Same Name; Different Man

Many people are familiar with the Rev. Peter Cartwright, the renowned early Methodist minister, who lived in western Kentucky and whose father, also named Peter Cartwright, died in Caldwell County in 1809. The Rev. Cartwright left Kentucky and settled in Sangamon County, Illinois, where he died in 1872. His life is well documented in Autobiography, Fifty Years a Presiding Elder.

There was another Peter Cartwright, who was probably not related to the above mentioned Peter Cartwright. The "other" man of that name was born 1790-1800 and died in 1847 in Livingston County, Kentucky. He first appeared in Livingston County on the 1838 tax list and bought land there later that same year.

The "other" Peter Cartwright bought several parcels of land, totaling 500 acres, on Jenkins branch of the Tennessee River. In February 1847, the Livingston County Court granted him a ferry license "from his lands across the Tennessee river opposite the lands of Rawleigh Jenkins to & from his lands just below the mouth of the pond drain that empties into sd. river." Thomas Jones was security on the bond for the ferry license.

This Peter Cartwright died in late 1847 and Charles G. Halstead and Enoch P. Ross were granted Letters of Administration on the Cartwright estate. Cartwright's wife apparently died prior to 1840 as an adult female is not listed on the 1840 Livingston County census. His living children are named in his estate file. They are as follows: Sophia, who married Walton H. Jones; Elizabeth, who married C.R. Love; Rehaba, who married A.K. Gray; Mahala, who married Thomas H. Machen and was deceased before June 1850, and Presley H. Cartwright. Sophia and Elizabeth, being above the age of 14 years, chose Demarcus L. Leeper as their guardian. Enoch P. Ross was appointed guardian of Presley H. Cartwright, who was under the age of 14 years.

The Cartwright children seem to have left Livingston County after the death of their father. Sophia and Rehaba both appear with their husbands on the 1850 Weakley County, Tennessee census and Elizabeth married C.R. Love in Weakley County in January 1850. After that their whereabouts are unknown.

While both men were named Peter Cartwright and both lived in western Kentucky, they were not the same man and probably were not related.