Person Page 38

Plus or minus five years, or 1728 per other sources. Wynne Gilmore estimated his birth timeframe, based on information in The History of Highland County, Virginia and some life events roughly indicating his adulthood and older age. Based on the statement in The History that he had 15 sons and four daughters, and indications that he brought some children including his son Samuel from Pennsylvania to Augusta County, Virginia without a wife, it is likely that he was married twice, once in Pennsylvania and later in Virginia.

From Wynne Gilmore, e-mail message 23 SEP 2016:

James Gilmore was probably born about 1712 in Ireland. Our family tradition is that our Gilmores were Scots-Irish.The History of Highland County, Virginia states that James had a family of fifteen boys who all had families and four girls. That would add up to about forty years of childbearing. If James married at about the age of twenty-one, had 19 children, and his youngest son David was about age twenty-six when his father died, then James would have been eighty-five to ninety when he died in 1797. It is likely, too, that he had more than one marriage. In the only deed found for him, no wife signs. He signed his name indicating that he could write. His wife may have died in Pennsylvania since son Samuel's obituary states that he came to Augusta County in 1774 with his father. There is no mention of the mother.

The DAR record of a granddaughter of Samuel's indicates he was born in Bucks County, PA. James Gilmore is not on the tax records there through 1778. Obits and Revolutionary War pension papers indicate that the family was in Lancaster County, PA until about 1774, when James went to Augusta County, VA. In 1778, the county was split and James was in the part that became Rockingham County. There are no deeds to indicate that he lived in Augusta County and later moved to Rockingham as is stated in Walter Beanblossom's book.

Sometime between 1773 and 1779, he purchased land on Muddy Creek from Andrew Shanklin, who had been granted three hundred eighteen acres. He gave James Gilmore a deed of Lease and Release in 1779, which indicates he was paid in full at that time. The exact amount of acreage is unknown. The deed is not in the Augusta or Rockingham deed records. The Rockingham Courthouse was burned during the Civil War and many deeds did not survive, so it is possible that the purchase had been recorded in Rockingham in 1778 or 1779.

In 1784, the tax list shows James Gilmore with five white souls in the household, one dwelling and one other structure, which was probably a barn. Since none of his sons are listed separately, the five are probably James, Samuel, Thomas, Gad and David. Alexander was married.

On 24 Feb 1783, James Gilmore recorded his cattle marking, "That on the motion of James Gilmore this mark of his creatures viz: A crop of each ear and the right ear split."

In 1785, James Gilmore sold fifty acres of his land from Shanklin to his five sons: Samuel, Thomas, Alexander, Gad and David.

The 1787 tax list shows James Gilmore as a white male tithable above the age of twenty-one. He also had one white male age above sixteen and under twenty-one, which would probably be David. James had no Blacks in the household. He had seven horses, colts or mules and sixteen head of cattle.

There were two Gilmer women, Polly and Sally, who witnessed an 1808 deed relating to land son Thomas had. Polly could be Thomas' second wife Mary. But who is Sally? Thomas' daughter Sally was only about age fourteen in 1808. Possibly Sally was an unmarried daughter, or daughter-in-law of James' who took care of him in his old age. He may have needed several years of care if he lived to be eighty-five to ninety. When James Gilmore wrote a petition to the General Assembly in November 1784, at age about seventy-two, he described himself as, "....very Ancient and in low circumstances." In 1784, seventy two was indeed ancient. He was requesting a reimbursement of funds spent hiring a woman to help his son Samuel recover from war wounds. Samuel's statement later indicated that it took two years for his wounds to heal. James was awarded fifteen pounds.

Samuel was named executor in a bond for the estate of James Gilmore in 1797. Gad was a bondsman. The estate continued to pay taxes on James' 175 acres until 1813. No grave has been found.

ALSO: Some Gilmore information is per the Gilmore Hammitt Doughty Parrott family tree genealogy, prepared by Sam Gilmore, online at Ancestry.com.