OVERVIEW[]
From Darlington, 1893
CHRISTOPHER GIST was of English descent. His grandfather was Christopher Gist, who died in Baltimore County in 1691. His grandmother was Edith Cromwell. They had one child, Richard, who was Surveyor of the Western Shore and was one of the Commissioners for laying off the town of Baltimore. In 1705 he married Zipporah Murray, and Christopher was one of three sons. He was a resident of North Carolina when first employed by the Ohio Company. He married Sarah Howard. He had three sons, Nathaniel, Richard and Thomas, and two daughters, Anne and Violette. Nathaniel was the only son that married. With his sons, Nathaniel and Thomas, he was with Braddock on his fatal field of battle. Urged by bribes and the promise of rewards, two Indians were persuaded to go out on a scouting expedition. As soon as they were gone, Christopher Gist, the General's guide, was dispatched on the same errand. On the 6th both Indians and Gist rejoined the army, having been within half a mile of the fort. Their reports were favorable and the army advanced. After Braddock's defeat he raised a company of scouts in Virginia and Maryland and did service on the frontier, being then called Captain Gist. In 1756 he went to the Carolinas to enlist Cherokee Indians for the English service. For a time he served as Indian Agent. He died in the summer of 1759, of smallpox, in South Carolina or Georgia. Richard Gist was killed in the battle of King's Mountain. Thomas lived on the plantation. ( 88)
Anne lived with him until his death, when she joined her brother Nathaniel in Kentucky. Nathaniel was a Colonel in the Virginia Line, during the Revolutionary War, and afterwards removed to Kentucky, where he died early in the present century. He left two sons, Henry Clay and Thomas Cecil. His eldest daughter, Sarah, married the Hon. Jesse Bledsoe, United States Senator from Kentucky. His grandson, B. Gratz Brown, was the Democratic candidate for Vice- President in 1872. The second daughter of Colonel Gist married Colonel Nathaniel Hart, a brother of Mrs. Henry Clay. The third daughter married Dr. Boswell, of Lexington, Kentucky. The fourth married Francis P. Blair, and they were the parents of Montgomery Blair and Francis P. Blair. The fifth married Benjamin Gratz, of Lexington, Kentucky.
Vita[]
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Ancestry[]
Christopher was the son of Richard Gist (c1683-1741) and Zipporah Murray (1685-1760).
ChildList[]
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Family history[]
Alternative interpretation[]
Records[]
Christopher Gist kept a series of Journals in which he recorded events and observations during various times. One of these Journals was kept during his explrations for the Ohio Company.