Rebecca (Coffey) Gault (bef. 1744 - aft. 1820)

Born before 1744 in Augusta, Virginia

Descendants

Died after 1820 after age 76 in Lincoln, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Rebecca was married to the Patriot William Gault.

Rebecca was born before 1744 based on the assumption that she was 20 when her first child was born. If she were born in 1744 she would have been 47 when her youngest child was born in 1791. She passed away after 1820 when it appears she was the woman over 45 years old in the household of her son Hugh Coffey Gault. Some researchers say she died before 1835. ^[1] From Heritage of Lincoln County Tennessee, The Lincoln County Heritage Book Committee, 2005. Article 741 (p. 247) :

"Rebecca Coffey Gault brought her six youngest children from the Waxhaw Settlement in Carolina to Williamson County, Tennessee in 1803, and on to Lincoln County, Tennessee about 1804. Her son James Gault lived his life in Williamson County, but Thomas Gault, Susannah Gault, Grace Gault, Nancy Gault, and Hugh Coffey Gault all contributed to the early settlement of Lincoln County. Rebecca Coffey (Coffee) was born about 1744 in Virginia, probably Harper's Ferry or Augusta County, and she most likely died in Lincoln County, Tennessee. Maybe she was a daughter of Hugh Coffee (ca 1700•ca 1766), who came to Virginia from Ireland about 1725 and lived on Cowpasture River. "Genealogical records are scarce" in that frontier Scots-Irish area, according to Francis Forrest Reed. This family moved to Lancaster County, South Carolina in 1754. Rebecca Coffey married William Gault (Galt, 'Gaut) (ca 1735-bef 1803) about 1762, and they lived in the Waxhaw Settlement, where Andrew Jackson was born and raised on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. The "Waxhaw region straddled Waxhaw Creek, a branch of the Catawba River where the Catawba Indians once roamed. Because of the creek, the region was a fertile island in a wasteland of pine woods, and it had a slight reputation for the quality of its grapes. A meeting house had been erected to provide community life. And, of course there was a church which was Presbyterian in denomina­tion." William Gault was a farmer, Revolutionary War soldier, and the subject of Elisabeth Leighty's book, "The William Gault Family History." When I visited the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church and Cemetery in Lancaster County, South Carolina, the Revolutionary Plot included markers for William Gault and son Robert "Robin" Gault. They were in a group by the monument for Andrew Jackson's mother Elizabeth Hutchison Jackson. According to a nearby ranger, the Old Waxhaw Church was where hymn singing (in addition to singing Psalms) started and caused a split in the Presbyterian Church. A James McCullough’s 1857 letter printed in Elisabeth Leighty's book describes a 1663 Galt Family Bible and its historic journeys from Scotland to Ireland to America. William Gault's parents came from County Antrim in Ireland to Pennsylvania, where he was born about 1735. Maybe he was a son of Robert Gault or James Gault of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. William and Rebecca Gault had thirteen chil­dren. These seven all stayed in Carolina:

1. Robert "Robin" (1764-1837)
2. William Jr (ca 1767-d. early)
3. Jane (ca 1769)
4. Isabella "Abby" (ca 1771)
5. John (ca 1773)
6. Charles (ca 1775)
7. Joseph (ca 1777)

The six brought to Tennessee by their mother were:

1. Thomas Gault (1780­1840) married Sarah Appeling, and they had five sons who were raised and married in LCT. (Wm. A, Henry, James J, Hugh C, and John P.) Thomas was a farmer and shoemaker, a good, quiet, honest Christian man.
2. Susannah Gault (1785-1850) m. James McCormack, and they raised eleven children in Lincoln County, Tennessee.
3. Grace Gault (ca 1787) m1 James Johnson and had two daughters. She m2 John Wilson, had five more daughters in Lincoln County, Tennessee, and they moved to Washington Co, Arkansas in 1842.
4. James Gault (ca 1789-1835) m. Ellen McCain and lived in Williamson Co, Tennessee.
5. Nancy Gault (ca 1791- ca 1836) m. John Clark Taylor, and they raised nine children in Lincoln County, Tennessee (James Dixon, Hugh, Jonathan Anderson, John, Huldah, Samuel Brown, Harrison Compton, Eliza, and William Brycen Taylor).
6. Hugh Coffey Gault (1793-­1877) m. Nancy M. Askins and moved their fam­ily to Randolph Co, Illinois in 1831, because they were opposed to human slavery. He was a car­penter, farmer, and auctioneer. Elvira, Pressley Brown, Rebecca, Robert Henry, and Nancy Minerva were born in Lincoln County, Tennessee. James, Steele, Lovejoy, and a daughter were born in Illinois. Hugh and Nancy's son Pressley Brown Gault wrote the touching 1893 accounts of so many of these individuals, which are included in Elisabeth Leighty's book. The father William Gault died in the Carolina Waxhaw Settlement, before Rebecca Coffey Gault moved the six youngest children to Tennessee in 1803. "For some cause not now known to me, Grandmother and her family, all but James, left Williamson County [where they had located and commenced farm life] and went fifty miles southeast and located in Lincoln County five miles west of Fayetteville, the coun­ty town. This move, I think took place in 1804 or 1805 and here they continued to live and make this their home for many years." Rebecca Coffee Gault and all of her children, "who came to Lincoln County, all became members of the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church that was organized in that part of the country - which took place about the year 1816." (Pressley Brown Gault). Thomas Gault had land on Swan Creek, near where James and Susannah Gault McCormack lived. Lincoln County, Tennessee court records listed Thomas Gault, Hugh Coffey Gault, and James McCormack sev­eral times on jury lists. James and Susannah Gault McCormack's many scattered descen­dants include this writer. Submitted by: Mrs. Jack W Cummings, 1537 W Tenth St, Port Angeles, WA 98363."

Rebecca is assumed to be the woman over 45 years old in the household of her son Hugh Coffey Gault in 1820 in Lincoln County, Tennessee.

Sources

1. ↑ Source will be added by William Francis by 25 May 2020.

• Heritage of Lincoln County Tennessee. The Lincoln County Heritage Book Committee, 2005. Article 741 (p. 247)
• The William Gault Family History, Pressley Brown Gault
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LD1X-5XR
• 1820 Census for Hugh C Gault family in Lincoln County, Tennessee, Rebecca is woman 45 or older