Gilbert Benedict

Family reference: 343.2

	Born	1745	Location
	Married	Date	Mercy Weed
	Died	04 Dec 1827	Pompey, Onandoga co, NY
	Buried		Blocktown Cemetery, Pompey

Parents:

• Father: Nathaniel Benedict; 1723-1806
• Mother: Hannah Hawley Keller

Children:

1. Enoch Benedict; d. 1827
2. Nathaniel Benedict; b. July 17, 1775; m. Margaret Smith
3. Stephen Benedict; 1783-1861
4. Levi Benedict; 1782-1831
5. Rufus Benedict
6. Walter Benedict
7. Betsy Benedict; m. Lester Stuart

The Revolutionary War

Gilbert enlisted in the Revolutionary Army on May 12, 1775 in Captain Enoch Noble Benedict's 6th Company of Colonel David Waterbury's 5th Continental Regiment of Connecticut. His company was ordered to duty with the Northern Army reporting at Lake Champlain. They enlisted for six months and the company returned home without the loss of a single man (per History of Danbury by J. M. Bailey, page 57). See Elwyn Benedict1 page 233 for description of petition for pension submitted by his son Stephen.

Gilbert was honorably discharged on Oct. 6, 17751.

Son Rufus Benedict

Benedicts to America, Vol I, Pg 263
58. RUFUS6 (Gilbert,5 Nathaniel,4 Nathaniel,3 Samuel,2 Thomas1)
m. Susan Morehouse. Ch.
1) - MILO.
2) - MYRON.
3) - LUCETTA.

Gilbert and Mercy Weed

The 1790 New York census lists Gilbert as a resident of Stillwatertown, Albany county with five boys under 16 and one daughter.

Gilbert bought from John Atkinson of New York City, a merchant, the southwest corner of Lot 97, 300 acres, counded (sic.) by other land conveyed to his son Enoch Benedict for the consideration of $300. Gilbert later sold 60 acres of land of Lot 97 to Elihu Barber for $180 and 20 acres to Amos Newman for $100 on Jan. 6, 1806. Seven years later, Gilbert and Mercy sold 40 acres of Lots 97-98 on Sept. 15, 1813 for $493.

Gilbert and his son Walter bought three pieces of land on June 7, 1814, Lot 7, 48-1/2 acres for $720. Just 21 days later, he and his son Walter sold to his brother Stephen of Pompey for $200, part of Lot 7 in Fabius, 22 acres inclusive of lumber mill and yard1.

Mercy passed away on August 1, 1826 at the age of 74. They are buried in the Block cemetery near the town of Pompey, lot no. 98.

The cemetery's true name is Blocktown cemetery, as listed on town deeds and was previously known as Block School House cemetery. Located on No. 5 Road at the corner of Pompey Center Road in Pompey, which is in Onondaga county, New York State. The cemetery is a real gem, set back from the road on a low rise in a grove of mostly maple trees.
-per John Rudy, who restored this cemetery as his Eagle Scout project. See the weblink below.

This and That

Benedicts to America, Vol II, Pg 278
Newton Benedict, George's son, related that the First Benedicts of Fabius, "Gilbert, Enoch & Walter" came and built a wooden structure near a spring that still exists on the Pompey Center Road near the Blocktown Cemetery. It is on the knoll on the left just before coming to the cemetery as you leave Fabius. They stored cabbage and vegetables in the cellar that they dug under the building and traded things with the Indians so they could get horses to go back to CT. The next year they came back with their families and this building had been burned down. (Mrs. James O Virgil of Fabius told this to me on 10Nov1963).

Footnotes

Notes on burials at Pompey:

• Gilbert was born in 1746 and died Dec. 4, 1827.
• Stephen died on Sept 22, 1861 at 78 years. His wife Jemima died on Dec. 18, 1857 at 72 years. She was the daughter of Abel Benedict.
• Stephen's son Gilbert W. Benedict died Aug. 31, 1838.
• Jonathon (likely Gilbert's brother), born 1747 and died July 18, 1834 at age 87. His wife, Huldah Sleeve Benedict, born 1761 and died March 6, 1852.
• Levi died Jan. 27, 1831.

See this website for details: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyononda/cemetery/block.txt.

Sources

1. "Genealogy of the Benedicts in America", Vol. II by Elwyn E. Benedict; 1st pub. 1969; orig. avail. at Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, DC.

-- JimBenedict - 05 May 2008
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