarah Barton (1748-1817).
Sarah née Barton Murphy's paternal grandfather Isaac Barton (1680-1721) had come from County Clare, Ireland to Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1714 with wife Sarah née Vesey Barton (1685-) of County Limerick. Married in 1705, they were Irish Quakers. Sarah née Barton Murphy's father, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) was one of their seven children, born Quaker. But his dad, Isaac Barton died soon thereafter in 1721, and his mom Sarah née Vesey Barton left the Society of Friends (not without her Philadelphia community trying in earnest to convince her otherwise - see her memorial page for images & transcripts of Meeting minutes) to marry Robert Jones in 1722, the new family moved with little 3-4yr old Joshua/Josiah to Frederick County, Maryland, so he wasn't raised Quaker, but Protestant of some denomination. It was in Frederick County, Maryland that Joshua/Josiah Barton (1718-1779) married Jean/Jane duBart (1725-1760) in 1741, and Sarah née Barton Murphy was born in 1748. The family moved further south after Sarah's mother died when Sarah was only about 12, father Joshua/Josiah remarried & had them going between Rowan County, North Carolina & Franklin County, Virginia (he also went on separate expeditions to Kentucky where he died), whereby Sarah was in the area to meet the man who became her husband and Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy, married circa 1766 in Halifax County, Virginia (the spot where they married likely being the same place their first child Tabitha here was born in 1768 in Pittsylania County, newly formed from Halifax County in 1767).
When Tabitha was only 6-7 years old, the American Revolution descended upon the family (1775-1783) in Virginia. Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) was Loyal to the Crown on the side of the occupying British in the American Colonies; three other direct Murphy relations were also engaged in the conflict. Tabitha's older half-brother, also Rev William Murphy (1759-1833) Jr, fought on the side of American Independence, a Rebel. Some references place his full-brother Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) on the side of the Tories like their dad, but Joseph's own headstone and military records show he fought for Independence with the Virginia Militia. (It was an *Uncle* Joseph Murphy who was on the side of the English. The two different men have been confused.) Likewise, a David Murphy is sometimes noted as one of the brothers fighting for the British, but Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1799) had a son by second wife Sarah née Barton Murphy who was a full-but-younger-brother to our Tabitha here, called David Murphy (1770-1843) [Rev David Murphy Sr], who was far too young to be a fighting Loyalist or Rebel in the war 1775-1783. So that reference must also be to an uncle, misplaced generationally. Tabitha's eldest half-brother John Murphy's (1752-1818) service record isn't yet located. -- Not surprisingly, it actually appears that the older generation stayed Loyal to the Crown, while the younger generation of men sought Independence as a new country.
When Tabitha was 14-15yrs old, after the war ended in 1783, establishing the United States as a nation, her father the Baptist preacher Rev William Murphy Sr left Virginia with his family and settled near Knoxville, Tennessee. Amongst the Murphy Family who went to Knox County at that time were his second wife, Sarah née Barton Murphy (1748-1817), their (7) children born in Virginia who were full-siblings [Tabitha (b.1768), David (b.1770), Sarah (b.1771), Dubart (b.1773), Isaac (b.1777), Jesse (b.abt 1782), & Richard (b.abt 1783)], and the (4) older children by William's first late wife Martha née Hodges Murphy (1724-1761) [John (b.1752), Keziah (b.1754), William (b.1759), & Joseph (b.1761), some already married & went with their little families].
It's there within a year of arrival that our
Miss Tabitha Murphy was married to Jesse Gentry abt 1784, at abt age 16. He was 11yrs older (1757-1834). He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, but seems to have gone to North Carolina for a few years before returning to Virginia, then on to Tennessee. Tabitha remained there in Knox County, Tennessee the remainder of her life. Her widow Jesse Gentry would go on to Kentucky.
-- For a moment, commentary on family that did not stay put in Knox County, Tennessee, because it gives clues to Tabitha née Murphy Gentry's life after marriage. "In 1795 a quartet of Rev William Murphy Sr (1730-1709), sons Rev William Murphy Jr (1759-1833) and Joseph Murphy (1761-1834) and by then grown son Rev David Murphy Sr (1770-1843), and a friend, Silas George, traveled to Missouri, which did not come under the American flag until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and become a state until 18 years later. Led by an Indian (sic) guide, the Murphys and George reached the present site of Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri. Spain then owning Missouri, granted 640 acres of land to whomever cleared it. The Murphys claimed their clearing, by Royal Decree in 1798, which became known as Murphy's Settlement. The father was given the area around Carter's Spring. {See the 5th Principal Meridian plots recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States, images on Sarah née Barton Murphy's page, belonging to SBM, Joseph Murphy, David Murphy & William Murphy, Jr.} Going back to Tennessee to retrieve his wife and any other children, young or wanting to join them, to all settle permanently on that land in Missouri, Rev. Murphy fell ill and died in 1799 at the house of his eldest son John Murphy (1752-1818) in Barren County, Kentucky. From waiting at the Knox County, Tennessee family home for her husband who would never return, Sarah née Barton Murphy then "resolved to settle on the claim made in eastern Missouri to her deceased husband, Rev. William Murphy. To reach the pioneer community, she set out in a keel boat down the Holston River, accompanied by a crew of her three sons, Isaac, Jesse, and Dubart, her only (surviving) daughter, Sarah (née Murphy Evans), a grandson named William Evans, aged eight, a hired hand, a(n enslaved) woman and a(n enslaved) boy. They floated to the Tennessee River, and out into the Ohio to its mouth, and thence up the Mississippi with ropes and poles, to Ste. Genevieve, covering a distance of 1,000 miles or more. The country was then infested with Indians (sic), and much of the journey was made at night, while they hid in the underbrush during the day. From Ste. Genevieve they traveled over land twenty-eight miles west to their destination, which they reached on the 18th day of June, 1802... Sarah Barton Murphy became the leader in the community her husband and sons established. She is credited with organizing the first Protestant Sunday school west of the Mississippi River and donated an acre of the town for the site of a church built of logs. It was open to all Christians." - edited for clarity & syntax 2/2023 by Sis; Published by THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. March 27, 1936.
