James Guthrie’s will was written 1 November 1800 and proved at May Term 1801 in Orange County, North Carolina. Margaret is named with Ann, Mary, and Martha among the four eldest daughters, each receiving ten shillings. Grandson James Forrest is separately named among the beneficiaries receiving five pounds.

The daughters’ clause does not rank the four women by birth order. The will calls James Forrest a grandson but does not expressly identify his mother in that clause. Read with the Forrest and Hamilton evidence, it supports the established family reconstruction.

Margaret’s precise birth date remains unknown. The commonly used before-1775 estimate partly depends on identifying her with the older woman in the proposed 1820 household. It should not be treated as an independently documented birth date.

Read the recorded will · Ending and court proof.

The evidence reviewed establishes the Forrest family connection but does not establish Margaret’s husband’s given name. John remains a proposed identification. A North Carolina man named John Forrest cannot be assigned to this marriage solely because his name fits a later tree entry.

Thomas Hamilton places his wife’s father’s burial in Humphreys County, Tennessee, without supplying his given name, death date, or cemetery. The Bible and obituary of Rev. James Forrest do not name his parents.

The surname Dooewar appears in a modern cemetery annotation associated with Elizabeth Hamilton’s parentage. Suggested readings such as Dewar or Duerr and the possibility of Margaret’s remarriage remain research leads. No marriage record or other reviewed evidence establishes a second husband. Dooewar should not be treated as an alternate spelling of Forrest.

The retained census screenshot places John Forest on the same manuscript page as John Maddin, Samuel Maddin, and James Hamilton. This is a useful association lead; it does not by itself prove relationship or adjacent residence.

The image-and-index comparison gives two males under 10, one male aged 16–25, one female under 10, one female aged 26–44, and one female aged 45 or older: six free white people. The manuscript’s final tally reads six. An index also assigns six to “all other persons” and totals twelve, apparently duplicating that tally. The apparent index error should not create six additional household members.

The older woman could be Margaret, and John could be her son. Neither identification is supplied by the age marks. A proposed son John, born approximately 1795–1804, therefore remains unverified and is not counted with Elizabeth and James.

This household does not independently prove Margaret’s survival after 1820, her husband’s death before 1820, or a 1820–1830 death interval for her. A formal transcription should include comparison of the complete column headings.

Thomas’s published account names Margaret Guthrie as his wife’s mother and reports her burial at Shiloh with his own parents. This is direct family testimony from Margaret’s son-in-law, published late in his life.

He describes his household’s move to the area later called Henderson County in 1820 and to Carroll County in January 1822. Those dates cannot automatically be assigned to Margaret. He supplies neither her death date nor a second marriage.

The accessible transcription cites E. B. Crisman, Biographical Sketches of Living Old Men, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, volume I (St. Louis: Perrin and Smith, 1877), pages 93–106. Comparison with the printed edition would help distinguish the original account from later editorial additions.

Read Thomas Hamilton’s published recollections →

Elizabeth’s retained family dates are 25 February 1792, North Carolina–16 April 1858, Tennessee. She married Thomas Hamilton (1789–1879) on 2 January 1812, reported in Humphreys County. Their family later settled in Carroll County and was associated with Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

The following ten children are preserved from the family research. Their individual dates and marriages should be supported by the corresponding household, church, cemetery, and estate records.

1. Washington Ewing Hamilton (1812–1852); Ellender McClarey. Died in Texas.
2. Sarah C. Hamilton (1815–1845); Robert Baker.
3. Margaret Barnett Hamilton (1817–1891); Sidney S. Broach. Died in Kentucky.
4. Jane L. Hamilton (1818–1878); James Robinson Knox.
5. William F. Hamilton (1821–1842); no marriage established in the retained list.
6. Elizabeth Ann Beard Hamilton (1823–1893); Ephraim Mark Cannon.
7. Mary Susan Hamilton (1826–1891); Ephraim Cleveland Davidson.
8. Martha Harriet Hamilton (1828–1902); further family details needed.
9. James Robert B. Hamilton (1831–1904); Martha Louise Smith.
10. Lucy Fatima Hamilton (1834–1907); Sidney Story Carroll.

