John Taylor Gilman

Who was John Taylor Gilman?

John Taylor Gilman was a farmer, shipbuilder, and statesman from Exeter, New Hampshire. He represented New Hampshire in the Continental Congress in 1782–1783 and was Governor of New Hampshire for 14 years, from 1794 to 1805, and from 1813 to 1816.

Gilman was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, to a family settled in Exeter since its earliest days. He lived in the Ladd-Gilman house, now a part of the American Independence Museum. He received a limited education before he entered into the family shipbuilding and mercantile businesses. Aged 22, he read aloud a Dunlap Broadside brought to New Hampshire on July 16, 1776 to the city of Exeter. The American Independence Museum commemorates his brave act every year at their American Independence Festival, where a role-player reads the Declaration in its entirety to festival-goers.

Gilman was one of the Minutemen of 1775 and a selectman in 1777 and 1778. Gilman served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1779 and 1781 and was a delegate to the Convention of the States in Hartford, Connecticut, in October 1780. He served as a member of the Continental Congress in 1782 and 1783.