SARTAIN
by James Alfred Sartain
Taken from History of Walker County, Georgia, by James Alfred Sartain (Dalton, GA: A. J. Showalter Company, 1932), pp. 486-487. Transcribed by Glenn Gohr, October 1998.
The name is of French derivation and means "tailor." The Sartains were wool carders, weavers, fullers, tailors, living some fifty miles northeast from Paris, France, in the town of Maux. After, and in consequence of the invention of the art of printing, because of the persecutions aimed at those convicted of reading the Bible, the Sartains were among others who fled from France to England, settling at Trowbridge in Wiltshire. This exodus took place at least as early as 1557 and most likely earlier.
Because the English kings had long been anxious to introduce manufacturing into the county, as also, because King Henry VIII had separated the Church of England from the Roman Church, and denied the authority of the Pope, and for other reasons the French immigrants were welcomed.
The records of the Sartains in this little English town, as they were kept in the parish church, have been carefully examined and tabulated by John Sartain (1808-1900), of Philadelphia, who, himself was born in Trowbridge. He gives tables of baptisms, marriages and deaths from 1557 to 1886, as shown in these old records--earlier records being lost. Some of the early spellings of the name were: Serton, Sarton, Sartaine, Sartayne, Certen, Sartin, etc. (Paraphrased from "Annals of the Sartain Tribe," by John Sartain.)
John, James and Sier Sartain, brothers, migrated from Virginia to Madison county, Georgia, soon after the Revolution. There can be little doubt that either they or their forbears came over from England and were a part of the colony of Sartains at Trowbridge. John settled in Madison county where he had among others a son, Elisha (1797-1881). Elisha married Fanny Bonds, to which union were born several sons and daughters. One of these, Gilford (1838-1869), married Margaret Scarboro (1844-1881).
Gilford served in the Civil War, and after that bloody conflict was ended, he returned to his home and engaged in farming. He was a robust man of unusual physical strength, and at the community log-rollings he was sure to carry the heaviest load. On one occasion he was placed at the heavy end of a large log and although he managed to carry it, he ruptured a blood vessel in doing so and before leaving the field had a hemorrhage. He never recovered, but gradually declining, he died a few years later, leaving six small children to be reared by his widow. How that mother worked, lived in penury, suffered for the necessities of life, but still clung doggedly to the little ones, would be a long story. In 1879 the little family came to Walker county, settling at Crawfish Spring, where she died and is buried, leaving the little fellows to face the world alone.
FAMILY RECORD. David A., b. 1859, married Arminda Bagwell. Children: Mack, decd.; Ola; Corrie; Virgil and Virgie (twins); Ruth. Corrie, b. 1861, married H. A. (Tip) Blaylock (see sketch). Gilford (1864-1881). James A., b. 1866, married (1) Nannie Glenn (1866-1915), (2) Sallie Shankle (1881-1925), one child, James Shankle. Elizabeth (1868-1888). John W. (1869-1901).
Copyright © 1998-2006.
Last updated January 1, 2006.
Go to James Alfred Sartain's history of the Sartains in Walker County, Georgia
Go to W. Ernest Sartain's History of the Sartain Family
Go to the will of John Sertin of Culpeper County, VA, 1760
Go to Glenn Gohr's Sartain Lineage Page
Go to Glenn Gohr's SARTAIN/SARTIN/CERTAIN GENEALOGY Page
Go to Glenn Gohr's Genealogy Page