Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Peter Gilstrap

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Descendants of Peter Gilstrap

Generation No. 1

1. PETER¹ GILSTRAP was born Abt. 1700 in London, England, and died Unknown in New Berm, Craven County, NC.. He married RACHEL AYDELOTT Unknown in Somerset County, MD, daughter of BENJAMIN AYDELOTT and SARAH FOWKE. She was born Abt. 1710 in Somerset County, MD., and died Unknown.

Notes for PETER GILSTRAP:
GILSTRAP GENEALOGY

The name Gilstrap is of English origin and was spelled various ways from the 1500's to present day. Some of the spellings were Gillstrap, Gelstrep, Gelstrop, Gelsthrop, Gelstrope, Gelsthrope, Gilsthrop, and Gilstrup. In England all these spellings mean Gilstrap. The earliest record of the name, I could find, was February 17, 1595, the marriage of Robert Gelsthorpe to Dorothy Brighter in Nottinghamshire County and January 3, 1593, the marriage of William Gelsthrope to Elizabeth Leeke in Southwell, England.

William Gelsthorpe [Gilstrap], Newark, Nottinghamshire County, England had four children, two son's and two daughter's. One of his daughters last name was entered as Gelstrop. G. Hemmingway, in 1982, wrote an article titled, The Gilstrap's of Newark. He stated, "In the latter part of the 18th century the family name appears in several spellings in the Newark Parish Church Register, sometimes with more than one in entries relating to the same individual."

An example is Joseph Gelsthorpe, youngest son of William Gelsthorpe and Elizabeth Stevens. His birth record, August 14, 1785, is entered as Gelsthorpe; marriage record, July 30, 1811, is entered as Gelstrop; In 1818 when he bought a hotel it was named Hotel Gilstrap, death record, March 15, 1869, entered as Joseph Gilstrap.

This information is included to show the Gilstrap connection to England, however no direct connection to the American Gilstrap's has been made.

There are also records in England of a Gilstrap steel mill and of a Sir John Gilstrap who had charge of the castle where the British monarchs spend their summers until his death in 1971. This information comes from Gertrude Cogbill and T. W. Gilstrap who visited England. The MacRae-Eileen Donan Castle has been mentioned in several writings. Isabella Mary Gilstrap, daughter of Joseph Gilstrap and Jane Catherine Fothergill, married John MacRae on March 4, 1889 in London England. John MacRae, on the death of his uncle, by marriage, Sir William Gilstrap, took the additional name of Gilstrap. This allowed him to become the head of the firm Gilstrap and Earp; the malting business of Sir William Gilstrap. John MacRae-Gilstrap is connected to the Castle as he and Farquhar MacRae rebuilt the castle between 1912 and 1932. This is the only Gilstrap connection to Eileen Donan Castle.

It is not clear just when the Gilstrap's arrived in America. The earliest record's found, by Nancy Gilstrap-Mann, in Somerset County, MD show a Peter Gilstrap Sr., born about 1700, married to Rachel Aydelott, and Peter Gilstrap Jr., married to Mary Jane Bright. There is some indication that the father of Peter Gilstrap Sr. could be a James Gelstrop. James immigrated in 1665; paid his own way, then signed his right to land over to Thomas Goddard. Thomas took up land in Maryland.

Information that Thomas Gilstrap and Hannah are the parents of Peter Gilstrap appears to be a family legend only. No records have ever been found documenting the existence of Thomas and Hannah. Early records show the Gilstrap's in Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas and Kansas.

William D. Gilstrap of Bevier, Macon County, Missouri, writes in 1978. "I've been to New Bern, North Carolina and copied old deeds to land; have located the land Peter Gilstrap lived on; copied his will; copied all the census records I could find; satisfied myself that his wife Mary sold out in 1796 and moved to Roan [now Rowan] County where her sons Richard and Benjamin were living.

