John Gilpin

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John Gilpin

DR. JOHN GILPIN was the first of his name in Kittanning-a name that has
been kept in prominence there ever since his day by his son, John Gilpin, and
grandson, Oliver W. Gilpin, in turn, the former one of the foremost attorneys
of Armstrong county bar in his time, the latter now practicing there as a
member of the law firm of Buffington and Gilpin. There are few families whose
members uniformly display such qualities of leadership. In professional
circles the Gilpins have figured among the most distinguished members of the
community for three quarters of a century, and none have stood higher for
honorable citizenship. They come of a stock which has made this region famous,
being descended from Friends who emigrated to Pennsylvania in provincial days,
the ancestors of Dr. John Gilpin moving to Cecil county, Md., where he was
born Feb. 24, 1806, a descendant of Samuel Gilpin, founder of the Cecil branch
of one of the oldest and most aristocratic families in America. Some accounts
of the early family history and lineage show that the Gilpins in England have
long been an honored race, striving and achieving, and in view of the fact
that so many of the name have shown distinguished ability it is interesting to
note that Francis Galton, the English scientific writer, noted for his studies
in heredity, in his work on “Hereditary Genius: mentions the Gilpin
family as an illustration of his theory of transmission.

The first of the line of whom we have record was Bert de Guylpyn, who came
to England in the train of William the Conqueror. His descendant, Richard de
Gylpyn (the name already undergoing slight change), called “Richard the
Rider,” performed a signal act of bravery in the time of King John,
killing the last wild boar of Westmoreland, which had devastated the land and
terrified the people. Some time previously, about 1206, he had accompanied the
Baron of Kendal, who could neither read nor write, to Runnymeade, as his
secretary, and in recognition of his heroic act the Baron gave him Kentmere
Manor, an estate some four thousand acres in extent in a wild portion of the
English lake district, about ten miles distant from Lake Windermere, a
“breezy tract of pasture land” as Froissart, the French chronicler,
records. Gylpyn thereafter changed his coat of arms from that borne by his
forefathers to that having the wild boar upon its shield. This adventure of
his, his consequent change of arms, are embodied in an old poem called
“Minstrels of Winandermere.”

Bert de Gylpyn drew of Normandie
From Walchelin his gentle blood,
Who haply hears, by Bewley’s sea,
The Angevins’ bugles in the wood,
His crest, the rebus of his name,
Pineapple-a pine of gold
Was it, his Norman shield,
Sincere, in word and deed, his face extolled.
But Richard having killed the boar
With crested arm an olive shook,
And sable boar on field of or
For impress on his shield he took.
And well he won his honest arms.
And well he knew his Kentmore lands.
He won them not in war’s alarms,
Nor dipt in human blood his hands.

The arms are those used by the Gilpins to the present day: Or, a boar
statant sable, langued and tusked gules. Crest: A dexter arm embowed I armor
proper, the naked hand grasping a pine branch fesswise vert. Motto: Dictis
Factisque Simplex.

