THE GENTRY FAMILY IN AMERICA INCLUDING NOTES ON THE FOLLOWING FAMILIES RELATED TO THE GENTRYS: CLAIBORNE, HARRIS, HAWKINS, ROBINSON, SMITH, WYATT, SHARP, FULKERSON, BUTLER, BUSH, BLYTHE, PABODY, NOBLE, HAGGARD, AND TINDALL BY RICHARD GENTRY, Ph. B., M. S. Kansas City, Missouri PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY THE GRAFTON PRESS NEW YORK MCMIX COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY RICHARD GENTRY All Rights Reser'Ved CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE • 9 PART I INTRODUCTORY NOTES • 13 Etymology of the Name Gentry 13 Historical Facts and Early Records 14 The Early Gentrys . 14 Parish Vestry Books 19 Parish Registers and Other Marriage and Birth Records . 23 Land Entries, Purchases and Transfers . 25 EXPLANATORY NOTES ON GENEALOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 29 PART II N1cHOLAS GENTRY AND His DESCENDANTS PART III OTHER GENTRYS PART IV GENTRY FAMILY REUNIONS • 299 First Gentry Family Reunion 299 Response to Address of Welcome by Richard Gentry, of Kansas City, Mo. 300 An Address on the Life of General Richard Gen- try, by His Son, Thomas Benton Gentry . 304 6 CONTENTS PAGE First Gentry Family Reunion-Continued Letters in Reply to Invitations to Attend the Reunion 312 Newspaper Notes 315 Partial List of those Present at Crab Orchard 317 Second Gentry Family Reunion . 320 Verses Written by Mrs. Mary Gentry Paxton 322 Address by Thomas Benton Gentry 324 Newspaper Notes 326 PART V HISTORICAL SKETCHES, WAR RECORDS AND UNITED STATES CENSUS REPORT 329 The Early Settlement of Tennessee, by the Author . 329 Battle of King's Mountain, by Major Benjamin Shar~ 333 Meredith Poindexter Gentry, by Alexander H. Stephens . 338 Roster of Colonel Gentry's Regiment 353 Gentry Soldiers of the Principal Wars 357 A Wonderful Surgical Operation . 361 Gentrys Shown in First United States Census of 1790 363 ILLUSTRATIONS RICHARD GENTRY, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Frontispiece FACING PAGE HoME OF RICHARD GENTRY, THE KENTUCKY PIONEER, BUILT IN 1804 50 MRS. NANCY GENTRY BUSH 52 MAJOR WILLIAM MARTIN BusH 54 MRS. NANCY WHITE HARRIS 56 HoN. JoHN DUNCAN HARRIS 58 MRS. JANE GENTRY BLYTHE 6o MAJOR JAMES BLYTHE . 62 JOSI AH GENTRY . 76 GENERAL RICHARD GENTRY . 94 MRS. ANN HAWKINS GENTRY 104 HON. JOSEPH V. C. KAF.NES 108 REV. CHRISTY GENTRY Il2 HoN. JosHuA GENTRY II4 RICHARD GENTRY OF PETTIS COVNTY, MISSOURI . 144 REUBEN GENTRY . 156 MAJOR WILLIAM GENTRY 16o HOME OF MAJOR WILLIAM GENTRY 162 MRS. JANE GENTRY SHELTON 164 RICHARD HARRISON GENTRY 166 MRS. MARY WYATT GENTRY 170 CAPTAIN JOHN WYATT • 174 8 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE MAJOR BENJAMIN SHARF 180 OLIVER PERRY GENTRY • 186 THOMAS BENTON GENTRY 188 PETER TRIBBLE GENTRY • 196 HOME OF PETER TRIBBLE GENTRY 198 GENERAL WILLIAM H. GENTRY 200 HoN. NrcHoLAs HocKER GENTRY 214 HOME OF RICHARD GENTRY, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 216 A FAMILY DINNER PARTY, CHRISTMAS, 19o6, AT RICHARD GENTRY'S HOME IN KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 218 MARTIN BUTLER GENTRY • 220 ELIZABETH, RUTH, MARY AND HELEN; DAUGHTERS OF RICHARD GENTRY • 222 MRS. SUSAN BUTLER GENTRY 224 HoN. NoRTH ToDD GENTRY 230 BENJAMIN SMITH GENTRY 232 RICHARD HARDIN GENTRY • 234 FRANCIS WILLIAM GENTRY, LONDON, ENG. 240 ~~~~- d COLONEL ALLEN GENTRY 272 HoN. MEREDITH PoINDEXTER GENTRY 286 CRAB ORCHARD, KENTUCKY, REUNION GROUP, TAKEN IN 1898. 298 PREFACE A comprehensive record of a family, a faithful history and genealogy, printed and illustrated in a book, distributed widely among the family, and deposited in the libraries of the country, is a greater benefit, and more lasting, than monuments of granite or marble. It will preserve for us the spirit, life stories, heroic deeds, and even the pictures of some of our pioneer ancestors. " In books lies the soul of the whole past time." The author was prompted to write this book by a worth) family pride, and a desire to benefit the family by preserving for the future some of the facts of its history in America. The interest aroused in family history by the " Gentry Re­ unions" in 1898 and in 1899 contributed very largely to the enthusiasm necessary to start such an undertaking. If the au­ thor had realized what it would cost him in time, work, and money, and how poorly suited he was for such a task, this book would . probably never have been written. As the work pro­ gressed the scope of it assumed broader proportions than was first intended, and he realized more and more the great value of a book of history and genealogy to the family, and felt im­ pelled, after starting the work, to persevere in its completion. My injunction to the parents of the family is to Educate­ Educate-Educate. Every bright and promising young