Individual Details
Thomas Newton Kirkpatrick
(9 Nov 1766 - 16 Dec 1821)
Thomas Newton Kirkpatrick's birthdate is given as 9 Nov 1766 in South Carolina. He is generally considered the eldest son of James the Immigrant, although the exact order of birth is not certain. His mother was Susannah Gillham. Thomas married abt. 1797 Mary 'Polly' Lane who was born 18 Dec 1777.
Mary Lane was the twin sister of Sarah Lane who married Thomas Newton Kirkpatrick's brother John. The two sisters were daughters of Jesse and Winifred (Aycock) Lane. Jesse was born in Halifax, NC on 3 July 1733. He served as a Revolutionary War officer in the 3rd North Carolina Contenentals and is reputed to have been at the battle of Kings Mountain. The family moved to Georgia in 1784, first to Elbert and Oglethorpe counties, and finally to Jackson County.* We do not have a marriage date or place for Thomas and Mary, although it probably took place in Jackson County, Georgia, abt. 1797.
Thomas Kirkpatrick was named among Jackson County, GA's first Justices of the Peace on 4 Aug 1797 (The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia by G.J.N.Wilson, 1914, p. 296). Jesse Springer in her book Cranehook on Delaware (a genealogy published in Illinois), states that the Georgia Department of Archives & History, in correspondence dated 17 May 1961, informed her that Thomas Kirkpatrick served as Justice of the Peace of Jackson County, commissioned 3 Jun 1799. Again, the book Gone To Georgia: Jackson & Gwinnett Counties and Their Neighbors in the Western Migration (Compiled by William C. Stewart, National Genealogical Society Publication #30, 1965) gives Kirkpatrick's appointment as Justice of the Peace in Jackson County in 1799.
David M. Kirkpatrick in his genealogy, An American Kirkpatrick Family, reproduces newspaper clipping facing page 34. The clipping was found in the effects of James G. Kirkpatrick, descendant of Thomas Newton Kirkpatrick, presumably from an Illinois newspaper. It refers in the last two paragraphs to a document 130 years old in the possession of George Kirkpatrick, James G. Kirkpatrick's brother. It is an order of Governor Jared Irwin of Georgia, appointing Thomas Kirkpatrick a Justice of the Peace, signed as follows: "...given under my hand and seal at the State House in Louisville, this 13th day of June, Anno Dom. 1797 in the 21st year of American Independence." **
A number of land transactions show up connecting Kirkpatrick to Georgia and Jackson County. A 1788 grant gives Thomas Kirkpatrick 300 acres in Franklin County, GA. *** (Jackson County was erected from Franklin County). The land is described as bordered on the northwest by Scott's lands but vacant on all other sides. **** Franklin was one of Georgia's original counties. In 1807 another grant of 200 acres is given to Thomas Kirkpatrick on his own headright, this time in Jackson County. It is bordered on the Northeast by Kirkpatrick's (which one?) land, on the southeast by Jarrett, on the southwest by surveyed land and on the northwest by Deprest's land. This grant is signed by the Governor Jared Irwin. *****
A transaction between Thomas Kirkpatrick and Francis Kirkpatrick both of Jackson County, Georgia, concerns a transfer of land, 120 acres on Curries Creek, for 100 dollars "unto him in hand paid," from Thomas to Francis, 26 May 1798. On the 9th of October 1805, James Kirkpatrick for the sum of $500 agrees to buy land on Curries Creek in Jackson County from Thomas Kirkpatrick. Another record dated 17 Nov 1815 records the transfer by Thomas Kirkpatrick of Madison County, Illinois Territory, of 200 acres of land in Jackson County, Georgia, for the sum of $500 to John Boyle of Jackson County. The land is described as a tract on the waters of Currey Creek and reference is made to "grant for the same in my name signed by his excellency the Governor, the 25th day of November 1807." All of these records are on file in the Jackson County courthouse as Book AB-110, Book D-265, and Book F-442 respectively. The last described transaction is obviously a sale by Thomas Kirkpatrick of land described in the previous paragraph as being granted to him on his own headright. Kirkpatrick had departed from Georgia and was living in Madison County in the Illinois Territory and was selling off his land back east.
