Reverend John Roberts was born 1780 in Virginia. He married Elizabeth Emert before 1803. John Roberts was an Old Style Baptist Preacher. According to Church Records he traveled back and forth between the Church in the Forks in Sevierville and White Oaks Flats Church in what is present day Gatlinburg, Tn. In one church record dated 1st Saturday December 1817, the mention of six new members lists among them John Roberts and wife. John Roberts and wife and daughter, Elizabeth, are recorded twice in the 1850 Census. Once in the home of his daughter, Mary Lindsey, in Little Cove and once in the home of his daughter, Barbara Flinn, on upper Middle Creek, Sevier County. A descendant, the late Blanche McMahan, stated that John Roberts and his wife Betsy are buried in unmarked graves under a cedar tree in Middle Creek Cemetery in Sevier County.
Children of John Roberts and Elizabeth Emert:
1. William Phillip Roberts born 1803.
2. Barbara Roberts born 1805.
3. Frederick Roberts born 1809.
4. George Roberts born 1813.
5. Elizabeth Roberts born 1814 in Sevier County, Tn.
6. Aaron Roberts born 1818.
7. Mary Roberts born 1818 in Sevier County, Tn. She married a Lindsey.
8. Daniel Roberts born 1824 in Sevier County, Tn.