52 Ancestors #12: John M. Gill - Chiselling at the Brick Wall

One of my "brick wall" ancestors is John M. Gill of South Carolina.  Born about 1803, he later lived in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas, where he ended up in Cherokee County.  There's a lot I don't know about him, but two questions in particular are priorities for me in my research.

1.  Who was his first wife?

The marriage records of Shelby County, Tennessee, show that he married Lucy Pearce 10 May 1845.  John had children who were born before 1845, so Lucy wouldn't have been their mother.  So who was?  Taking into account that the oldest child, Emily, was born in 1832 and in Tennessee, according to the 1850 census, I searched for marriages in Tennessee or South Carolina prior to 1832.  One hit in particular jumped out at me:  a marriage between a John M. Gill and Jane Clayton in Maury County, TN in 1831.  The reason it particularly stood out was the name Clayton.  One of John's sons, John James (J.J.) Gill, had a daughter named Fannie Clayton Gill.  Fannie's mother, Sarah Catherine (Sallie) Dotson, was a daughter of Josiah Dotson and none of my information on the Dotson family has any Claytons.  Clayton also seems an unusual name for a daughter, unless it happens to be a family name, so I had surmised that Clayton might have been a name from J.J.'s family.  If so, the Maury County marriage record could be a promising lead worth some further investigation, as it's definitely the right time and place and has the right groom's name.

2.  Where did John M. Gill's family come from?

I actually do have a pretty good idea.  One big hint is in the Gill household of the 1850 Shelby County census.  Below the names of the immediate members of the Gill family is that of Thomas Kelsey, aged 25 and a laborer.  Thomas was actually a member of the family, as he had married John's daughter Emily on 29 May 1850.  Thomas's ancestry went back to Samuel Kelso Sr., who had settled in Chester County, SC nearly a century earlier with other Scots-Irish families (including Gills) who came over at the same time, most of whom were either already related to the Kelsos by marriage or soon would be.  In fact, both of Thomas's grandmothers were also Gills.  Additionally, his family resided in Maury County, TN in 1830, right around the time of the marriage there between John M. Gill and Jane Clayton!  Given the patterns observed in previous generations of these immigrant families and in those of the Scots-Irish families of Fairfield County I've also researched, Thomas Kelsey marrying another Gill probably isn't entirely coincidental.  An additional clue might also appear in the name of John M. Gill's daughter Lucy's only child, a son named George Mills Gordon.  Might the M. in John's own name have stood for Mills?  The Mills family was another of the Scots-Irish Presbyterian families who settled the Fishing Creek area along with the Kelso/Kelseys and Gills and intermarried with both families.  It's my opinion that John M. Gill probably belonged to a branch of the Gills of Fishing Creek.

Some sources consulted:

1. 1850 United States Census, Shelby County, Tennessee
2. 1830 United States Census, Maury County, Tennessee
3. Ancestry.com. Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.  Original data: Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm.
4. New Summerfield Historical Association, New Summerfield Historical Memories, (Jacksonville, Texas: The Association, 1985).
5. Dr. Mavis Parrott Kelsey, Samuel Kelso/Kelsey, 1720-1796 : Scotch-Irish immigrant and revolutionary patriot of Chester County, South Carolina : his origin, descendents, and related families including newly published information on the Mills, Gill, Pagan, Wylie, Morrow, Jones, Sealy, Jaggers, Reeves, Mauldin, Moore, Stevenson, McAlexander and other families, (Houston: M. P. Kelsey, 1984).