We find papers dated March and April in 1802 that Kirkpatrick signed in his capacity as Justice of the Peace of Jackson County. It would appear from this that he did not move to Illinois until sometime in 1802--a year when other Kirkpatrick's, Gillham's, and related families, moved in some numbers to the western territory. According to John Fletcher Kirkpatrick, the motivating factor in the move to Illinois was the reluctance of Thomas and his brother John to raise their children in slave territory.
Thomas and Polly's son, Thomas Milligan states that Thomas had been raised in the Presbyterian Church, but that he and Polly were 'converted' (to Methodism) in the Cane Ridge Revival which took place in central Kentucky in 1801, and was the single most notable event in the major religious movement usually call the "Second Great Awakening." It is possible, but not very likely, that they were present at Cane Ridge. It is more likely that Thomas and Polly became Methodists under the influence of the religious revival of which the Cane Ridge Revival was a part. In any event, it is clear that they, along with Thomas's brother John and his family, became Methodists at approximately the time they moved to Illinois. This conversion was to have profound effects on the families of both brothers.
The family settled in a spot in Illinois about 20 miles northeast of St Louis, Missouri. The land Thomas settled on was bought as the militia claim of Pierre LeJoy (#991), 8 Jun 1804, and a second militia claim (#1719) of Louis LeBrun, Jr., affirmed to Thomas Kirkpatrick 16 Nov 1806. These claims are recorded in the American State Papers, 2nd Volume, Public Lands. The two Frenchmen had served in the militia on the early Mississippi frontier and grants of land were awarded for this service. These lands were located on what was known as Cohos (or Cohokia) Creek in Madison County. Kirkpatrick built a cabin there about 1805.
Madison County, Illinois was organized as a county 4 Sep 1812. The home of Thomas Kirkpatrick was designated as the County Seat of Government by the Territorial Governor, Ninian Edwards:
"September 14th, by Ninian Edwards, Governor of the Illinois Territory, a Proclamation: By Virtue of the powers vested in the Governor of the Territory, I do hereby lay off a County or district to be called the County of Madison to be included within the following bounds viz to begin on the Mississippi to run the second township line above Cahokia East until it strikes the dividing line of Upper Canada, thence with said line to the Mississippi and thence down the Mississippi to the beginning--I do appoint the house of Thomas Kirkpatrick to be the seat of Justice of said County...done at Kaskaskia the 14th day of September 1812 and of the Independence of the United States the 37th, Ninian Edwards..." ******
On 23 June 1813 the Governor appointed Thomas Kirkpatrick as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Madison County, again as a County Judge on 25 Dec 1814 and 10 Jan 1816. (These records are also found in the Territorial Papers of Illinois, Vols. 16 and 17.)
Thomas Kirkpatrick is recorded on a tax list dated 1814 as having one slave and six horses with a total tax of $4.00. *******
Kirkpatrick's land claim covered the Northwest part of the present town of Edwardsville, Illinois. In the Indian troubles that preceeded the War of 1812, Kirkpatrick built a block house on the land, which was meant as a protection for several families living in the adjacent area. Kirkpatrick served briefly as a Lieutenant in the militia during this period. The muster rolls of Lieut. Daniel G. Moore's company of volunteer infantry called into service from 9 May 1813 to 9 Jun 1813, lists Thomas Kirkpatrick and his oldest son James Harrison Kirkpatrick as privates. Harrison Kirkpatrick would have been about 15 years of age at this time. A John Kirkpatrick, probably Thomas' brother, is also listed. (Illinois in the War of 1812-1814, Stevens, 1904.)