On the estate thus acquired rose the stronghold known as Kentmere Hall,
walled, towered and turreted, with great manorial inclosures, close by a wild
stream which leaps down the mountainside. In the early days a Norman church
was built nearby, of rubble stone, with thick walls and Norman arched windows
(twelve in number to represent the Apostles, and arranged in groups of three
to give honor to the Trinity), and it still stands, near it an enormous yew
tree believed by competent judges to have been there since the Conqueror’s
time. It is girdled by heavy chains and well protected. In this church, in the
sixteenth century, preached occasionally Bernard Gilpin (the name gradually
assumed the present form), a younger son of Kentmere Hall. Besides his regular
charge, by royal command, he labored throughout the northern counties, among a
people classed indiscriminately by Bishop Carlton as “border
robbers,” and during the troublous times succeeding the death of King
Henry VIII he lifted up his voice continually for the purity of life,
sincerity in religion, against all abuses of the clergy of whatever
persuasion. By his fearless and unselfish life, following the principle
“no place too small to occupy, no people too low to elevate,” he won
the title “Apostle of the North,” and as such is immortalized in
ecclesiastical history, for his career has afforded a theme for at least a
dozen writers, including Wordsworth and Wesley. Although reared under Catholic
influence he embraced the Protestant faith, and “his charities are
reminders of the distribution of alms from the monasteries, which had recently
been abolished by royal mandate. Almshouses had not yet been established to
provide for the poor whose necessities had been hitherto relieved through
ecclesiastical charity. One biographer says: “The hospitality and charity
of Gilpin were unbounded. Every week on the Thursday he ordered that a very
great pot should be provided full of boiled meat for the poor.”
Twenty-four of the poorest of his people were his constant pensioners. Every
Sunday from Michaelmas to Easter he kept open house for all his parishioners;
for their entertainment three long tables were provided, one for the gentry, a
second for the farmers, a third for the laborers. Like most apostles, Bernard
Gilpin was a fearless man, which the following story illustrates: Once upon
entering Rothbury Church, in Northumberland, he espied a glove suspended in a
conspicuous place as a challenge from some horse trooper of the district. He
ordered the verger to remove it, but that worthy, trembling with fear, said he
dared not, so the apostle, procuring a long pole, hooked down the challenge
himself, and carrying it with him entered the pulpit and began to preach.
During the course of his sermon he paused, and lifting the glove to view said:
“I hear there is one among you who has even in this sacred place hung a
glove in defiance. I challenge him to compete with me in acts of Christian
charity.” Scott’s painting, “Gilpin in Rothbury Church,” hangs
at Wallington Hall, Northumberland, the seat of Charles Treveilyan, Bart., and
this spirited scene is also one of the three subjects composing the Bernard
Gilpin memorial window in Durham Cathedral.

During the religious controversies of Queen Mary’s reign the “Apostle
of the North” was tried on thirteen different accusations, but was
liberated by his uncle, the Bishop of Durham. His enemies, however, summoned
him before Dr. Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London. While journeying to the
metropolis the apostle broke his leg, and before he was sufficiently recovered
to appear for trial Queen Mary died, the reformers were in power, and the
charges against him withdrawn. Bernard Gilpin established schools and
continued to wield a great influence in ecclesiastical circles until he died.

The “Apostle of the North” was one of the three sons of Edwin
Gilpin, one of whom was George Gilpin, minister to the Hague during Queen
Elizabeth’s reign, who was commissioned to form an alliance with the Dutch
States against the Spanish, at that time threatening Great Britain with the
Armada. In an autograph letter of the Queen carried with him on this mission,
Elizabeth writes thus: “Having charged Mr. Gilpin, one of our councilors
of State, to deliver this letter, it will not be necessary to authorize him by
any other confidence than what is already acquired by a long proof of his
capacity and of his fidelity and sincerity, assuring you you may trust in him
as in ourselves.”

The second son of Edwin Gilpin was William Gilpin, from whom the Maryland
branch of the family is descended, and who married Elizabeth Washington, of
Hall Heal, the sister of George Washington’s great-grandfather.

The estate of Kentmere was increased during the reign of Henry III by a
grant of the Manor of Ulwithwaite to Richard, the grandson of the first of
that name.

The history of a family, as of a nation, seems to advance in epochs, and
from the time of Elizabeth down to the Commonwealth nothing of importance is
to be noted. Then the Kentmere Gilpins succumbed to the forces of Cromwell,
and the Hall was demolished by his troops, the tower alone left standing. The
head of the house, obliged to flee the country, left his estate in a kind of
trust mortgage to a friend, but his heir coming home in the time of quiet was
unable to get hold of the proper deeds to the estate, and thus it was lost.

The division of families at that period of civil war is illustrated by the
fact that Thomas Gilpin, of Warborough, was colonel in the regiment of
Cromwell’s Ironsides at the battle of Worcester. Whether as reaction or not
from this scene of strife he soon after renounced what his biographer terms
“foolish and wanton delights, as sports and pastimes, music and
dancing,” and betook himself into the peaceful Quaker fold, where he was
a preacher for forty years. His son, Joseph, who came to America after William
Penn and who married Hannah Glover, was the founder of the American branch of
the family.

