Capt. Samuel Gilbert, Sr. Notes

Some of the Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Converse, Jr, Volume II
Author: Charles Allen Converse
Call Number: R929.2 qC766 v.2
Genealogy of Samuel Converse, Jr., of Thompson Parish, Killingly Conn.;
Major James Convers of Woburn, Mass.;
Hon. Heman Allen of Milton and Burligton, Vermont;
and Captain Jonathan Birby, Sr., of Killigly, Conn.

Bibliographic Information: Converse, Charles Allen. Some of the Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Converse, Jr., Vol. 2. Boston:
Eben Putnam, 1905. 742 - 745.

SAMUEL GILBERT'S name is found in the North Parish of New London, Conn., in 1688 on a list of subscribers for the ministry of New London, and he was one of those who settled in the Indian fields. He married Mary Rogers, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Stanton) Rogers. Baker's History of Montville, Conn., says that she was born in New London in April 1667. In 1736 she was of Guilford and Saybrook and a widow. The following is the result of a search by Mr. Eben Putnam:

11 April 1700. Ensign Samuel Gilbert of Hartford, vs. Mrs. Elizabeth Wells of Hartford, administratrix on her husband's estate, for debt. Withdrawn.

1700-1. Samuel Gilbert of Hartford sues for land bought by his father Jonathan Gilbert of Hartford, deceased. Court Records in Probate Court, Hartford.

In 1698 Samuel Rogers of North Parish New London, now Montville, gave to his loving daughter Mary, wife of Samuel Gilbert of Hartford, two pieces of land there, in all 150 acres; also ten acres near a house of Samuel Gilbert on the aforesaid land. Samuel Gilbert and wife, Mary, and their son Nathaniel sell to John Merritt and Mercv Raymond the farm on which they lived and which was conveyed to said Gilbert by Samuel Rogers, father of his wife. See History of Montville, pages 73, 74, 86.

Samuel Gilbert was of Hartford in 1697, and had a dwelling house there in 1696 (Hartford Town Votes).

The records of the First Church of Hartford show that Samuel Gilbert owned the covenant 19 October 1686.

Samuel Gilbert married, 2 October 1685, Mary daughter of Samuel Rogers of New London (Hartford Town Records).

Samuel Gilbert seems to have lived in Hartford until 1698. Then he settled in New London, and remained there till the winter of 1703, when he returned to Hartford. He probably settled in Colchester, Conn., about 1705. Colchester records give as children of Samuel, Lydia born 4 September 1707, and Mercy born 4 October 1709.

Samuel Gilbert was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on Friday, August 5, 1664, and died in Paugwonk in Lyme (now Salem), Connecticut, on August 5, 1733. Mary Rogers was born in New London, Connecticut, on Wednesday, April 17, 1667, and died in Hebron, Connecticut, on September 30, 1756. He is the son of Jonathan and Mary (Wells) Gilbert. She is the daughter of Samuel and Mary (Stanton) Rogers. They had 11 children:

ii. Samuel Gilbert [#128]: He was born in Hartford in February 5, 1687/8, and died in Gilead Parish, Hebron, Connecticut, on May 1, 1760.

iv. John Gilbert: born April 12, 1692; married (1): Mary Cook; married (2): Susannah _____.

x. Lydia Gilbert: born September 4, 1707; married Hezekiah Beckwith, born in Lyme, Connecticut, on July 4, 1704.

Samuel Gilbert, while in Hartford, seems to have assisted his mother in carrying on the inn, but he did not neglect public duty. He was a member of the militia, as every able-bodied man upwards of sixteen years of age was obliged by law to be. In October, 1698, he was commissioned Ensign of the North Train Band at Hartford. In July, 1705, he sold land in Hartford to his brother, Thomas Gilbert of Boston, mariner. He sold the inn property in Hartford to Captain Caleb Williamson, who had come from Barnstable, Massachusetts, to Hartford. About the same time he leased to William Worthington a place on the highway running south from Wyllys Street in Hartford. Worthington bought the property in 1709 and kept an inn there until his removal to Colchester in 1717. This estate lay east of the South Green in Hartford, known now as Brenard Park. An inn was kept there for many years after Worthington left it, probably by Amos Hindale.

Soon after this, perhaps in 1706, Ensign Gilbert removed himself and family to Colchester. In May 1707, he was confirmed the Captain of the Train band in Colchester. In 1709 he was Captain of a company in Colonel William Whiting's regiment in an expedition to Canada.

"Roll of Col. William Whiting's Regiment, 1709. An accompt of Bounty Paid Coll Whiting's Regiment on the Late Expedition formed against Canada, 1709. The Colls. Perticular Compa. Capt. Samuel Gilbert $2." [Wyllys Papers, "Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society," vol. 21, p. 361.]

On April 8, 1724, Capt Samuel Gilbert, then of Lyme but late of Colchester, sold to Joseph Otis of Scituate, Mass., for $770 "all my farm in Colchester, 280 acres." In the same month he gave or sold land to his son, Nathaniel Gilbert. He had removed to Paugwonk within the limits of Lyme. Paugwonk, consisting of territory partly in Colchester, partly in Lyme, became the town of Salem in 1803. The efforts of the inhabitants there to obtain convenient parish privileges is shown by the following docoments:

"Petitions of Several Inhabitants of Lyme and Colchester, bordering on North Parish in New London. Your petitioners, being at so great a distance from ye Place of Publick Worship of God on ye Lord's Day in our respective Towns yt but few of them and those with great Difficulty, can attend Upon it there; and living so near to ye Place whereabouts we conclude the meeting house in ye said North Parish in New London will be erected, yt ye most of us may be able in a constant way to attend ye worship of God there, We therefore humbly desire that we may be annexed to and made a part of ye said North Parrish."

