| Notes |
- Records and documents contain a variety of spellings for the Gale surname. Two or more different spellings may be found within the same document. The variety include Galey, Gayley, Gayly, Gaily, Gailey and Gealy. The Gailey spelling has been used by this researcher because that is the spelling which has been used in his family for five generations.
James Gailey left his parent's home in Virginia sometime around 1770. The parting seems to have been amicable since James made several return visits and he was named an executor in his father's will. After his father's death, his mother relinquished all rights to her husband's estate and delivered it into the hands of James.
James migrated south into the Salisbury District of NC into an area that later became Lincoln County. He married Sarah Gilkey, daughter of William Gilkey, around 1779. Another Lincoln County citizen named Moses Justice married the sister of Sarah at about the same time. Her name was Mary Gilkey. The James Gailey and Moses Justice families would remain together over several decades as they migrated onto the western frontier. They were living on adjoining farms in the Eastern District of NC by 1780. The area was identified later as Washington County, NC, Hawkins County, TN, and Knox County, TN. James and Sarah Gailey's first documented child, named Moses, was born in East TN in 1785.
James Gailey and Moses Justice both signed a petition in 1788 which was filed by the inhabitants of Hawkins County, TN requesting a division of the county. These brothers-in-law later entered into a partnership for the purchase of land in what was identified as Knox County, TN, later named Blount County, TN, and finally determined to belong to the Cherokee Indian Nation.
James and Sarah Gailey's second documented child, Andrew, was born in 1790. James was commissioned as a Constable in Knox County, TN on 16th June, 1792. He was a participant in several lawsuits heard in Knox County, TN during the 1790s. He also served on several juries, including the Grand Jury.
During the middle 1790s, James Gailey and Moses Justice moved their families into an area in the southern section of Blount County, TN. They lived along Baker Creek near where it joins the Little Tennessee River. James was soon appointed a Constable for Blount County. He was also ordered by the Blount County Court to work with several other citizens to view and mark the nearest and best way leading from Maryville to the Tellico Block House.
Under the Treaty of Holston (1791), the Cherokees had relinquished their title to all lands east of the Clinch River and north of a line from near Kingston, TN to the NC boundary. The line, however, was not surveyed till 1797 by Benjamin Hawkins. The survey revealed that a number of settlers were over the line and living on Indian lands. James Gailey and Moses Justice found themselves, along with many neighbors, caught in the crossfire of purposes between the state of Franklin, the Cherokee Nation, the state of NC, the fledgling territorial and US governments and the new state of TN. James and Moses were forcibly removed from their homes in October, 1797, by Lt. Colonel Thomas Butler's military detachment. They had to obtain passports from Governor John Sevier to go into Indian territory to harvest their crops and collect their stock and belongings. There followed a series of petitions to the TN General Assembly in an effort to obtain clear title to the lands claimed by the settlers. Final resolution of the land title issue was not reached until the 1820s. In 1803, a number of Blunt County, TN citizens including James Gailey, Moses Justice, John Clemons, William Hitchock, Prettyman and Zachariah Jones, George and William Skile and David Wallace were still in limbo regarding clear title to their land. They decided enough was enough and packed their belongings in their wagons and headed west. Their next stop would be Buffalo Valley in Middle TN. Moses Gailey was eighteen and Andrew was thirteen when James moved his family to Smith County, TN. James Gailey's widowed mother, Sarah, moved her belongings and seven children from Chesterfield County, VA to Smith County, TN to live near her eldest son.
The next few years were a busy time for James. He was appointed Constable for Smith County in June, 1804. He was buying and selling land. His mother relinquished the estate of her deceased husband into the hands of James. He submitted an updated inventory of Josiah Gale's estate to the Smith County Court and followed this with a division of the estate among his brothers and sisters. He had guardianship over his sister, Polly, and his brothers, Robert and Thomas because they were under age.
James, his eldest son, Moses, and his brother, Robert were among 313 persons who signed a petition dated 6th August, 1806, requesting that the TN General Assembly divide Smith County for the purpose of forming new counties. Warren County was formed on 26th November, 1807. More research is needed to determine whether James found himself living in Warren County when it was formed from Smith County or he moved south into the new county. Records prove that he was living in Warren County by 1808. This is where James and Sarah probably lived the remainder of their years. They were listed in the Warren County 1830 census. Both were in their mid-seventies.
End Notes: Roster of Soldiers from North Carolina in the American Revolution, p. 384.
Pierce's Register, pp 313, 341.