Kentmere was thus lost to the Gilpins, after having been in their
possession for thirteen or more generations. Dr. Richard Gilpin, after the
restoration, bought Scaleby Castle, an estate situated in the adjoining County
of Cumberland, not far from Carlisle. This was the third great estate owned by
the Gilpin family, and the castle is of much historic interest, standing near
the ruin, of an old Pict wall. Here again was ruin, for overconfident in thick
walls, a double moat, a drawbridge and portcullis, its former owner, Sir
Thomas Musgrave, had also held out against Cromwell with the usual result.
Repairing, as well as their impoverished fortunes would permit, the castle’s
gaping walls and battered roof, the Gilpins occupied it for a time, but
afterward allowed it to fall into decay and be occupied by their retainers. In
course of time the fortunes of Scaleby were recouped by the marriage of a lady
of the house to a gentleman by the name of Fawcett, who drained the fields,
repaired the castle, built a new portion around three sides of the court and
made it a place of beauty for descendants of his name and Gilpin lineage to
dwell within.

Joseph Gilpin, the founder of the American branch of this family, was the
only son of Thomas Gilpin, of Warborough, above referred to. In 1691 he
married Hannah Glover, and in 1695-96, with their two children, and Joseph�s
relatives, John West and his family, followed Penn the Quaker to the Colonies.
They emigrated because of the persecution to which they were subjected on
account of being Friends. Hannah�s uncle gave her 100 acres of land, and
Joseph Gilpin bought 425 acres more for 40 pounds, and they settled in
Birmingham, Chester Co., Pa., walking to their new home from Newcastle, where
they landed. Darkness coming on before they reached their destination, they
passed the night in an Indian wigwam, and the friendliness between themselves
and the aborigines then established continued ever after. Joseph Gilpin

immediately busied himself with the preparations of a home, necessarily
primitive—nothing in fact but a cave he constructed by the side of a
rock—and there he and his family lived for a considerable time, until he had
made some progress clearing the land. In 1730 he built another

“Kentmere,” a large brick dwelling which is still standing, and
it was at this farmhouse that General Howe made his headquarters after the
battle of Brandywine. It was also occupied by General LaFayette, who revisited
it in 1824.

With the energy of his race, and ably assisted by his wife, who was a most
hospitable and thrifty housewife, Joseph Gilpin soon became a man of
prominence and prosperity in the neighborhood. Many Indian wigwams were on his
farm, and his family of fifteen children grew up in entire harmony with their
aborigine playmates. There was plenty and to spare, and the home soon became
an objective point for all immigrants arriving in that section of the country,
who were cordially entertained and assisted in getting their lands properly
located and planned. Friend Gilpin was sole agent in the settling of all of
one township—New Garden—in Chester county, as well as part of Kennett and
Marlboro, and had his reward in the gratitude of those whom he aided—but
nothing material for his labors. We have the following record of the fifteen
children born to himself and wife: (1) Hannah married William Seal and had six
children. They lived in Birmingham township, Chester Co., Pa. (2) Samuel
married Jane Parker and had seven children. They settled in Elkton, Md., where
many of their descendants still reside. (3) Rachel married Joshua Pierce, and
had four children. They lived in Chester county, Pa. (4) Ruth married Joseph
Mendelhall and had seven children. They lived in Kennett township, Chester
Co., Pa. (5) Lydia married William Dean. They had three children, and moved to
Wilmington, Del. (6) Thomas was married three times times, first to Rebecca
Mendenhall, second to Hannah Knowles, third to Ann Caldwell. They resided at
Wilmington, Del. (7) Ann married Joseph Miller and (second) Richard Hallett.
She had five children. (8) Joseph married Mary Caldwell, and they had twelve
children. They removed to Wilmington in 1761. (9) Sarah married Peter Cooke.
They had seven children, settled in Chester county and afterward removed to
York county, Pa. (10) George married Ruth Caldwell and (second) Sarah
Woodward. They had three children and lived at the old homestead. (11) Isaac
married Mary Painter and had three children. They lived in Chester county, Pa.
(12) Moses married Ann Buffington. (13) Alice married Richard Evenson and had
five children. (14) Mary married Philip Taylor and (second) George Strode.
They had nine children, and lived in Chester county, Pa. (15) Esther married
Samuel Painter and had seven children. They lived in Chester county,
Pennsylvania.