This petition is preserved in Connecticut Archives, Ecclesiastical, vol. 3, doc. 131, was signed by the autographs of eight men, and was presented to the General Assembly at the May session of 1722. The signature of Captain Samuel Gilbert, clearly made and elegantly formed, followed after the first signature on the petition, that of Col. Samuel Brown of Salem, Massachusetts, the largest (absentee) landowner in the vicinity, proprietor of about 3,000 acres.

Another petition was presented to the Assembly May 13, 1725, this time asking for the establishment of a new parish in Paugwonk, and bears the names (not all autographs) of seventeen signers, of whom Capt. Samuel Gilbert was one.

In October, 1725, thomas Gustin was Society Clerk, showing that the parish (not the church) had been legally organized.

In May, 1726, the society was legally called New Salem, no doubt in honor of Col. Samuel Brown of Salem, Massachusetts, its largest landowner. About this time Colonel Brown sent a cordial letter to the inhabitants of the new parish, expressing his good wishes at the good work they were ingaged in and telling them to draw upon him to the extent of £50.

May 30, 1726, another petition, signed by thirty-eight names, was sent to the General Assembly, among which the name of Samuel Gilbert comes first. The parish, owing to its small numbers and low estate had great difficulty in settling a minister. It was some years before the first minister, Rev. Joseph Lovett, was settled. There exists, however, a warrent ordering James Harris, Jr., collector of the parish called New Salem, to collect "the minister's rate herein delivered unto you and to pay unto the Revd. Mr. Samuel Seabury the sume of £52,15,6. you are forthwith to gather the one half part and to pay it to Mr. Seabury. Per order of John Holmes, Samuel Gilbertt, comtt." The rate bill on which the foregoing order is written contains thirty-seven names. Lieutenant Harris' and Captain Gilbert's names appear as the largest taxpayers.

Rev. Samuel Seabury, here mentioned, afterwards became a Church of England minister and had pastoral charge of a number of parishioners, scattered over a considerable territory in eastern Connecticut, who owned connection with a church established at Hebron, Connecticut, about 1738, or with St. James Church in New London.

Joshua Hempstead of New London, in his Diary, writes of lodging at Gilbert's, at Paugwonk. On Monday, August 6, 1733, Hempstead entered this: "Capt. Samuel Gilbert att Paugwonk died yesternight." Captain Gilbert left no will and no administration or distribution of his estate seems to be extant. Captain Gilbert's gravestone, much broken and decayed, might have been seen in a neglected field east of the road running south through the New Salem Parish, somewhat south of the old meetinghouse, now standing, but abandoned. A new stone has been erected by descendants in recent years.

Another entry in Hempstead's Diary, under a date of Jan. 5, 1741/2, page 387 of the printed volume, is of interest. Hempstead wrote: "I was at home all Day till evening. I went to Madm. Christophers to hear a young man preach that is stark blind and hath been so many years, his name is Prince of Boston. His mother was Capt. Samuel Gilbert's daughter, late of New Salem deceased. he is going to see his uncle at Southhold."

The mother of this young blind preacher is supposed to have been Mary Gilbert, daughter of Capt. Samuel Gilbert, born Dec. 3, 1696. No other daughter appears who could have been the mother of the young man Hempstead mentions, as far as known. His father has not been identified among the inhabitants of Boston bearing the name of Prince. His Uncle at Southold may have been the brother of his father or of his mother. If the latter, he was a Gilbert, but no son of Capt. Samuel Gilbert is known who could have been the young man's uncle, unless he was the Jonathan Gilbert born June 29, 1685. But this Jonathan is supposed to have died young. In January, 1742, Mary, daughter of Captain Samuel Gilbert, if then living, was forty-six years of ages and could have had a grown son at that date. The sons of Captain Gilbert, Nathaniel, John and Daniel, are not known to have ever resided at Southold.

The following is taken from Lyme, Connecticut, volume 5, p.227: A deed of Capt. Samuel Gilbert's negro man.

To all people unto whome these presente Bill of Sale shall come Gilbert Bant of Boston in ye country of Suffolk and Province of ye Massachutes Bay in New England, merchant, sendeth greeting. Know ye that I said Gilbert Bant for and in consideration of the sum of sixty pounds in money to me in hand paid by Samuel gilbert of Lyme in the county of New London and the Colony of Connecticut, yeoman, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge and thereof do aacquit and discharge ye sd Samuel Gilbert, his Heires and assigns forever, have given, granted, bargained and sold and by these presents Do fully and absolutely give, grant, bargain and sell unto ye sd Samuel Gilbert his Heirs and Assigns forever my negro man Named Peter, aged about twenty two years. To have and to hold ye sd Negro man Peter unto ye said Samuel Gilbert his heirs and Assigns to his and their only proper use, benefit and behoof forever and I ye sd Gilbert Bant Do avouch myself at ye time of ye unsealing and untill ye Delivery hereof to be ye true, sole and lawful owner of the said negro man Peter [then follows the usual warrent against all objection or molestation from the grantor's heirs]. Sept. 26, 1723.

Received on the day of ye Day of date within of Mr. Samuel Gilbert the sume of sixty pounds, being the full consideration within expressed.

I Samuel Gilbert of Lyme in the County of New London Do give, grant and make over to my son Daniel Gilbert after my Decease and his mother's, all the title and Interest I have to my negro man Peter, to him and his Heires forever, as witness my hand this 20th Day of February 1732/3.