GILMAN, JOHN TAYLOR (1753-1828). An American political leader, Governor of New Hampshire for fourteen terms. He was born at Exeter, N. H., the son of Nicholas Gilman, a Rev olutionary leader, and a brother of United States Senator Nicholas Gilman (1755-1814). He was educated at Exeter. The day following the battle of Lexington he marched to Cambridge with the first company of minute-men from New Hamp shire, and subsequently served as an aide to his father, who commanded the regiment of New Hampshire troops at the siege of Boston. Later he became assistant to his father, who was Treas urer of New Hampshire from 1776 to 1783. His first political office was that of a member of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1779. He was a delegate from New Hampshire to the con vention of New York and the New England States held in 1780 at Hartford, Conn., to devise means for the continuation of the war. In 1782-83 he was a member of the Continental Congress, resigning after a year's service to ac cept the office of Treasurer of his native State, in succession to his father. In 1786 he resigned the Treasurership in order to enter upon the duties of commissioner, with John Kean of South Carolina and William Irvine of Pennsylvania, to settle the accounts of the old Confederation with the several States. He was engaged in
this work until 1791, when, after another year's service as State Treasurer, he was elected, in 1794, Governor of New Hampshire. This office he held by successive annual elections until the close of 1805, and again from 1813 to 1816. In 1802 the Republicans nominated John Langdon for Governor, repeating this action in 1803 and 1804, until at length, in 1805, he was successfully elected, together with a strong Republican Legis lature. In 1812 he was a Presidential elector on the Federalist ticket, and in 1813, in the political upheaval precipitated by the war with England, he was again chosen Governor over William Plumer, the Republican candidate. He was reelected in the two succeeding years, and although opposed to the war policy of the Na tional Government, engaged actively in providing defenses for the New Hampshire coast and fron tier. He sympathized with the movement that resulted in the Hartford Convention of 1814, but refused to take any action in the matter of sending delegates from New Hampshire, which was therefore represented only unofficially. In 1816 he declined a reelection, and retired to private life. Consult The Gilman Family (Al bany, 1869).