Thomas Gilpin and Lydia Fisher
Husband Thomas Gilpin 1 2 3
Born: 18 Mar 1728 - Concord Twp, Chester Co, PA 2 Christened: Died: 2 Mar 1778 - Winchester, Frederick Co, VA 2 3 Buried: - Winchester, Frederick Co, VA
Father: Samuel Gilpin (1694-1767/1767) 1 3 4 Mother: Jane Parker (1702-1775) 1 3 4
Marriage: 1764 5
Wife Lydia Fisher 5
Born: 4 May 1736 5 Christened: Died: 14 Mar 1807 6 Buried: - Winchester, Frederick Co, VA
Father: Joshua Fisher ( - ) 5 Mother:
Children
1 M Joshua Gilpin 1 6
Born: 8 Nov 1765 - Philadelphia, PA 6 Christened: Died: 22 Aug 1841 6 Buried:Spouse: Mary Dilworth (1777-1864) 6 Marr: 5 Aug 1800 7
2 F Sarah Gilpin 6
Born: 1767 6 Christened: Died: 1796 6 Buried:
3 M Thomas [1] Gilpin 6
Born: 1769 6 Christened: Died: 1774 6 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
4 M Samuel Gilpin 6
Born: 1772 6 Christened: Died: 1774 6 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
5 M Thomas [2] Gilpin 1 6
Born: 10 Sep 1776 6 Christened: Died: 3 Mar 1853 - Philadelphia, PA 6 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
General Notes: Husband - Thomas Gilpin
He was born on the property where his grandfather had settled. Soon after arriving at age he became the owner of property on the Brandywine, near to Wilmington, where he erected and established extensive mills. In 1752 he visited England for the purpose of obtaining information in regard to its trade with the colonies, which might be useful to him in his future business relations.
He married a daughter of a wealthy and leading Quaker merchant in Philadelphia, which led to his settlement in that city, and his engaging in business. He possessed a decided taste for scientific pursuits, and devoted much of his leisure to its cultivation. He was one of the original members of the American Philosophical Society, and was very active in investigations which might be useful to his fellow-men. The information which he acquired he freely imparted by correspondence, in papers contributed to the Philosophical Society, and articles published in the journals of the day. While thus devoting the quiet tenor of his life to his business pursuits, and to acquiring and imparting useful information, and (in accordance with his Quaker principles) taking no part in the struggle which was going on between the colonies and the mother-country, he was, on Sept. 2, 1777, arrested at his place of business in Philadelphia, and placed in confinement, and subsequently exiled to Virginia, where he died, just six months after his arrest. His constitution was not robust, and the hardships he suffered probably hastened his death.
He was a man of very superior mind, and possessed a character which should have shielded him from the unjust treatment which he received in his last days. His high sense of justice is shown in the fact that the evening before his death, a rough draft of his will being brought to him, in which it was said that "he, with a number of others, had been unjustly banished," he desired the expression to be erased, as it would seem to cast a reflection on the persons who had caused it. He had three brothers, all of whom favored the Revolutionary cause, and two of whom were officers in the American army. [HCC 1881, 570]
He was born in Concord township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, removed with his parents to Cecil County, Maryland, when a child and was reared to agricultural pursuits. On coming of age he settled on a farm of eighty acres on the banks of the Susquehanna, but was soon after adopted by his uncle, Thomas Gilpin, and had charge of a valuable property belonging to his uncle on the Brandywine, near Wilmington, containing valuable mill sites and water power, which he later inherited. In 1752 he made a voyage to England with a view of obtaining information in regard to its trade relations with the Colonies that might be useful to him in entering into a commercial business which he had begun to contemplate in connection with the development of the property on the Brandywine. Landing at Dublin, he spent some time in Ireland, and then crossed over to Whitehaven and visited relatives in that and other parts of England. He visited and inspected coal and iron mines, potteries, and various kinds of manufacturing plants, and made a careful study of the state and mode of trade at the chief ports of export and import. After having visited all the localities connected with his ancestors he returned to America, reaching Chesapeake bay, October 3, 1753. Shortly after his return he established himself in business near the head of tide water on the Chester river, eastern shore of Maryland, where the town of Millington was begun by him, and where he carried on a large and successful business as a wholesale factor and shipper. In 1764 he married, while carrying on a large shipping business at Philadelphia, and transferring the active management of his Maryland establishment to his brother, and brother-in-law, Miers Fisher, settled permanently in Philadelphia, and became a member of the firm of Joshua Fisher & Sons Company, the leading member of which was his wife's eldest brother, Thomas Fisher. Having prospered in his business undertakings, and being possessed of ample means through his own efforts and by a considerable inheritance from his uncle, he, soon after locating in Philadelphia, began to take an active interest in scientific pursuits and the development of the industrial interests of his native country. He was one of the original members of the American Philosophical Society, and took an active interest in their proceedings. Long impressed with the utility of a canal connecting the Delaware and Chesapeake bays, he devoted himself to the task of inducing the merchants and capitalists of Philadelphia to undertake its accomplishment. In 1768 he made thorough and careful surveys and levels of different routes, and prepared estimates of probable expense, and plans of construction, sufficient to show a general comparison of the advantages and expediency of each route, which he laid before the Philosophical Society in May, 1769, at the instance of a meeting of merchants and traders of Philadelphia, to which they had been first submitted. The Philosophical Society appointed a committee of eight of its members to verify his plans, estimates and suggestions, who made their report thereon February 16, 1770. This was the first real system of internal improvement to be originated and carried out for the purposes of trade by the resources of the Colonists themselves, and though Thomas Gilpin did not live to see it completed, the project originated by him was carried to a successful issue, largely through the instrumentality of his eldest son.
When the protest of the Colonies against the unjust measures of the mother country reached the point of armed resistance, Thomas Gilpin, with many other influential business men of Philadelphia, who were members of the Society of Friends, withdrew themselves entirely from the contest, refusing to take any part in the struggle. Their wealth and influence made them objects of suspicion to the more ardent Patriots, and under the sanction of Congress, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania had a number of them arrested when Philadelphia was threatened by the British forces in 1778, and transported to the neighborhood of Winchester, Virginia, where Thomas Gilpin died. [CRFP i, 428]
He was adopted by his uncle Thomas Gilpin, the proprietor of extensive flour mills on the Brandywine, near Wilmington, Delaware, which his nephew later inherited and operated. He became later a prominent merchant and shipper of Philadelphia and was among those members of the Society of Friends who were arrested on the approach of the British army to Philadelphia, and exiled to Virginia, where he died. He was a man of high scholastic attainments much interested in scientific investigations, a prominent member of the American Philosophical Society, and the projector of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. [CRFP i, 608]
Many grandsons of Joseph Gilpin fought on the side of freedom in the Revolutionary War, but one, Thomas Gilpin, of Philadelphia (son of Samuel), was so thoroughly a Friend in his beliefs that he suffered arrest on suspicion of lacking patriotism rather than take up arms. With twenty others like-minded he was exiled from Philadelphia, Sept. 11, 1777, and taken to Winchester, Virginia, where he died. His uncle, Col. George Gilpin, interceded for him and endeavored, ineffectually, however, to procure his liberty.
General Notes: Wife - Lydia Fisher
from Philadelphia, PA
1 J. Smith Futhey & Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881), Pg 570.
2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 428, 608.
3 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 338.
4 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 426, 607.
5 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 428.
6 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 429.
7
John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 430.
Home | Table of Contents | Surnames | Name List
This Web Site was Created 15 Apr 2023 with Legacy 9.0 from Millennia