Gentry should have a college education; and each one can secure it, if both parent and son are inspired by a worthy ambition and a {)roper amount of self-denial. More of our boys should be prepared for the Government Military School at West Point, a.nd the Naval Academy at Annapolis, where they will be edu­ cated by the Government at its own expense, and given an hon­ orable life work afterwards. If the parents of this generation will pay more attention to higher education, we will have more great men in the next generation, to shed honor and glory upon the family in the future. " The fountain of honor will not be stopped while the channel of desert continues to flow." "Cot.ism Hastings," said the Earl of Huntington, "we can not all be top 10 PREFACE branches of the tree, though we are all sprung from the same root. There are some who justly own the blood of the ::\forti­ mers and Plantagenetts, though ignorant of it, are hid in the heap of common people." In this country, it becomes more and more a question of in­ dividual merit and good preparation, if we hope for an honor­ able, prominent and successful career. "There is one only good, namely, knowledge, And one only evil, namely, ignorance. Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." In compiling this book, information has been sought from every available source; including town and church records, his­ tories, probate and deed records, old h: nd books, war records of states, the military and pension records of the United States, and mainly from a large correspondence and personal interviews with members of the family. It would be impossible to collect these facts to-day, because so many of the old people of the family, who were connecting links with the past, have died in the last ten years. The writer met and corresponded with a number of very old Gentrys, who knew their ancestors of the third generation, born as far back as 1730, and he gained from them much valuable data. There is no pretense to literary style in this book; its chief value consists in its being an honest and faithful record of facts. It is far from being complete. It will serve at least as a foun­ dation or skeleton for a more ambitious effort, by some accom­ plished writer in the future, who will write better and more fully the Gentry story and bring it down to a later date. Lord Macaulay has justly observed: "A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of its remote ancestors, will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." I desire to thank all those who have assisted me in this work and to especially mention the following: Miss Sallie J. Gentry of New Hope, Augusta Co., Va., for her zeal, encouraging words, and faithful work in assisting me PREFACE II to find the. missing link connecting her grandfather's numerous and influential descendants with Na than Gentry, a grandson of Nicholas Gentry, the immigrant. · Miss Martha Gentry, an old lady. now deceased, who lived near Charlottsville, Va., for her aid and information about the descendants of Benaj ah Gentry of Albemarle Co., Va. Mr. Charles W. Gentry, now deceased, of Harrodsburg, Ky., a brother of my grandfather, for facts about his father and grandfather and their descendants. Uncle Charlie had often heard his father tell the story of his life; a soldier boy at 17 at the British surrender at Yorktown, an emigrant to Kentucky in 1786, and an early pioneer of Madison County. Mr. James B. Gentry of Waterford, Ky., for his very full and accurate account of the descendants of Nicholas Gentry of Louisa Co., Va., and of his son, Blackston Gentry. Mrs. Sallie Thorn of Confederate, Ky., now deceased, and her daughter, Mrs. Rosa Gentry Lawrence of Conway, Arkan­ sas, who materially aided me in tracing the descendants of Bart­ lett, one of the sons of Robert Gentry of Jefferson Co., Tenn. Mr. Samuel C. Gentry of Rome, Ga., now deceased, for his aid in tracing the descendants of Martin, one of the sons of Robert Gentry of Tennessee. Miss Martha A. Gentry of Minneapolis, Kansas, who fur• nished a very complete list of the descendants of her grand­ father, Claybourn Gentry, a son of Moses Gentry of Virginia. Mrs. Mildred Gentry Barrett of Decatur, Ind., now deceased, whose love and family pride made her attend the Crab-Orchard family reunion in 1898, at the great age of 93. She gave me the first start in the line of Moses Gentry, her grandfather, who was one of the seven sons of Nicholas Gentry, the son of Nich­ olas the immigrant. She remembered well her grandmother, Lucy Simms Gentry, wife of Moses Gentry, who survived him many years. My dear cousin, Mrs. Janie Gentry Shelton, of St. Louis, Mo., a most enthusiastic Gentry woman, who has furnished me a com­ plete list of the descendants of Reuben E.