It would appear that they lived there until about the fall of 1803. They owned many hundreds of acres of land and did quite a bit of trading of land. The Gilstrap family met for the last time that they would all be together on August 9, 1803. On that day they sold their last parcels of land in old Roan County and left for a new life in different directions. Hardy, Lewis [the uncle], and Mary went to South Carolina. Richard, Benjamin and Bright took the track of the Boones; over the Gap, down the Cumberland River and into Pulaski County, Kentucky. Bright and Selah took young Lewis, and his new sister Elizabeth, to a place in Pulaski County called "Grassy Valley". There Bright entered 206 acres.

They lived in Grassy Valley only a couple of years though before Bright moved his family a few miles south to another valley on Double Head Spring Creek, about three miles outside the town of Monticello, County seat of Wayne County. It was in Wayne County that Lewis Gilstrap grew to manhood. His father Bright, and uncles Richard and Benjamin all owned land near each other and raised horses and tobacco. Bright also operated a mill near the mouth of Otter Creek. For the first few years, the families enjoyed the help and comfort of each other as they continued to increase their land holdings and also their families.

Lewis Gilstrap, with his father, Bright and brother Philip served on the county board at Wayne and by the old court records it would appear they were entrusted with the public business in various appointments.

Lewis Gilstrap married Rhoda Dabney and soon after the marriage bought 100 acres of land. This land was a choice parcel in Wayne County, located at the head of the valley and contained the unique feature of the two nearby springs which flowed out of the hill side and came together to form Double Head Spring Creek. Lewis sold this land in 1832, twelve years later. In the 1820's Lewis and Rhoda began to raise a family.

By 1825, the Kentucky dream began to go up in smoke for a lot of families in Wayne County. Game became scarce, the valley farms were wearing out, and once again there was talk of cheap government land, in Missouri. In 1829, and again in 1831 Lewis Gilstrap made trips to Randolph County. Several Wayne County families were already there and the word sent back to Kentucky was always "sell out and come, you'll never regret it." And sell out, they did. By July, 1832, Bright, Lewis and Philip had sold nearly all their land in Kentucky and made ready for the trip to Missouri.

They arrived in Randolph in the fall of 1832 and in November of that year Bright entered his first two parcels of land, 125 acres at $1.25 per acre. This land, which was beautiful bottom land in November, turned into a swamp the following spring. Luckily, Grandfather Bright had the means to purchase better land and in 1833 he bought his first eighty acres in section one, Salt Springs Township, six miles north of Huntsville. In the succeeding two years, he obtained all of section one and half of section two.

Grandfather Bright as the then patriarch of the family, had quite a large following of sons, daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. It is an astounding fact that for three generations, these families stood by each other through thick and thin, rich and poor, closer than most brothers and sisters today.

Lewis, the older brother, seems to have again been the one who was always just a little ahead, the advance scout, so to speak. While the rest of the family were settling down in Salt Springs, Uncle Lewis was twenty miles north where he built a cabin on Claybank Creek. In 1833 Lewis entered 160 acres of land about three and a half miles south of the "Owenby Settlement" which became the town of Bloomington and the first county seat of Macon. The land is where the town of Bevier is now. Lewis and Rhoda gave the cabin on the creek to Peter and Amy when they were married in 1835 and they started their family in that log cabin. Incidentally, it was Abner and Lewis who got the road laid out from Bloomington to College Mound, the road my great grandfather, my grandfather, my father and I were all born on.

In 1851, Rhoda died and Lewis married Julia Powell in 1852. In the 1884 Macon County History, an account is given of Lewis participation in the "Mormon Difficulties" when he led the militia group from Macon County.

When the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was laid out, I suppose civilization became too "stuffy" for Lewis Gilstrap. He sold his land to a railroad man and left this part of the country. He eventually landed in Linn County, Kansas, near Mound City. This is a glimpse of our family; a hundred plus years ago. They were poor in money, but they did leave us a legacy: They were part of a great wave of energy, which dropped them, like grains of sand, upon the shore of the continent. That wave moved first to the wall of the Appalachians, then to Kentucky, then across the Mississippi to Missouri, and on to the great plains, the rockies, and finally, to another shore, and the American Identity was complete; an identity which is now ours." William D. Gilstrap

The above is part of a letter written to Ronald Gilstrap, October 29, 1978. William D. Gilstrap is a descendant of Bright Gilstrap.