Brink's History of Madison County, Illinois, reproduces this document giving Kirkpatrick Lieutenancy:
"Edwardsville, September 24, 1814, Sir--This day there was an election held at this place for a Captain and First and Second Lieutenants, by the volunteers that have of late been raised in consequence of your request to Isam Gillham and J.G. Lofton, Esq. The company detained the election until about the 4 of the O'Clock in the afternoon in hopes we would have been joined by Mr. Stout and a party from that neighborhood. On being disappointed, we proceeded to elect John G. Lofton, Captain, Thomas Kirkpatrick, 1st Lieutenant, and Samuel G. Morse, 2nd Lieutenant, and intend when orders are received, to elect the balance of the officers, so as to dispose of the officers in each settlement which may join. We assure your Excellency that the old men have volunteered with a spirit that reflects an honor on the old veterans of '76. The notice of the election was so short in this settlement that the people had not general notice, but there remains no doubt but the company will be complete before this reaches you.-- there are 70 on the list now. The above officers were elected by a unanimous vote. Very respectfully yours,
Thos. Kirkpatrick
C. Cadwell, Judges of the Election"
Samuel G. Morse, mentioned in the above paragraph as being elected 2nd Lieutenant, married three times and two of his wives were Kirkpatrick women. He seems to have been closely associated with Thomas Kirkpatrick, at least for a time, and served in both Madison and Bond counties as Sheriff.
At the first meeting of the Court of Common Pleas in Kirkpatrick's home, Kirkpatrick applied for and received a license to keep a public house. He paid $6.50 for the license and had prices stipulated by the Court: a meal for 25 cents, corn or oats 1 bit per gallon, hay for the night 12 1/2 cents, rum or wine 37 1/2 cents per half-pint.
In 1816 a town surveyed by Kirkpatrick was set out. It was called Edwardsville in honor of Ninian Edwards, then territorial governor of Illinois.
The Court of Common Pleas was superseded 19 December 1814 by a territorial law which created county courts, concerned with the administrative affairs of the counties. Governor Edwards commissioned Kirkpatrick as one of the three judges of the first such Madison County Court. It met for the first time 6 March 1816. Sometime in 1816 he donated $100 to the building of a Madison County courthouse.
The Kirkpatrick name pretty well disappears after about 1816 from county histories of Madison County, Illinois. This corresponds with the appearance of Thomas Kirkpatrick and others in Bond County, a little to the east. An epidemic of 'milk sickness' is sometimes credited as the reason for this settler exodus. On 1 July 1815, Thomas sold to Dr. George Cadwell two lots in Edwardsville, including the lot containing his dwelling. This probably marks the date of the removal of Thomas and his family to the vicinity of Greenville, which at that time was still a part of Madison County. He remained a Madison County judge and continued to show up in Madison County records until Bond County was set up in 1817 from Madison County territory.
On 17 Sep 1817, Thomas Kirkpatrick and Polly his wife deeded two acres of land in Bond County to John Kirkpatrick, Robert Galispie, Andrew Moody, Robert Diamond, John Spellers, Francis Kirkpatrick and Isaac Price, in trust to be used as a meeting house for the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In Bond County, Thomas was a defendant in several civil suits brought by Samuel Whiteside and others. In some of the suits he was co-defendant with his brother Francis and his son James Harrison. What was the cause of the suits is unknown.
On 12 Feb. 1817, Kirkpatrick was appointed a Judge in Bond County, and also at the same time he was named a Justice of the Peace. Finally, he was named as a Judge of Probate. he was still active in the affairs of the county when he served as a foreman of a grand jury in Bond County on 15 May 1820.
