Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Governor John Taylor Gilman (1794-1805, 1813-1816). Exeter merchant and politician Member of U.S. Congress, 1782/3; State Treasurer, 1783/8. Gilman (1753-1828) was born at Exeter (NH) and died at Portsmouth (NH).

He had a common school education and his father brought him up in the family shipbuilding business. The American Revolution changed Gilman's life. In 1775 Gilman's father was named Treasurer of New Hampshire, and Gilman joined his father as clerk; but on April 19, 1775, a day after the Battle of Lexington (MA), Gilman was in a company of volunteers and on his way to Cambridge (MA). Gilman's father remained Treasurer of New Hampshire until his death in 1783, but Gilman was on a new career path.

December 10, 1776 Gilman was named to a committee charged with resolving claims made against the colony. In 1780-81 he was a commissioner at meetings of all the New England states where mutual defense and other policies were discussed. Gilman served as a State Representative (1779-81), as a State Senator and as a member of the state's Committee of Safety (both 1781). A delegate to the Constitutional Convention, held at Philadelphia (PA) in 1783, Gilman returned to take over his father's work as State Treasurer when his father died (1783). He held this position 1783-88.

Gilman served first as Governor, 1794-1805. Winning ten successive one-year terms as a Federalist, Gilman angered the Republican opposition by opposing creation of any state banks other than the chartered bank he headed at Portsmouth. Later (1813-15) he supported the War of 1812 and the rebuilding of coastal harbors. Perhaps Gilman's most significant act as Governor was his sponsorship of John Carrigain's map of New Hampshire, prepared 1803-1816. A definitive article about the Map may be found in Historical New Hampshire, vol. 52, nos. 3-4 (Fall-Winter 1997).

References: Albert S. Batchellor, ed., "John Taylor Gilman", in Appendix, Early State Papers in New Hampshire, vol.XXII (1893); Frank C. Mevers and Mica B. Stark, "The Making of the Carrigain Map of New Hampshire, 1803-1816), Historical New Hampshire vol. 52 nos. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 1997).

Location: State House, Second Floor, Executive Council Chambers
Portrait presented by the Gilman family, 1875