The will of William Gilkey, Lincoln County, NC, September 10, 1789. Probated January 1,
1790. Lincoln County, NC Original Wills, 1769 - 1926. NC Archives and Records Section,
Office of Archives and History, Raleigh, NC. File No. CR 060.801.10
Microfilm: NC Land Grants, Vol. 3, p 147. NC Land Grants, Bk. 8, p 538, Bk. 67, p 355
and Bk. 80, p 301. NC Grant No. 130, Entry No. 2016, Bk. No. 79, p 289. NC Land
Grants, Bk. 9, p 276.
Hawkins County Land Grants, Bk. 1, p 24.
1788 Hawkins County Petition for County Division, transcribed by Cherel Bolin Henderson,
East TN Historical Society, "Tennessee Ancestors", Vol. 18, No. 1, April, 2002, pp 16 - 18.
Original Petition archived in NC General Assembly Session Records, Box 2, Nov. - Dec.
1788, Folder 48.
Knox County, TN Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Docket Nos. 99, 100, 101, 138 and
152, Box 1.
Records of Superior Court, Hamilton District, 1792, Docket Nos. 233 and 160.
Knox County, TN County Court Minutes, Bk. O, 1792 - 1795, PP. 4, 5, 60, 75, 83, 92, 100,
117, 170 and 196.
Records of Superior Court, Hamilton District, 1795, Docket Nos. 91 and 110.
Knox County, TN Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1795, Docket No. 305.
Knox County, TN Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Bk. D, Box 1A, pp 385 - 388.
Superior Court, Hamilton District, Minute Book of the Court, Vol. 1, October, 1793 - March,
1808, pp 27, 30, 48, 60, 91, 119 - 122.
Superior Court, Hamilton District, Minute Book of the Court, Vol. 4, April, 1794 - September,
1798, pp 224, 225.
Knox County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, April Term, 1795.
Blount County, TN Court Records, Vol. 1, 1795 - May, 1804, pp 3, 11, 13, 102, 211, 240 -
244, 333 and 430.
Inez E. Burnes, "History of Blount County, Tennessee, From War Trail to Landing Strip,
1795 - 1955", (The Tennessee Historical Commission (1957), pp 32, 36.
Stanley Folmsbee, et al., "Tennessee: A Short History", (The University of Tennessee
Press, Knoxville, TN, (1969) p 146.
Cherel Bolin Henderson, "The Story of the South of the French Broad Settlements, 1783 -
1829", Tennessee Ancestors, Vol. 17, No. 3, December, 2001, pp 195 - 207.
Governor John Sevier Papers, Box 5, Folder 9, Archives Division, Tennessee State Library
and Archives.
Dorothy Williams Potter, "Passports of Southeastern Pioneers, 1770 - 1823", Gateway
Press, Inc., Baltimore (1982).
Blount County, TN Tax List, 1800, p 72 and 1801, pp 93, 152.
The Upper Cumberland Genealogical Association, Vol. XVII, No. 2, p 56.
Smith County, TN Deeds, 1800 - 1807, Book B, pp 216, 268, 269, 364, 365, 488, 489, 550,
551.
Smith County, TN Minute Book, 1804 - 1835, p 135.
Barbara Crumption, "Deeds, Smith County, TN, 1807 - 1811", Vol. 1, p 81,Duncan, OK,
Creative Copies (1987).
Barbara Crumption, "Deeds,Smith County, TN, 1807 - 1811", Vol 2, pp 15, 71, Duncan, OK,
Creative Copies (1987).
Laura Willis, Transcriber,"Smith County, TN Wills & Inventories, 1805 - 1809", pp 18 - 30.
Laura Willis, Transcriber, "Smith County, TN Wills & Administration, Vol. 1, Dec, 1805 - Dec,
1808", Melber, KY, Simmons Historical Publications (1999) pp 9 - 12.
Laura Willis, Transcriber, "Smith County, TN Wills & Administration, Vol. II", Melber, KY,
Simmons Historical Publications (1997) p 26.
Smith County, TN Will Book A, pp 18 - 30.
Smith County, TN 1820 census.
The Petition to Form Warren County, transcribed by James A. Dillon, Warren County, TN
Historical Journal, Vol. 5, pp 29, 30.
Warren County, TN Deeds, Vol. C, 1818 - 1820, p 2, 3.
Warren County, TN 1820 census, p. 10.
Warren County, TN 1830 census, p. 303.
Researched by Raymond A. Shirley, Sr.
1990 - 2004
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1760 - Aft 1830 (~ 81 years)
[4, 5, 6] 