Most of the children of Joseph Gilpin died before the Revolution came on,
but his son George, then living at Alexandria, Va., at once entered the army,
becoming colonel of the Fairfax militia. Washington knew him, and he
accompanied the General, was with him in the battle of

Dorchester Heights, Mass., and remained with him until the close of the
war. Later Colonel Gilpin was intimately associated with Washington in
navigation investigation being made regarding the Potomac river, and the close
friendship of the two men endured until the death of Washington; Colonel
Gilpin was one of the pall bearers at his funeral.

Many grandsons of Joseph Gilpin fought on the side of freedom in the
Revolution, 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, Va.,
where he died March 2, 1778. His uncle Col. George Gilpin, interceded for him
and endeavored, ineffectually, however, to procure his liberty.

Samuel Gilpin, eldest son of the emigrants, Joseph and Hannah (Glover)
Gilpin, was born in England, June 7, 1693, and passed his early life at
Birmingham, Chester Co., Pa. Thence he removed to Concord, Pa., and
subsequently, in 1733, to Cecil county, Md., in which State most of his
posterity have since resided. He settled at what became known as Gilpin�s
Falls, Elkton, in the Great Northeast, on a tract of seven hundred acres
previously purchased. He married Jane Parker, daughter of John Parker, of
Philadelphia, and they had a family of seven children; many of their
descendants continue to reside at Elkton and in that vicinity, and there still
stands the old Gilpin Manor House, the historic old homestead built by Joseph
Gilpin (eldest son of Samuel), in 1760, and remodeled in later years—the
abode of the Gilpin family from the time of its erection to the present. This
interesting old mansion is described in the “Story of Gilpin Manor.”
It stands on the banks of the Big Elk, about one mile northeast of the town of
Elkton, in a part of the original tract of Belleconnell, and almost hidden in
a park of trees. The mansion house is of stone, large and spacious, the arched
doorway of the main entrance fashioned after Kentmere Hall, one of the
ancestral homes of the Gilpins in England. But the design is typically
colonial, and the place, well preserved as it has been, stand to-day as a fine
specimen of the architecture of that period, and a reminder of the good old
days of hospitality. The grounds, carefully laid out many years ago, retain
most of their former beauty. The trees and shrubbery bear evidence of great
age. Within the house, it is easy to conjure up visions of the attractive
social life and delightful entertainment the place afforded. Even the kitchen,
with its huge fireplace, recalls its part in the profusion which was the rule
in such households. On the whole, it is a picturesque, romantic old
habitation. One the side back from the river is the old family burying ground,
the last resting place of many departed ancestors of the Gilpins. It is
surrounded by solid granite walls, and the mounds are marked by substantial
gravestones hearing odd inscriptions, many of which came from England. Gilpin
Manor is now owned by Oliver W. Gilpin, of Kittanning, Pa., who inherited it
from his grandfather, Dr. John Gilpin.

Joseph Gilpin (2), eldest son of Samuel Gilpin and grandson of Joseph, the
emigrant, was a patriotic and public-spirited citizen. He represented Cecil
county in the Provincial convention of the early days, was one of the foremost
of Cecil�s patriot leaders in the Revolution, and for years was chief
justice of the courts. On Nov. 8, 1764, he married Elizabeth Read, and died
March 30, 1790, leaving, besides his large landed estate in Cecil count, Md.,
property in western Pennsylvania and Virginia.

