Individual Details

Elizabeth Gentry

(14 Oct 1731 - 28 Jul 1820)



Elizabeth's birth is seen as both Aug 14 and Oct 14, 1731.

Elizabeth and Nathaniel are said to be buried Haggard Cemetery, Clark, KY

From: https://www.gentryjournal.org/archives/jgg0109.htm
The Gentry Journal
Elizabeth Gentry
"The Gentry Family in America" as well as various Haggard sources, gives conflicting dates for Elizabeth's birth: 14 August and 14 October, 1731. Except for the date of her marriage to Nathaniel Haggard, the chronology of her family is quite specifically quoted in various Haggard family records, and there seems to be no reason to question the year of her birth, 1731. This places her as being probably the fourth of the children of Nicholas-II.
Elizabeth's husband, Nathaniel Haggard is said to have married Mary Hazelrigg first, by whom he had two children: Henry Hazelrigg, and Martin. The children of Elizabeth and Nathaniel included: Elizabeth, John, Mary, James, Jane, Bartlett, David and Nathaniel. The Haggards and Gentrys intermixed freely in the next generation as James Haggard married Betsie Gentry (daughter of Moses Gentry), and Jane Haggard married David Gentry (son of David-III).
Elizabeth and Nathaniel moved to Albemarle County and lived for a time there on land adjoining Jesse Gentry (son of Robert). They sold this land in 1788<19> and bought land the same year in Lincoln County, Kentucky<20>, from part of which Clark County was formed in 1790. Nathaniel died in 1806 leaving a will which left everything to his widow Elizabeth. On her death in 1820, the estate passed to all of their children except Martin who had been killed by Indians at an earlier date.
A Digression Concerning the Haggards
There are frequent references in genealogical listings of the presumed founder of the Haggard family of Virginia, as a James Haggard who landed in Norfolk County, Virginia shortly after 1700. There is an interesting story about James being hired as an indentured school teacher. James and a young lady connected with the school were said to have been attracted to each other and ran away to North Carolina in 1706 because as an indentured servant James supposedly could not marry in Virginia. James and his wife then returned to Virginia at a later time. The original source of this story, a book "The History of the Haggard Family in England and America, 1433 - 1899", published by David Dawson Haggard in 1899, quotes this story and other colorful information about James but does not name his schoolgirl wife. Since the publishing of that book, some members of the Haggard family have provided the name of Elizabeth Gentry, oldest daughter of Nicholas-I, as this wife, while others have claimed the youngest daughter of Nicholas, Mabel Gentry was the wife. Still others have reported that first Elizabeth and then Mabel were wives of James.
The story of James and his proposed marriage with Elizabeth Gentry may have some elements of truth, such as James being a schoolteacher, but most of the story is undoubtedly false considering the following facts:
1. The only town in Virginia in 1706 was Jamestown, so any school in which James may have taught must have been operated informally, probably by the parish, either in a local church building or in a private home on one of the plantations. At that time only boys would have received education and no girls would have been among James' students, certainly none sent from a distant location.
2. It is very difficult to imagine how a seventeen-year-old daughter of a small tobacco plantation owner on the western fringes of Virginia settlement, would have travelled to the coast and met James in Norfolk County.
3. The story of fleeing to North Carolina is particularly questionable, that state not being divided from South Carolina until 1712. The first town in North Carolina was not settled until 1705 when the Bath was founded in Pamlico Sound. The closest church where a marriage could have been performed was undoubtedly Charleston, now South Carolina. Unlike present conditions where it is just a short distance from Norfolk across the state boundary to North Carolina, in 1706 it would obviously have been impossible to travel there by land, and equally impossible by sea given the lack of coastal shipping.
Since the proposed relationship did not originate with the Haggard family book but was added afterwards, it appears to me that some Haggard/Gentry genealogist in filling out a pedigree chart, skipped a couple generations by mistake, and confused the original James Haggard with the James Haggard who was a son of Elizabeth and Nathaniel, who did indeed marry an Elizabeth Gentry.

Events

Birth14 Oct 1731Hanover County, Virginia
MarriageAbt 1751Virginia - Nathaniel Haggard
Death28 Jul 1820Clark County, Kentucky

Families

SpouseNathaniel Haggard (1723 - 1806)
ChildElizabeth Haggard ( - )
ChildJohn Haggard (1754 - 1832)
ChildMary Haggard (1757 - 1844)
ChildRev James Haggard (1759 - 1843)
ChildJane Haggard ( - )
ChildBartlett Haggard (1764 - 1846)
ChildDavid Haggard ( - )
ChildNathaniel Haggard (1776 - 1858)
FatherNICHOLAS Gentry II ( - 1779)
MotherJane ?Brown (1705 - )
SiblingDavid Gentry (1724 - 1813)
SiblingRobert Gentry (1726 - 1811)
SiblingNICHOLAS GENTRY III (1728 - 1803)
SiblingBenajah Gentry (1733 - 1830)
SiblingMoses Gentry (1735 - 1808)
SiblingNathan Gentry (1745 - 1784)
SiblingMartin Gentry (1747 - 1827)
Sibling[Daughter] Gentry ( - )
Sibling[Daughter] Gentry ( - )
SiblingMary Gentry ( - )

Endnotes