The Will That Spoke: Amos A. Gilbert Sr. (1778–1843)
On the 28th of February, 1843, an old man in Vevay, Indiana, sat down and wrote his will. He had been married five times. He had children by more than one wife. And when it came time to divide what he owned, he did something that still speaks, nearly two hundred years later.
His name was Amos A. Gilbert Sr. — my 5th great-grandfather, on my mother’s Gilbert line.
The will was probated on the 1st of May, 1843, in Switzerland County, Indiana — recorded in Probate Book A, page 213. And this is what it says.
He named his wife Agnes as his executrix. To Agnes he left all his personal property and real estate for as long as she remained his widow — for her maintenance and that of his two youngest children. If she remarried, she would take one-third of the real estate instead.
And then came the line that tells you everything about the man: to his two sons, Elijah Gilbert and Amos Gilbert, Jr., and to his daughter Amety McMillen, wife of John McMillen — one dollar each. “They having already received their proportion.”
One dollar. Not out of cruelty — out of fairness. The older children had already been given their share while he was living. The will was making sure the widow and the little ones were provided for. That is a father settling his accounts honestly.
A year and a half later, on the 20th of September, 1844, the widow Agnes Gilbert came back to the courthouse. She relinquished her claims under the will and claimed her dower rights instead — witnessed by John Dumont. Even in grief, she knew her rights under the law, and she exercised them.
Five marriages
My research shows Amos married five times: Letitia Canby, Sarah Jane “Sally” Magruder, Betsy Silvers, Nancy Henry, and finally Agnes — whose maiden name I have not yet proven, and I won’t guess at it.
What the records prove outright: an Amos Gilbert married Betsy Silvers on the 17th of May, 1827, in Switzerland County, Indiana. And Sarah “Sally” Magruder — born the 2nd of May, 1789, daughter of Revolutionary soldier Norman Bruce McGruder — married an Amos Gilbert; the old pension papers name their grandchildren Amity MacMillen and Elijah Gilbert, living in Switzerland County in 1844.
Amos himself was born the 1st of September, 1778, in Otis, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, son of Elisha and Submit (Glazier) Gilbart — so the Massachusetts town vital records say.
What I’m still proving
I do this work on the rule of “proven and proven again,” so here is my honest account: I have not yet proven which Amos Gilbert married Letitia Canby in Wrightstown, Pennsylvania, in 1803 — there was another Amos Gilbert with a wife Letitia living in Ohio in 1850, and I will not hand my ancestor’s marriage to the wrong man. Agnes’s maiden name is still unknown. And the maternity of Nancy Welsh, formerly Nancy Gilbert, named among the youngest children in the will, is not yet settled. These are open questions, and I’ll tell you when they’re closed.
The records
- Amos Gilbert’s will — Switzerland County, Indiana, Probate Book A, p. 213; will dated 28 Feb 1843, probated 1 May 1843; Agnes’s 1844 dower claim. Transcription on my Gilbert research page: http://conidubois.com/tag/gilbert/
- Marriage record, Amos Gilbert & Betsy Silvers, 17 May 1827, Switzerland County: http://genealogytrails.com/ind/switzerland/marriage_1814-1830.html
- Norman Bruce McGruder pension abstract (daughter Sarah “Sally” married Amos Gilbert): http://ingenweb.org/inswitzer/military/rev-soldiersMW.html
- Amos A. Gilbert Sr. memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/230320231/amos_a-gilbert
- Sarah Jane (Magruder) Gilbert memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/230323314/sarah-jane-gilbert
More of my Gilbert research: http://conidubois.com/tag/gilbert/
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