Margaret Eady Gay (1791-after 1860)

March is Women's History Month and my cousin, Sara Campbell (Remembering Those Who Came Before Us) challenged me to post 31 mini blogs about our female ancestors. Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist has compiled some prompts to make blogging about female ancestors a little easier.

March 9 — Take a family document (baptismal certificate, passenger list, naturalization petition, etc.) and write a brief narrative using the information.

John Eady to Henry Eady for Margaret Eady Gay 1832

In 1832 my 5 times great-grandfather John Eady deeded land to his son  -- and my 4 times great-grandfather -- Henry. What does this have to do with a female ancestor? The transcript from the Georgia Supreme Court Deed Mortgage Book (Vol C-D, 1833-1837) gives us a clue:

"Georgia, Wilkinson County} This indenture made this 27th of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two between John Eady of the one part and Henry Eady of the other part witnesseth that the said John Eady for an[d] in consideration of the love good will and affection which I have and bear unto my daughter Margaret Gay do give and grant unto the said Henry Eady as trustee for my daughter Margaret Gay all that lot or parcel of land lying and being in the 24th district of formerly [sic] Muscogee, now Talbot County known by lot (No 7) seven with all that appertains thereunto in any wiss [sic] whatsoever to the only proper use benefit and behoof of him the said Henry trustee as above mentioned for the use of my said daughter Margaret Gay and after her death to be equally divided or sold for a Division among all her children. And I the said John Eady my heirs and assigns unto the said Henry Eady trustee as above the said land and promises to and will warrant and forever defend in writing whereof I have hereunto let my hand and seal the day and year above written" -- Recorded 26th March 1833 ---

John received this parcel of land and 3 others (one in Muscogee and two in Lee Counties) in 1827 as a fortunate drawer due to his service to Georgia in the Revolutionary War (Hitz, Alex M., comp.Authentic List of All Land Lottery Grants Made to Veterans of the Revolutionary War by the State of Georgia. Atlanta, GA, USA: n.p., 1955). Many of those who received land in the lottery sold the grants without ever taking procession of the land. However, John held on to the parcels in Muscogee, later Talbot County.

John Eady's children Henry and Margaret married siblings, John and Elizabeth Gay, the children of Allen Gay and Abigail Castleberry. Henry and Elizabeth married in October 1807 according to Henry's War of 1812 pension record. John and Margaret married a couple of months later on Christmas Eve of the same year. Both couples wed in Wilkinson County, Georgia.

At the time that John named Henry the trustee for Margaret and her interest in Lot 7, Georgia followed the common law doctrine of coverture in which a married woman had no legal rights of her own but rather her rights were subsumed by those of her husband. In 1832, John and Margaret Gay had been married for almost 25 years. From the language in the deed, it seems clear that Margaret's father, out of love and concern for his daughter, was trying to keep the land out of his son-in-law's hands. It was a strategy that worked until 1848. 

John Eady died in Wilkinson County in 1845, followed in 1847 by the death of Henry in the same county. It's possible that Margaret's land in Talbot County was addressed by one or both of their wills, though no record of such as been found to date. Many of Wilkinson County's probate records were destroyed during the Civil War. At any rate, in Talbot County in 1848, John Gay deeded Margaret's land to their son James S Gay (Talbot County Superior Court Deeds and Mortgages Volume G-H, 1841-1850). In the 1860 U.S. Census, Margaret was living with James and his family in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. She was 69 years old.

Six years later, the Georgia legislature passed the Georgia Married Women's Property Act of 1866, which challenged the principles of coverture.