John Gilpin, son of Joseph (2), became the owner of Gilpin Manor, by his
father�s will. He represented Cecil county in the Assembly for several
years, and was a presidential elector three successive times, first when John
Adams was elected, and twice for Jefferson. He married Mary Hollingsworth,
daughter of Col. Henry Hollingsworth, of Revolutionary fame.

Dr. John Gilpin, son of John and Mary (Hollingsworth) Gilpin, prepared
early for the medical profession and commenced practice in Elkton, but before
1830 came to Armstrong county, Pa., and settled at Kittanning. Here he lived
and prospered for a period of thirty years, becoming one of the most prominent
citizens in that vicinity. Soon after his arrival he began to secure local
property, becoming one of the large landowners of the section, and he was one
of a small coterie (including Judge Joseph Buffington, the elder, James E.
Brown, and Gov. William F. Johnston, the Doctor�s father-in-law), known as
John Gilpin & Co., though its members were supposedly silent partners. It
became famous as the real estate trust of its day, the combination of capital
and influence which enabled them to control the local market. Buyers and
sellers had to go to one or the other, though they bid against each other as a
matter of form. In 1834-35, Dr. Gilpin erected one of the first brick
buildings in Kittanning, a large mansion on the north side of Market street, a
short distance above McKean, on Jacobs� Hill, so called because in the rear
of the site, at the northern end of the stone wall in the garden, stood the
powder magazine of the Indian chief Jacobs, under his house and fort, which
was blown up by Col. John Armstrong in 1756. This old mansion, at one time the
home of Alexander Reynolds, forms a part of the “Alexander Hotel.” A
man of superior intelligence and education, Dr. Gilpin was a member of the old
school, a scholar, and a leader in the activities in his day. For many years
he was senior warden of the Episcopal Church. In 1860 he returned to his early
home at Elkton, Md., being the owner of Gilpin Manor House and the estate of
480 acres adjoining, and he expended considerable money restoring and
improving the property. There he passed the remainder of his life, dying there
July 9, 1868.

He is interred there with his ancestors, in the old family burying ground.
By his first marriage to Nancy Monteith, Dr. Gilpin had four children: Martha,
who married Major Carroll; Mary, who became the second wife of major Carroll,
after her sister�s death; John, mentioned below; and Thomas, an attorney of
Philadelphia, who died when a young man of twenty-five years. By his sucond
wife, Ann (Johnston), Dr. Gilpin had no children.

John Gilpin, eldest son of Dr. John Gilpin, was one of the most successful
lawyers of the last generation born Oct. 8, 1839, at what is now the
“Alexander Hotel,” Kittanning, he attended public school until he
was fourteen years old, after which he was sent to Eldersridge Academy, which
in those days had the reputation of being one of the best college preparatory
institutions in Pennsylvania. He was under the special care of Rev. Dr.
Donaldson. He was a notably good scholar and careful student. Entering Union
College, at Schenectady, N. Y., he was graduated therefrom when about twenty
years old, with high honors, and returning home at once commenced the study of
law, in pursuance of an ambition he had had from boyhood. He began his studies
with Hon. Chapman Biddle, prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, and entered the
law department of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating about 1859-60.
In1861 he was admitted to the bar at Philadelphia, and then returned to his
native town, obtaining admission to the Armstrong county bar in December of
the same year. From that time on he was devoted to the practice of his
profession. As a law student he had manifested the same industry and
methodical habits which marked his devotion to preparatory studies, and during
his active legal career he was often spoken of as a technical lawyer. But
those who knew him best regarded this rather as a tribute to his accuracy,
resulting in his extreme thoroughness in the preparation of his work, rather
than from any tendency to observe the letter of the law more than its spirit.
No detail was too insignificant to receive his attention, and his remarkable
success was laid upon a foundation of completeness which could not be shaken.
His reputation was such that he retained all the clients who came to him, and
his patronage was so wide that he soon took his place among the leaders of the
local bar. He had the honor of being elected a member of the

Constitutional convention which met in November, 1874, and formulated the
constitution of that year, and his learning, together with his ability as a
debater, brought him great renown in connection with his work in that body,
which was composed of leading lawyers, lawmakers and financiers. His fellow
members showed the greatest esteem for his able and efficient efforts, and
upon his return home he was given a vote of thanks by his fellow citizens for
the creditable manner in which he had represented them.

