Tanya, I have some information on the Harts you have listed below, especially of the Hart/Clay connection. (See below your message:) I am a descendant of the Rice family through Thomas Rice (CB) who settled in Caswell County, NC. It would appear that the Nathaniel Hart who married Ann Gist was the son of Thomas Hart III and his wife Susann Gray, as it was their daughter who married Henry Clay. Hope this gives you some assist with the line. Best regards, John Fox Winston-Salem,NC In a message dated 12/10/98 1:02:44 PM, [email protected] wrote: <<I found this information in THE JOURNALS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON AND HIS GUIDE, CHRISTOPHER GIST, ON THE HISTORIC MISSION TO THE FRENCH FORTS IN 1753, ed. and comp. by Don Marshall Larrabee, 1950, pgs. 23-24: Christopher Gist (d. 1691, Baltimore County) m. Edith Cromwell. They had: Richard Gist, "surveyor of the Western Shore" m. Zipporah Murray. They had: Two sons and (Capt.) Christopher Gist (d. summer 1759 of smallpox in SC or GA, guide to George Washington, m. Sarah Howard. Christopher and Sarah had: --A son (Col.) Nathaniel Gist ("the only son that married"). He was a colonel in the Virginia line during the Rev. War. Then he moved to Kentucky, where he died "early in the 19th century." --A son Richard, who was killed in the battle of King's Mountain. --A son Thomas, who "lived on the plantation." --A daughter Anne, who lived with Thomas until he died, then went to Kentucky to live with her brother Nathaniel. --A daughter Violette. The above Nathaniel Gist ("the only son that married") had issue of: --Henry Clay. --Thomas Cecil. --Sara "eldest" m. Hon. Jesse Bledsoe, US Senator from Kentucky. --Anne, 2nd daughter, m. Col. Nathaniel Hart (described as "a brother of Mrs. Henry Clay" ... does the editor mean her brother's wife's brother?). --a daughter m. Dr. Boswell of Lexington, Kentucky. --a daughter m. Francis P. Blair and had Montgomery Blair and Francis P. Blair. --a daughter m. Benjamin Gratz of Lexington, Kentucky. Footnotes to the listing note that Montgomery Blair became a lawyer and was counsel for the defendant in the Dred Scott case. Later he was Postmaster General on Lincoln's cabinet. His brother, Francis P. Blair, was the democratic candidate for the Vice President in 1868. Also noted is that the famous Blair house across from the White House "was the home of Francis P. Blair whose wife was Violet Gist, a granddaughter of christopher Gist. This historic old mansion, purchased by Blair in 1836, is now property of the federal government." Does anyone know the descendants (if any) of Nathaniel Hart and Anne Gist (at the bottom of the list)? Maybe some of us tie in to this line somewhere! >Tanya >> The Rev. David Rice, a grandson of the immigrants Thomas and Marcey Rice, wrote about them in a rare volume found in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., published in 1824. He states: Thomas Rice was an Englishman by birth, of Welsh extraction. He was an early adventurer into Virginia; where he spent the first part of his life is not certain. In the later part of his life, he owned a small plantation in the lower part of what is now Hanover County, Virginia. Here he left his wife, 9 sons and 3 daughters, and rturned to England to receive a considerable estate which had been left to him, but returned no more. The sailors reported that he had died at sea. It is supposed that he was assassinated. No return was ever made of the property after which he had gone, and his family were left destitute in a strange land. The family left without an earthly father were distressed, but part of them moved about thirty miles up the country where they procured a small plantation, on which they raised numerous families; four or five of them became serious preachers of religion, and were succeded in their religious profession by a considerable number of their children. Thomas' wife Marcey, was esteemed truly a religious woman. The known children of Thomas and Marcey were: 1. William, born 4 April 1686 (St. Peters Parrish Register) 2. James, born 4 April 16f86; was lame. 3. Thomas, born 24 June 1688. 4. Edward, born 17 April 1690. 5. Mary, born 9 December 1694. 6. *John, born 18 September 1698. 7. Alice, born 27 September 1700. 8. Marcey, born 5 July 1702. 9. David, married Susannah Searcy; parents of Rev. David Rice. 10. Susannah, married Thomas Hart, Jr. in 1730 in Hanover County, Virginia. He died ca 1755 leaving her with six children. They later moved to Orange County, North Carolina. Susannah and Thomas Hart's children were Thomas Hart III, who married Susann Gray of New Bern; their daughter married Henry Clay; John Hart; Benjamin Hart, married Nancy Morgan; settled in Georgia; David Hart, married Susanah Nunn; Nathaniel Hart, born 8 May 1734 in Hanover,Virginia; died 11 August 1782 at Boonsboro, Kentucky, married Sarah Simpson, died February 1785 in Lincoln County, Kentucky; Nathaniel helped set up the Transylvania Company set up to help settle lands in Tennessee; Ann Hart, married James Gooch; their daughter, Ann, married Jesse Benton. Ann Benton's husband died; she and her eight children left Orange County, North Carolina to move to Tennessee to claim lands left to her husband. The children were Susan, Ann, Jesse, Jr., Samuel, Nathaniel, Mary, Margaret, and Thomas Hart Benton. Thomas Hart Benton was a famous lawyer who fought a duel with Andrew Jackson, and also a senator. His grandnephew, Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) was a famous regional American painter.