{Incidentally, the friend Silas George who was part of the initial quartet to scout Missouri, it was his relative William George (1786-1852) who had a daughter Mahala A. "Mable" George (1803-1872) that would grow up to marry that little 8yo grandson of Sarah née Barton Murphy, William Evans (1794- ), that took the daring river rides Tennessee to Missouri landing in 1802. While his mom Sarah née Murphy Evans' resting place is unknown, her son / Sarah née Barton Murphy's grandson William Evans' page is: MEMORIAL ID 185801452; his dad George Evans (possibly Walter Evans) dates & place are also unknown.}
Tabitha had remained in Knox County, Tennessee from her circa 1784 marriage to Jesse Gentry (1757-1834). It had long been considered without Primary Source that Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768- ) perished earlier in the calendar year of 1822, only because the first sighting of her referred to as "deceased" was in a Nov-1822 re-allotment deed of land originally bequeathed descendants by Tabitha's mother Sarah Barton Murphy (d.1817) However, an earlier definitive sighting, just mentioned above, in her mother Sarah née Barton Murphy's own narrative of going from Tennessee to Missouri 1801-1802, arriving in June 1802, with her "only daughter Sarah." This means that Tabitha was deceased before that voyage, not just by/in 1822. On the flat boat rivers trip from Knox County, Tennessee to Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri headed by widow Sarah née Barton Murphy was Tabitha's only full-sister, Sarah née Murphy Evans (1771 - ), who was three years younger than Tabitha. Therefore, Tabitha was definitely deceased before at least 1801.
Most likely, Tabitha died before 1790, barely 20 years old, after a second birth. Her first birth in 1785 at age 16-17. After only married in 1784 at 15-16. Her husband, Jesse Gentry (1757-1834), is tagged as father of other sons by another wife m.1794 by 1795, still in Knox County (Martin Gentry 1795, Rev Isaac Gentry 1799). Altogether, Jesse was purportedly father of 18 children with 3-4 wives in his 76-77yrs, and he would have already been over 30 when wife Tabitha died after only two children together. We know two kids together for sure because of an 1822 land decree.
When mother Sarah née Barton Murphy died in 1817, she bequeathed land in St Francois County, Missouri to children Jesse, Isaac, David, Richard, & Dubart Murphy, and the children as heirs of her by then both deceased daughters, Tabitha née Murphy Gentry & Sarah née Murphy Evans. In Nov-1822, Jesse Murphy was living in Arkansas Territory so sold brother Isaac Murphy his acreage in Missouri, and all of the heirs' allotments were reviewed. In the 1822 deed: "...sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry," are spelled out. Those two only legally recognized children of Tabitha née Murphy Gentry and Jesse Gentry were:
(1) Mary née Gentry Keith
b. May-1785 Knox Co, Tennessee
d. 1866 Knoxville, Knox Co, TN
m. John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861)
{daughter b.1814 Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy MEMORIAL ID 69304117 --
in 1860, 75yo Mary née Gentry Keith & 78yo husband as "Jno" (short for John or Jonathan) Keith, who was also born in VA, are on the Knox Co, TN, census living w their adult married daughter 46yo as "Eveline" née Keith Lucy, her husband & their 6 children, ages 28yrs to 8mos. It's the last census either Mary or John Keith are recorded. They died in 1866 & 1861, respectively, before the next census of 1870. They had been living in their own home in 1850 when they were 65 & 68 in Knox, before moving in w their daughter.}
(2) William Gentry
b.abt 1788, Knox Co, TN
d.aftr Sept-1833 deed doc (below)
{No further details on him yet found.}
Tabitha Murphy Gentry & Jesse Gentry's younger child, William Gentry, lived on at least another 11 years past the 1822 deed document (image attached) that reallocated William's maternal grandmother's original 1817 Will bequeathments (that of Sarah Barton Murphy). In the same book as that transcribed deed, on page 287, William, abt age 45, showed up moved southeast the Limestone County, Alabama. The deed Sept-1833 says the junior William (Gentry) gave his uncle, his late mother's elder half-brother, the senior William (Murphy) power of attorney. It is unknown what happened to William Gentry's interests when his elderly uncle William Murphy died less than two months later on 2-Nov-1833 back in St Francois County, Missouri. No further records on William Gentry yet found.