Thomas died in Bond County, Illinois 16 Dec 1821. In an obituary, the Edwardsville Spectator said, in part:
"Society has seldom felt a regret more prevalent, or more sincere, than has been called forth by the death of the Hon. Thomas Kirkpatrick on Sunday the 16th last, late Judge of Probate for the county of Bond...in early life, the attachment of his father to the cause of our indepence, brought upon him the vengeful malignity of the Tories, and he was killed by them, at his own house, desolving the care of a large family upon the subject of our present notice. In a war, in which the frontier inhabitants of Georgia (where he then resided)******** were called to defend their hard earned possessions, against the lawless aggressions of a savage and barbarous foe, he early shared it's perils, and performed the duties of a commissary until peace succeeded...For the term of fifteen years, from 1803 to 1818 he discharged with the responsible duties of a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, with the ability always satisfactory and with adherance to justice...He was at that time elected a member of the Convention which formed the Constitution of our State, and though born and educated under the influence of different sentiments, was one of those who firmly maintained the political truth that 'all men are born free and equal'... He had a fondness for books, and had acquired a fund of useful information on various subjects, especially religious...For more than twenty years he was a professor of the Christian religion..."
Thomas made a will dated 15 Dec 1821 in Bond County, Illinois, naming his wife Polly and his sons James H. and John L. Kirkpatrick as executors. The will is not too informative.
Mary 'Polly' Kirkpatrick, Thomas' wife, died 1 February 1839 in Morgan County, Illinois. Her will dated 30 Jan 1839 in Morgan County, Illinois, is a little more interesting. She gives $250 to Charles Alford and Jonathan Hart Kirkpatrick, her two youngest sons. She gives to daughters Emily and Sarah Louisa (Loiza) $20 each; $50 to Pope Curtis Kirkpatrick, son of her son Richard H. Kirkpatrick, deceased; and the rest to share equally in monies raised by the sale of her property, that is, says the will, one-twelfth part to James H., John L., Joseph L., William P., Emily, Sarah, Jesse W., Thomas M., Francis A., Charles 'Alphred' (Alford), and Jonathan Hart, "each of them being my sons and daughters", also one-twelfth part to the children of my daughter Winifred, "now deceased". John L. Kirkpatrick and Daniel Troy were named executors. Witnesses were John Fox and John H. Barton. Filed with the papers is an inventory made March 1839 giving details of notes held against the estate and other details. Among those listed are John L. Kirkpatrick, Francis Kirkpatrick and Asa C. New.
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* For more on this family, see Joseph Habersham Historical Collections, Vol. 2, 1902, Atlanta, p. 619, "General History of the Lanes of North Carolina and Georgia".
**Louisville: "In 1786, the assembly directed that a new town, to be called Louisville, be located within twenty miles of Galphin's Old Town on the Ogeechee as capital. Augusta was to be the capital until Louisville was ready for occupancy which was not until 1795." History of Georgia, K. Coleman, ed., Univ. of Georgia Press, Athens, GA., 1977.
*** Georgia Department of Archives & History, Atlanta, Grant Book PPP, p. 294.
**** "Scott's lands" were probably the lands of Thomas' step-father Joseph Scott.
***** Grant Book G-5, p. 191.
******Territorial Records of Illinois, edited by Edmund James, Illinois State Historical Library, No. 11, 1901.
******* This list is given in the Madison County section of the County Archives in Illinois, by Pease, Illinois State Historical Library, 1915, page 410.
******** This is incorrect. The Kirkpatrick's lived in South Carolina during the Revolution.
Mary Lane was the twin sister of Sarah Lane who married Thomas Newton Kirkpatrick's brother John. The two sisters were daughters of Jesse and Winifred (Aycock) Lane. Jesse was born in Halifax, NC on 3 July 1733. He served as a Revolutionary War officer in the 3rd North Carolina Contenentals and is reputed to have been at the battle of Kings Mountain. The family moved to Georgia in 1784, first to Elbert and Oglethorpe counties, and finally to Jackson County.* We do not have a marriage date or place for Thomas and Mary, although it probably took place in Jackson County, Georgia, abt. 1797.
