♂Moses Gilman

Moses Gilman (baptized 11 March 1630/31 – died at Exeter before 6 August 1702) was a landholder and selectman of Exeter, New Hampshire. He was the seventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Caleb Gilman (1678–1766).

Early life

He was baptized at Hingham, in Norfolk, England, on 11 March 1630/31; the parish register files the entry under 1630, the Old Style year^W. A history of the Gilman family published in 1869 makes him a son of Edward Gilman and a younger brother of John Gilman (1624–1708) of Exeter. According to the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, he is first mentioned in the Exeter town books on 10 February 1647/8. The 1869 history quotes the town record of 10 May 1652, when Edward Gilman, his son Moses and Edward Colcord were accepted as inhabitants at their own request, “and to come and live amongst us”.

Exeter

In July 1652 the town granted 200 acres of swamp jointly to Edward Gilman senior, John Legat, John Gilman and Moses Gilman. In October 1664 Moses received fifty acres “on the other side of the great cove”, and on 30 March 1674 he was granted 600 acres for a farm, as were Samuel Dudley and Lieutenant John Gilman; Charles H. Bell’s History of Exeter (1888) lists the same 1674 grants. According to the 1869 history, his farm was laid out on or near the Lamprey River, and he went on receiving grants as late as 1698.

Bell’s history lists him as a selectman in 1653, 1660, 1673, 1674, 1677 and 1693, and the Genealogical Dictionary gives the same years; the 1869 history says that his son Moses followed him in the office in 1694. Bell also records that the town chose him in 1668 to help run the boundary lines between Exeter and Hampton, and elected him a surveyor of highways in 1671. The Genealogical Dictionary adds jury service in 1653, the grand jury in 1693, the rank of sergeant in 1680 and a tavern licence in 1683. The 1869 history says he took an active part in town affairs and was “too fond of the law for his own or neighbors’ comfort”.

Family and death

The 1869 history says that he married Elizabeth, a daughter of William Hersie, senior, and the Genealogical Dictionary also calls her Elizabeth Hersey; neither book gives the date of the marriage. The 1869 history names seven sons, Moses, Jeremiah, James, John, David, Joshua and Caleb, and three daughters: Elizabeth, who married Byley Dudley, a son of the Rev. Samuel Dudley; Judith, who married Thomas Lyford; and Mary, who married Cornelius Connor.

His will was witnessed by William Gilman, Cartee Gilman and John Clark and proved on 6 August 1702. The 1869 history dates it 12 January 1691; the Genealogical Dictionary dates it 12 January 1701 and says that it named his wife Elizabeth and ten children. The will itself, printed in the Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, is dated 12 January 1701/2, and so agrees with the Genealogical Dictionary rather than the 1869 history. It names seven sons, Moses, Jeremiah, James, John, David, Joshua and Caleb, and daughters married to Dudley, Lyford and Conner, which agrees with the 1869 list of children; it calls his wife only “my beloved wife”. In it he gave “my beloved son Caleb Gilman my dwelling house and out housing which I now possess, together with the other half of my home lands, lying next to his brother Moses’s“. The will thus shows that Moses had a son named Caleb who received the homestead. That this Caleb is the Caleb Gilman of Exeter who died in 1766 rests on the 1869 history, the Genealogical Dictionary and the Dudley family history, which all make the Caleb of the later records a son of Moses. The 1869 history supposes that he died in 1702, since that is when the will was proved. As his widow, Elizabeth made deeds to three of their sons: on 11 June 1712 “Elizabeth widow of Moses” conveyed a saw-mill to her son Caleb, in a deed that names her daughters Elizabeth Dudley, Mary Connor and Judith Lyford, and in 1714 she made deeds to her sons James and John.

Notes

Baptism date

Under the Old Style calendar, which began the year on 25 March, the Hingham register’s 11 March falls in 1630; in the New Style calendar it is 1631. The 1869 history of the Gilman family gives the baptism as 11 March 1630.