Submitted to the Estill County Historical & Genealogical Society by Janice Hisle Bush, a descendant of Reverend Jonathan Kidwell. Forwarded here by Norwood Thorpe.
Jonathan Kidwell
S 2706 - North Carolina
John Kidwell came to the American Colonies in 1680. He was a man of means and became a
planter of tobacco in Calvert County, Maryland.
When his son, James Thomas Kidwell, grew to manhood, he inherited his father's land in
what is now Charles County, Maryland. He married Anna Mary Thomas, daughter of Captain
John Thomas, and they were the parents of several children.
One of their children was John Kidwell whose wife's name was Sarah. Her maiden name is
not know.
John and Sarah Kidwell were the parents of several children, also, one of which was the
Reverend Jonathan Kidwell who was born in 1750, in Charles County, Maryland
Jonathan Kidwell married in 1770 in Charles County, Maryland, to Rebecca. In 1777, he
moved with his family to Rowan County, North Carolina.
While residing in in Rowan County, North Carolina, Jonathan Kidwell enlisted in the army
in September, 1779, and served twelve months as a private soldier in Captain Douglas
Hayden's Company, Colonel Francis Locke's Regiment. He transferred and served under
Quartermaster General Edmund Gambel as an artificer and was discharged on September 22,
1781.
Jonathan Kidwell continued to reside in Rowan County, North Carolina, until 1784, when he
moved to the state of Kentucky, that part of which became Madison County, and he lived
there until 1828, when he moved to Henry County, Kentucky, to live with one of his son,
until his death in 1835.
After moving to Madison County, Kentucky, Jonathan Kidwell became an ordained minister of
the Methodist Church and his name can be found on many records in the Madison County Court
House where he performed marriage ceremonies. He performed the wedding ceremony of his
youngest son, James Kidwell to Nancy Bicknell, daughter of Thomas Bicknell, on
October 30, 1812.
Jonathan Kidwell and his wife, Rebecca, were the parents of nine children. There names
were: Vincent, Elizabeth, Drury, Jonathan Jr., Thomas, Rebecca, John, William and James
Kidwell.
Jonathan Kidwell was allowed a pension n his application which was executed on September
6,
1833, while residing in Henry County, Kentucky. He died on February 15, 1835, at the age
of eighty-five.
Though Jonathan Kidwell never lived in Estill County, he did have main descendants who
lived there. James Kidwell, his son, died in Estill County, and his son, Harrison
Kidwell, ran a grist mill and lived in Estill County from sometime in the 1850's until his
death in 1890. He is buried in the Daniel Cemetery on the Wagersville Road.
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