When Judge Boggs went on the bench, in January, 1875, Mr. Gilpin received a
share of his practice. His work kept increasing, in fact, until he found it
was greater than he could handle, and in 1880 he formed a partnership with J.
H. McCain, an able, active and industrious lawyer, with whom he was associated
until his death. Their personal as well as business relations were established
on a most congenial basis. In fact, Mr. Gilpin was on friendly terms with all
whom he knew. he had a naturally companionable disposition, was genial, whole-souled
and easily approached, and was a most entertaining talker. He had none of the
aloofness which sometimes characterizes men who have attained success. Unless
actually engaged with a client, he was always ready to stop what he was doing
to enter into a conversation, and he often dropped into the offices of his
friends for a friendly chat. However, he was conservative until well
acquainted with people, and those who knew him best prized the privilege of
associating with him. With a mind enriched by wide reading, an intelligence
developed and strengthened by years of hard work in an exacting profession and
unusual opportunities for the observation of his fellow men and their
proclivities, and yet with a wholesome outlook upon life maintained by the
good nature within him, he was never tiresome or heavy, but thought and said
things agreeable to listen to and worth remembering.

As to his standing among the members of the bar, none enjoyed more
prestige. To quote from an article published in the Union Free Press at the
time of his death: “He was universally esteemed by his companions of the
bar. Having reached the sun-crowned heights of his profession, he generously
dispersed with a lavish hand any information on abstruse law questions sought
by younger members of the bar. The cheerfulness and hearty good will with
which he gave any information endeared him to the profession with whole-souled
and genuine friendship. So generous was he, that often, it is said, when he
was in the midst of a difficult case and surrounded by his books and briefs,
he would lay them aside and give a willing ear to a brother lawyer who had
some difficult questions in hand. He would even get down his books on that
particular subject and look for authorities. Thus his generosity and good
nature gained for him a warm place in the hearts of the members of his
profession.”

The following character sketch of Mr. Gilpin is from the same article:
“It is not an easy matter in a sketch so short as this to give a
comprehensive conception of a man of Mr. Gilpin�s attainments. He was an
original character. His habits, his manners and his way of doing everything
were so different from those of other people. He marked out for himself the
path of his career and religiously walked therein. He had naturally a legal
mind. This he trained and cultivated with great and untiring study and energy.
With him labor was the touchstone by which genius towers to its lofty heights.
For the purpose of storing his mind with all the principles of the law, he
grew a midnight student o�er the dreams of its sages, and sought to borrow
from their lights such attributes of learning as would more surely aid him in
ascending the shining course that loomed up before him. The love of his
profession lured him on to those inspiring toils by which man masters men, and
reaches the goal to which his ambition aspires. In his study of Blackstone and
other classical writers he had mastered the fundamental principles of the law,
and had fixed in his mind those great landmarks of jurisprudence, so that the
practice of law became to him a pleasure. Grasping complex questions with
great vigor, his clearness of conception gained for him a speedy solution.
Having a broad mind and being in no sense a one-sided lawyer, he studied both
sides of his case, and with that clear and accurate mind of his solved with
remarkable power and certainty the questions the law involved. In his
arguments to the court on law points his diction was concise, his logic
forcible, and his arrangement most methodical, making his argument clearly
convincing. To the jury he presented the facts of his case in that plain and
common sense manner which any man of an ordinary mind could understand, and
which usually crowned his efforts with success. Thus he climbed the heights of
his profession and joined that long and illustrious line of legal lights that
have adorned the practice of this ennobled science. There was no branch of the
law with which he was not conversant. His fame was not bounded by his own
county, but on the other hand extended throughout the State.

