William Gant

  Notes:

All info from http://www.gant-name.org.uk/trees/1622.htm. This also shows 5 children not yet entered.

William Gant was the third son of John (Jonathan) and Elizabeth Gant and was born on May 15th 1768 in Horncastle, Lincs. He married Jane Holt at Saddleworth, Yorks. on January 10th 1791. She had been born in Heywood, Lancs and was the daughter of Robert Holt, who was reputedly a man of some wealth and who did not look favourably on her marriage to William.
There is some uncertainty as to the number of children that were born to William and Jane before their departure to America with some sources suggesting the birth of a number of children that may have died. The most likely scenario was that Mary Elizabeth Gant was born on April 10th 1791 and John Holt Gant was born in 1792 at White Lee, Lancs prior to the family's emigration to America soon after the Revolutionary War in the mid 1790's. They journeyed to Kentucky and probably initially settled in Nelson County before moving between 1815 and 1820 to Boone County, Kentucky near to the Ohio River and about seven miles below Cincinnati.
William & Jane decided to make the move to Illinois, where their son Robert was living, in 1826. Unfortunately on the journey, William was drowned in the Ohio River and it was left to Jane and the rest of her family to complete the journey. It is known that some time after William's death, Jane returned back to England but that she was treated very coldly by her family and thus returned back to Illinois - a significant feat of travel for her at that time. She vowed never to return to her relatives in England and met and married a Mr. Radley and they had a daughter, Mary Radley. In turn Mary married a tinner, Joseph Williamson from nearby Chester, Illinois and they had four sons and two daughters.

William married Jane Holt on 10 Jan 1791 in Saddleworth, Yorkshire.