"A:576 10 September 1833, William Gentry of Limestone County, Alabama, son and legal heir of Tabitha Gentry, and Jesse Gentry, wife of said Jesse, and daughter of William and Sarah Murphy, nominated William Murphy Senr. of St. Francois County, to grant, bargain, sell and dispose of interest in tract of land."
{Tabitha did *not* give birth to sons Isaac b.1799 or Martin b.1795 by husband Jesse Gentry, as sometimes has been erroneously suggested, let alone his eldest boy also called Jesse Gentry b.1780 in North Carolina when Tabitha was only 11-12yrs old, still at her parent's Virginia home. Those are sons of other wives. There are as many as 16 other children, aside from Tabitha's verified two (Mary & William), that Jesse Gentry is said to have fathered during his 76-77yr lifetime of 1757-1834.}
==
TRANSCRIPT FROM
ORIGINAL SOURCE DOCUMENT
Source: Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG, Genealogical Gems from Early Missouri Deeds 1815-1850 [Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2004], p. 283:
"A:58 26 November 1822, Jesse and Patsy Murphy of the Territory of Arkansas sold to Isaac Murphy of St. Francois, for $700, 200 arpents. This land became vested in Jesse as heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased, now in suit in St. Francois Circuit Court. [Partition on pp. 88-89 granted one part to Jesse Murphy left in his possession at the death of Sarah Murphy; second allotment to Isaac Murphy; third allotment of 82 acres to David Murphy, heir of Sarah, deceased, which was in the possession of David Murphy, Sen. at the death of Sarah; allotment four to Richard Murphy; fifth allotment of 100 acres to Dubart Murphy; sixth allotment of 100 acres to William Gentry and Mary Gentry, now Mary Keith, lawful issue of Tabitha Gentry, heiress of Sarah Murphy, deceased; and seventh allotment to William Evans, only heir of Sarah Evans, deceased, and heir of Sarah Murphy, deceased. Partition reported on 1 December 1823. Appeal of heirs followed."
==
Re: 200 arpents. "An arpent (French pronunciation: [aʁpɑ̃], sometimes called arpen) is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-metric French unit based on the Roman actus. It is used in Quebec, some areas of the United States that were part of French Louisiana, and in Mauritius and the Seychelles." -- When Tabitha's father, Rev William Murphy Sr, first scouted & then received the Royal Land Grant in 1798 of what would become the Murphy Family land referred to in the deed above (area of what we know as Farmington, St Francois County, Missouri, USA), it was pre-1820 Missouri Compromise admitting Missouri to the Union as a state in 1821, it was pre-1803 Louisiana Purchase by America from France, it was back in the final years of Spain and France volleying control of the region back and forth. Thus, the land was originally in arpents and then referred to in acres of allotments by the time the deed is being reallotted in 1822.
"French arpent land divisions are long narrow parcels of land, also called ribbon farms, usually found along the navigable streams of southern Louisiana, and also found along major waterways in other areas." (Such as the major tributary St. Francois River by Farmington that comes off the nearby mighty Mississippi River, not to mention plentiful good size streams throughout Farmington area.) "This system of land subdivision was begun by French settlers in the 18th century, according to typical French practice at the time and was continued by both the Spanish and by the American government after the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase... This method of land division provided each land-owner with river frontage as well as land suitable for cultivation and habitation."
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These are the 11 grandchildren of
Jesse Gentry (1757-1864) &
one of his wives
Tabitha née Murphy Gentry (1768 - abt 1790),
by one of their two children --
daughter & her husband --
of Mary née Gentry Keith (May-1785 - 1866) &
John Keith (Aug-1781 - 1861):
(1) "Andy" Andrew Jackson Keith b.1805
MEMORIAL ID 100739206
m.Martha Ann Mitchell
(2) ? Pleasant Elizabeth Keith *or* Pleasant Gentry Keith, purportedly b.1806 [she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(3) ? Anna Crawford Keith, purportedly b.1809
[she's mentioned by family story, but can't find her in Source records]
(4) ? Calvin Herd Keith, purportedly b.1812
[he's mentioned by family story, but can't find him in Source records]
(5) Evaline Isabell née Keith Lucy b.1814
MEMORIAL ID 69304117
m.William Burl Lucy
(6) Russell Keith b.1815
MEMORIAL ID 100808290
m. Jane Harper
(7) Elmira D née Keith Miller b.1818
MEMORIAL ID 79672438
m.1.Robert Comer
m.2.Samuel Miller
(8) Mary Matilda "Matilda" née Keith Goddard b.1820
MEMORIAL ID 40231180
m. David Thomas Goddard
(9) John Wesley Keith b.1823
MEMORIAL ID 217593367
(10) Mary Catherine née Keith Johnson b.1825
MEMORIAL ID 36122512
m.Elkanah Johnson
(11) Eliza Jane née Keith Johnson b.1828
m.Jordan C Johnson
Family Members
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