The Gilstrap's have left their name scattered across the United States having towns, buildings, roads and cemeteries named after them: Gilstrap Cemetery, Yuma County, Colorado; Gilstrap Cemetery, Bartlesville, Washington County, OK; Gilstrap, Butler County, Kentucky; Gilstrap Townhall, Adams County, North Dakota; Gilstrap Township, Adams County, North Dakota; Gilstrap, Oconee County, South Carolina; Gilstrap Heights, Greenville County, South Carolina; Gilstrap Road, White County, GA; Gilstrap Road, Habersham County, GA and the Gilstrap Library now The Gilstrap Centre, Newark, Nottinghamshire County, England.

"THE MEASURE OF A MAN'S CHARACTER IS NOT WHAT HE GET'S FROM HIS ANCESTORS, BUT WHAT HE LEAVES HIS DESCENDANTS"

Ron Gilstrap

HISTORY

8-2-1707 IGNORANCE Patented by Benjamin Aydelotte on the Indian River for 200 Acres. Land records of Worcester County, MD, page 322.

1726 Peter Gilstrap departed from England [an indentured servant] from London. He was bound for Jamaica or Maryland. This Peter Gilstrap is in Somerset County, MD in 1731.

10-10-1726 A Peter Gelstrap is listed with a John Taylor in Jamaica.

2-14-1737/8 Benjamin Aydelott will in Somerset County, MD lists his daughter Rachel Gilstafe as an heir, inheriting 200 acres of land, unnamed. Aydelott is also spelled Idolet.

7-1-1733 Peter Gillstrap paid taxes in Baltimore, Somerset County, MD on 200 acres of land.

1734, 1735, and 1736 Peter Gilstrap paid taxes in Baltimore, Somerset County, MD.

1737 Benjamin Aydelotte willed to wife Sarah [Fooks] Aydelotte and 200 acres to daughter Rachel Gladsten [Gilstrap]. Land not named.

1737 Peter Gillstrap paid taxes in Baltimore, Somerset County, MD.

1738 Petter Gillstrap paid taxes in Baltimore County, MD.

1740 Petter Gillstrap paid taxes in Baltimore County, MD.

10-16-1742 Peter Gilshop [Gilstrap] with wife Rachel Gilshop [Gilstrap], daughter of Benjamin Aydelotte, sold 200 acres to Paul Waples. Land was in Worchester County, MD. Land records of Worcester County, MD, page 322.

First census of the United States, North Carolina Heritage Series No. 1.
Craven County, North Carolina - New Bern, April 7, 1749
Peter Gilstrap 350 Acres
[Must be Peter Sr. as Peter Jr. is too young.]

Gilstrap names and the counties they lived in at time of first census.

Peter Gilstrap Craven County
James Gilstrap Craven County
Isaac Gilstrap Jones County
Idolet Gilstrap Jones County
Henry Gilstrap Jones County
Richard Gilstrap Craven County

James Gilstrap was not married.
Isaac had four children, one male, three females.
Idolet had six children, all males.
Henry Gilstrap was not married.
Richard Gilstrap, one male under sixteen year's.

1751, June Peter Gilstrap accused of concealing his taxables in Craven County, NC for 1750. Fined 20/Nisa Causa and had to appear in court.

1753, November Peter Gilstrap fined 10 shillings in Craven County court.

3-10-1758 Peter Gillstrap adjoining land owner in Johnston County, NC. [Johnston formed from Craven in 1746]

Children of PETER GILSTRAP and RACHEL AYDELOTT are:

	i.	DAUGHTER² GILSTRAP, d. Unknown.
	ii.	DAVID GILSTRAP, d. Unknown.
	iii.	WILLIAM GILSTRAP, d. Unknown.
	iv.	JOHN GILSTRAP, b. Abt. 1733, Somerset County, MD; d. Unknown.
2.	v.	PETER GILSTRAP, b. 1735, Somerset County, MD.; d. 1795, Wilmington, Craven, NC..
	vi.	IDOLET GILSTRAP, b. Aft. 1736, Somerset County, MD; d. Unknown.

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