Thomas Kirkpatrick was named among Jackson County, GA's first Justices of the Peace on 4 Aug 1797 (The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia by G.J.N.Wilson, 1914, p. 296). Jesse Springer in her book Cranehook on Delaware (a genealogy published in Illinois), states that the Georgia Department of Archives & History, in correspondence dated 17 May 1961, informed her that Thomas Kirkpatrick served as Justice of the Peace of Jackson County, commissioned 3 Jun 1799. Again, the book Gone To Georgia: Jackson & Gwinnett Counties and Their Neighbors in the Western Migration (Compiled by William C. Stewart, National Genealogical Society Publication #30, 1965) gives Kirkpatrick's appointment as Justice of the Peace in Jackson County in 1799.
David M. Kirkpatrick in his genealogy, An American Kirkpatrick Family, reproduces newspaper clipping facing page 34. The clipping was found in the effects of James G. Kirkpatrick, descendant of Thomas Newton Kirkpatrick, presumably from an Illinois newspaper. It refers in the last two paragraphs to a document 130 years old in the possession of George Kirkpatrick, James G. Kirkpatrick's brother. It is an order of Governor Jared Irwin of Georgia, appointing Thomas Kirkpatrick a Justice of the Peace, signed as follows: "...given under my hand and seal at the State House in Louisville, this 13th day of June, Anno Dom. 1797 in the 21st year of American Independence." **
A number of land transactions show up connecting Kirkpatrick to Georgia and Jackson County. A 1788 grant gives Thomas Kirkpatrick 300 acres in Franklin County, GA. *** (Jackson County was erected from Franklin County). The land is described as bordered on the northwest by Scott's lands but vacant on all other sides. **** Franklin was one of Georgia's original counties. In 1807 another grant of 200 acres is given to Thomas Kirkpatrick on his own headright, this time in Jackson County. It is bordered on the Northeast by Kirkpatrick's (which one?) land, on the southeast by Jarrett, on the southwest by surveyed land and on the northwest by Deprest's land. This grant is signed by the Governor Jared Irwin. *****
A transaction between Thomas Kirkpatrick and Francis Kirkpatrick both of Jackson County, Georgia, concerns a transfer of land, 120 acres on Curries Creek, for 100 dollars "unto him in hand paid," from Thomas to Francis, 26 May 1798. On the 9th of October 1805, James Kirkpatrick for the sum of $500 agrees to buy land on Curries Creek in Jackson County from Thomas Kirkpatrick. Another record dated 17 Nov 1815 records the transfer by Thomas Kirkpatrick of Madison County, Illinois Territory, of 200 acres of land in Jackson County, Georgia, for the sum of $500 to John Boyle of Jackson County. The land is described as a tract on the waters of Currey Creek and reference is made to "grant for the same in my name signed by his excellency the Governor, the 25th day of November 1807." All of these records are on file in the Jackson County courthouse as Book AB-110, Book D-265, and Book F-442 respectively. The last described transaction is obviously a sale by Thomas Kirkpatrick of land described in the previous paragraph as being granted to him on his own headright. Kirkpatrick had departed from Georgia and was living in Madison County in the Illinois Territory and was selling off his land back east.
We find papers dated March and April in 1802 that Kirkpatrick signed in his capacity as Justice of the Peace of Jackson County. It would appear from this that he did not move to Illinois until sometime in 1802--a year when other Kirkpatrick's, Gillham's, and related families, moved in some numbers to the western territory. According to John Fletcher Kirkpatrick, the motivating factor in the move to Illinois was the reluctance of Thomas and his brother John to raise their children in slave territory.
Thomas and Polly's son, Thomas Milligan states that Thomas had been raised in the Presbyterian Church, but that he and Polly were 'converted' (to Methodism) in the Cane Ridge Revival which took place in central Kentucky in 1801, and was the single most notable event in the major religious movement usually call the "Second Great Awakening." It is possible, but not very likely, that they were present at Cane Ridge. It is more likely that Thomas and Polly became Methodists under the influence of the religious revival of which the Cane Ridge Revival was a part. In any event, it is clear that they, along with Thomas's brother John and his family, became Methodists at approximately the time they moved to Illinois. This conversion was to have profound effects on the families of both brothers.