James was born 15 January 1795 in North Carolina and died 16 March 1856 in Humphreys County, Tennessee. The birth date and death date are in the Bible; the obituary supplies his birth state. Sarah was born 29 July 1797, according to the Bible, and her death is reported in 1880.

Their marriage date is 8 February 1816. The handwritten Bible entry and A. A. Wilson’s obituary agree on the year. The ten children below appear in the Bible. Expanded names and later spouses come from the retained family research; initials are preserved where the Bible does not supply a full name.

1. Margaret A. Forrest (12 August 1817–4 July 1843); Allen Eaton Carter, married 13 September 1837.
2. Lydia Adeline Forrest (9 January 1819–about 1857); John M. O’Guin. The Bible marriage entry, 16 February 1841, uses Lydia A. and John O. Guin.
3. William L. C. Forrest (9 November 1820–9 September 1855).
4. Jane H. J. Forrest (6 May 1822–1897); John Hiram Knight, married 20 January 1847.
5. James Richard B. Forrest (2 July 1824–before 1908); first Margaret E. Andrews, married 14 February 1844; later Mary H. Parker.
6. Samuel L. Forrest (12 June 1826–6 October 1842).
7. Eli Guthrie Forrest (12 December 1828–1883); Angeline / Angelina Alexander. The Bible marriage entry reads 17 February 185?, with an altered or unclear final year digit.
8. Nancy T. Forrest (2 October 1830–12 November 1837).
9. Elizabeth L. Forrest (5 May 1834–23 October 1851).
10. John T. Forrest (23 October 1836–2 November 1863); Margaret M. Fiser, married 11 September 1859. The death entry places him at Chattanooga.

View the Forrest Bible images · Read James’s obituary and church record.

The repository identifies an 1846 American Bible Society New Testament, reportedly held by James King of Waverly in 1990. Four images preserve marriages, births, grandchildren’s entries, and deaths. Earlier events necessarily were entered retrospectively in this volume; the date of an event is not the date its entry was written.

The reviewed pages record James and Sarah’s marriage and ten children. Separate headings identify grandchildren through Margaret, Adeline, and Jane, with Carter, O’Guin, and Knight entries. A marginal Margaret M. Forrest entry dated 3 June 1837 should not be added as an eleventh child merely because it appears on the birth page.

The Bible does not name James’s parents or resolve Margaret’s husband’s given name, her death date, or a second marriage. The present custodian and the identities of all entry writers are not established by the repository page.

Forrest Family Bible · Cumberland Presbyterian archives →

A. A. Wilson’s obituary, published in The Banner of Peace and Cumberland Presbyterian Advocate, 15 May 1856, page 3, volume XIV, number 33, reports James’s service at New Orleans on 8 January 1815. The service dates in the working tree should be compared with an identified military or pension file before being presented as a complete service history.

The obituary describes a long preaching career. The church archive separately records ordination on 7 September 1849 at Mt. Vernon camp-ground, Hickman County, and assignment to the Dover circuit. Licensure, preaching, and ordination should not be collapsed into a single event.

One archived 1848 meeting entry pairs an October meeting date with a May newspaper citation. That chronology needs comparison with the newspaper before use as a dated event.

Read the obituary and presbytery extracts →

The central sources are James Guthrie’s recorded will, Thomas Hamilton’s published recollections, the Forrest Bible images, the 1856 Forrest obituary, and the retained 1820 census image and index comparison. The descendant lists also preserve information from the supplied family-tree research.

Two useful comparison leads are W. A. Smith, editor, “The autobiographical sketch of Thomas Hamilton,” West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 16 (1962), pages 127–132, and Jill Knight Garrett, A History of Humphreys County, Tennessee (1963), pages 70–71. These are retrieval leads, not additional originals examined for this page.

Tennessee research overview · Margaret in the Guthrie Research Tree.