The family settled in a spot in Illinois about 20 miles northeast of St Louis, Missouri. The land Thomas settled on was bought as the militia claim of Pierre LeJoy (#991), 8 Jun 1804, and a second militia claim (#1719) of Louis LeBrun, Jr., affirmed to Thomas Kirkpatrick 16 Nov 1806. These claims are recorded in the American State Papers, 2nd Volume, Public Lands. The two Frenchmen had served in the militia on the early Mississippi frontier and grants of land were awarded for this service. These lands were located on what was known as Cohos (or Cohokia) Creek in Madison County. Kirkpatrick built a cabin there about 1805.
Madison County, Illinois was organized as a county 4 Sep 1812. The home of Thomas Kirkpatrick was designated as the County Seat of Government by the Territorial Governor, Ninian Edwards:
"September 14th, by Ninian Edwards, Governor of the Illinois Territory, a Proclamation: By Virtue of the powers vested in the Governor of the Territory, I do hereby lay off a County or district to be called the County of Madison to be included within the following bounds viz to begin on the Mississippi to run the second township line above Cahokia East until it strikes the dividing line of Upper Canada, thence with said line to the Mississippi and thence down the Mississippi to the beginning--I do appoint the house of Thomas Kirkpatrick to be the seat of Justice of said County...done at Kaskaskia the 14th day of September 1812 and of the Independence of the United States the 37th, Ninian Edwards..." ******
On 23 June 1813 the Governor appointed Thomas Kirkpatrick as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Madison County, again as a County Judge on 25 Dec 1814 and 10 Jan 1816. (These records are also found in the Territorial Papers of Illinois, Vols. 16 and 17.)
Thomas Kirkpatrick is recorded on a tax list dated 1814 as having one slave and six horses with a total tax of $4.00. *******
Kirkpatrick's land claim covered the Northwest part of the present town of Edwardsville, Illinois. In the Indian troubles that preceeded the War of 1812, Kirkpatrick built a block house on the land, which was meant as a protection for several families living in the adjacent area. Kirkpatrick served briefly as a Lieutenant in the militia during this period. The muster rolls of Lieut. Daniel G. Moore's company of volunteer infantry called into service from 9 May 1813 to 9 Jun 1813, lists Thomas Kirkpatrick and his oldest son James Harrison Kirkpatrick as privates. Harrison Kirkpatrick would have been about 15 years of age at this time. A John Kirkpatrick, probably Thomas' brother, is also listed. (Illinois in the War of 1812-1814, Stevens, 1904.)
Brink's History of Madison County, Illinois, reproduces this document giving Kirkpatrick Lieutenancy:
"Edwardsville, September 24, 1814, Sir--This day there was an election held at this place for a Captain and First and Second Lieutenants, by the volunteers that have of late been raised in consequence of your request to Isam Gillham and J.G. Lofton, Esq. The company detained the election until about the 4 of the O'Clock in the afternoon in hopes we would have been joined by Mr. Stout and a party from that neighborhood. On being disappointed, we proceeded to elect John G. Lofton, Captain, Thomas Kirkpatrick, 1st Lieutenant, and Samuel G. Morse, 2nd Lieutenant, and intend when orders are received, to elect the balance of the officers, so as to dispose of the officers in each settlement which may join. We assure your Excellency that the old men have volunteered with a spirit that reflects an honor on the old veterans of '76. The notice of the election was so short in this settlement that the people had not general notice, but there remains no doubt but the company will be complete before this reaches you.-- there are 70 on the list now. The above officers were elected by a unanimous vote. Very respectfully yours,
Thos. Kirkpatrick
C. Cadwell, Judges of the Election"
Samuel G. Morse, mentioned in the above paragraph as being elected 2nd Lieutenant, married three times and two of his wives were Kirkpatrick women. He seems to have been closely associated with Thomas Kirkpatrick, at least for a time, and served in both Madison and Bond counties as Sheriff.
At the first meeting of the Court of Common Pleas in Kirkpatrick's home, Kirkpatrick applied for and received a license to keep a public house. He paid $6.50 for the license and had prices stipulated by the Court: a meal for 25 cents, corn or oats 1 bit per gallon, hay for the night 12 1/2 cents, rum or wine 37 1/2 cents per half-pint.
In 1816 a town surveyed by Kirkpatrick was set out. It was called Edwardsville in honor of Ninian Edwards, then territorial governor of Illinois.
The Court of Common Pleas was superseded 19 December 1814 by a territorial law which created county courts, concerned with the administrative affairs of the counties. Governor Edwards commissioned Kirkpatrick as one of the three judges of the first such Madison County Court. It met for the first time 6 March 1816. Sometime in 1816 he donated $100 to the building of a Madison County courthouse.
The Kirkpatrick name pretty well disappears after about 1816 from county histories of Madison County, Illinois. This corresponds with the appearance of Thomas Kirkpatrick and others in Bond County, a little to the east. An epidemic of 'milk sickness' is sometimes credited as the reason for this settler exodus. On 1 July 1815, Thomas sold to Dr. George Cadwell two lots in Edwardsville, including the lot containing his dwelling. This probably marks the date of the removal of Thomas and his family to the vicinity of Greenville, which at that time was still a part of Madison County. He remained a Madison County judge and continued to show up in Madison County records until Bond County was set up in 1817 from Madison County territory.
On 17 Sep 1817, Thomas Kirkpatrick and Polly his wife deeded two acres of land in Bond County to John Kirkpatrick, Robert Galispie, Andrew Moody, Robert Diamond, John Spellers, Francis Kirkpatrick and Isaac Price, in trust to be used as a meeting house for the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In Bond County, Thomas was a defendant in several civil suits brought by Samuel Whiteside and others. In some of the suits he was co-defendant with his brother Francis and his son James Harrison. What was the cause of the suits is unknown.
On 12 Feb. 1817, Kirkpatrick was appointed a Judge in Bond County, and also at the same time he was named a Justice of the Peace. Finally, he was named as a Judge of Probate. he was still active in the affairs of the county when he served as a foreman of a grand jury in Bond County on 15 May 1820.
Thomas died in Bond County, Illinois 16 Dec 1821. In an obituary, the Edwardsville Spectator said, in part:
"Society has seldom felt a regret more prevalent, or more sincere, than has been called forth by the death of the Hon. Thomas Kirkpatrick on Sunday the 16th last, late Judge of Probate for the county of Bond...in early life, the attachment of his father to the cause of our indepence, brought upon him the vengeful malignity of the Tories, and he was killed by them, at his own house, desolving the care of a large family upon the subject of our present notice. In a war, in which the frontier inhabitants of Georgia (where he then resided)******** were called to defend their hard earned possessions, against the lawless aggressions of a savage and barbarous foe, he early shared it's perils, and performed the duties of a commissary until peace succeeded...For the term of fifteen years, from 1803 to 1818 he discharged with the responsible duties of a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, with the ability always satisfactory and with adherance to justice...He was at that time elected a member of the Convention which formed the Constitution of our State, and though born and educated under the influence of different sentiments, was one of those who firmly maintained the political truth that 'all men are born free and equal'... He had a fondness for books, and had acquired a fund of useful information on various subjects, especially religious...For more than twenty years he was a professor of the Christian religion..."
Thomas made a will dated 15 Dec 1821 in Bond County, Illinois, naming his wife Polly and his sons James H. and John L. Kirkpatrick as executors. The will is not too informative.
Mary 'Polly' Kirkpatrick, Thomas' wife, died 1 February 1839 in Morgan County, Illinois. Her will dated 30 Jan 1839 in Morgan County, Illinois, is a little more interesting. She gives $250 to Charles Alford and Jonathan Hart Kirkpatrick, her two youngest sons. She gives to daughters Emily and Sarah Louisa (Loiza) $20 each; $50 to Pope Curtis Kirkpatrick, son of her son Richard H. Kirkpatrick, deceased; and the rest to share equally in monies raised by the sale of her property, that is, says the will, one-twelfth part to James H., John L., Joseph L., William P., Emily, Sarah, Jesse W., Thomas M., Francis A., Charles 'Alphred' (Alford), and Jonathan Hart, "each of them being my sons and daughters", also one-twelfth part to the children of my daughter Winifred, "now deceased". John L. Kirkpatrick and Daniel Troy were named executors. Witnesses were John Fox and John H. Barton. Filed with the papers is an inventory made March 1839 giving details of notes held against the estate and other details. Among those listed are John L. Kirkpatrick, Francis Kirkpatrick and Asa C. New.
===============================
* For more on this family, see Joseph Habersham Historical Collections, Vol. 2, 1902, Atlanta, p. 619, "General History of the Lanes of North Carolina and Georgia".
**Louisville: "In 1786, the assembly directed that a new town, to be called Louisville, be located within twenty miles of Galphin's Old Town on the Ogeechee as capital. Augusta was to be the capital until Louisville was ready for occupancy which was not until 1795." History of Georgia, K. Coleman, ed., Univ. of Georgia Press, Athens, GA., 1977.
*** Georgia Department of Archives & History, Atlanta, Grant Book PPP, p. 294.
**** "Scott's lands" were probably the lands of Thomas' step-father Joseph Scott.
***** Grant Book G-5, p. 191.
******Territorial Records of Illinois, edited by Edmund James, Illinois State Historical Library, No. 11, 1901.
******* This list is given in the Madison County section of the County Archives in Illinois, by Pease, Illinois State Historical Library, 1915, page 410.
******** This is incorrect. The Kirkpatrick's lived in South Carolina during the Revolution.
Events
| Birth | 9 Nov 1766 | South Carolina |  | ||
| Marriage | 1797 | Jackson Co., Georgia - Mary Ann "Polly" Lane | | ||
| Death | 16 Dec 1821 | Bond Co., Illinois | | ||
| Burial | Moody Cemetery, Greenville, Bond Co., Illinois | |
Families
| Spouse | Mary Ann "Polly" Lane (1777 - 1839) |
| Child | James Harrison Kirkpatrick (1798 - 1876) |
| Child | John Lane Kirkpatrick (1799 - 1869) |
| Child | Isaac Gillham Kirkpatrick (1801 - 1810) |
| Child | Joseph Lane Kirkpatrick (1803 - 1884) |
| Child | Richard Henry Kirkpatrick (1804 - 1834) |
| Child | William P. Kirkpatrick (1806 - 1885) |
| Child | Susan Emily Kirkpatrick (1808 - 1883) |
| Child | Winnifred P. Kirkpatrick (1810 - 1839) |
| Child | Jesse Walker Kirkpatrick (1810 - 1857) |
| Child | Sarah Louisa Kirkpatrick (1811 - 1885) |
| Child | Thomas Milligan Kirkpatrick (1813 - 1886) |
| Child | Francis Asbury Kirkpatrick (1815 - 1879) |
| Child | Polly D. Kirkpatrick (1817 - 1819) |
| Child | Charles Alford Kirkpatrick (1820 - 1896) |
| Child | Jonathan Hart Kirkpatrick (1822 - 1838) |
| Father | James "The Patriot" Kirkpatrick (1743 - 1781) |
| Mother | Susannah Gillham (1747 - 1831) |
| Sibling | James Gillham Kirkpatrick (1769 - 1846) |
| Sibling | Francis Kirkpatrick (1772 - 1835) |
| Sibling | John Kirkpatrick (1776 - 1845) |
| Sibling | Polly Kirkpatrick (1777 - ) |
Endnotes
1. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995.
2. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995, Page 15.
3. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995.
4. Bond County Illinois Genealogical Society research.