“Aside from Mr. Gilpin�s legal attainments, he was a man possessed
of a great fund of general information. His knowledge of history and science
and literature was astonishingly great. Hardly any questions could arise on
which he had not an opinion or of which he knew nothing. It seemed a pleasure
and a pastime for him to drink from the whole fountain of human knowledge. The
consequence was that he was a man who was able to take a comprehensive view of
any question propounded to him. He improved the privileges of living in the
evening hours of the nineteenth century.”

The late Judge W. D. Patton, county judge of Armstrong county and president
of the Armstrong County Trust Company, of Kittanning, said of him: “John
Gilpin was one of the leading lawyers of this part of the State, a thorough
student, a technical lawyer, careful, analytical, and a hard worker. He had
the respect of all members of the bar —-and his ability as a lawyer would
have been recognized and respected anywhere.”

Judge Joseph Buffington said of him: “John Gilpin was one of the most
astute and thoroughly trained men in the science of pleading and is knowledge
of black-letter law and of the fine shades of distinction in all modern
decisions, was comprehensive and keen. His mind was singularly acute. He was a
daring practitioner and would risk the outcome of his case on technical
points, and seldom failed to carry them through successfully. A man of strong
personal feeling, he made his cl0ient�s cause his own. He possessed a
withering power of sarcasm, and in his addresses to the jury could strip his
adversary�s case with merciless logic and argument. In his preparation of a
case he was thorough and tireless, and a busy court week would find the light
burning in his office long after midnight. He inherited mental qualities of a
high order from a long line of distinguished ancestors.”

Mr. Gilpin died Nov. 2,1883, before his prime, perhaps before he had
attained the heights of his professional possibilities. He was survived by his
wife, Olive (McConnell), whom he had married in 1873, and by their two
children, Oliver W. and Mary Elizabeth Adele. Mrs. Gilpin was the eldest
daughter of Thomas McConnell, and her ancestors were of Scotch-Irish origin.
The McConnell family settled in Kittanning in an early day. Oliver W. Gilpin
is mentioned below. Mary Elizabeth Adele Gilpin was married in 1908 to Samuel
Howard McCain, a prominent attorney of Kittanning.

Mr. Gilpin was a prominent Mason, a past master of his lodge, etc.,
nevertheless he showed his liberality of mind as well as purse by providing in
his will for an annual contribution of $100 to the Catholic Church, to be
continued as long as the church rang its bell for an hour on the anniversary
of his birth. The church has never failed to perform this acknowledgment of
his generosity. He and James Mosgrove owned the square where the first
interments were made within the borough limits, on the east side of McKean
street, between Arch street and the alley north appropriated by the former
owner, Dr. John Armstrong, for burial purposes.

Oliver W. Gilpin, member of the firm of Buffington and Gilpin, attorneys at
law, Kittanning, was born in that borough Sept. 4, 1874, and there received
his early education in the public schools, graduating from high school in
1890. He then entered Phillips Academy, at Andover, Mass., graduating from
that institution in 1893, in which year he became a student at Harvard, taking
a full course and receiving his A.B. degree in 1897. His law studies were
carried on at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in
1901. The same year he received admission to the bar at Philadelphia, at
Pittsburgh and in Armstrong county. Then he took a trip to Europe, returning
to this country in 1903, after an extended tour, and settling down to law
practice, to which he has since been devoted. Forming a partnership with Orr
Buffington, the representative of another local family whose members have
become famous in the legal profession, under the firm name of Buffington and
Gilpin, he has worked hard and attained honorable standing among his fellow
practitioners. Mr. Gilpin was admitted to practice in the Federal court and
State Supreme court. He has been honored with the vice presidency of the
Armstrong County Bar Association. Mr. Gilpin is associated with local business
enterprises as a director of the Armstrong Electric Company and as vice
president of the Armstrong County Trust Company. He is a member of the Union
Club at Pittsburgh and of the University Club of that city, and of the Phi
Gamma Delta fraternity at Philadelphia. He belongs to the Protestant Episcopal
Church.

On Feb. 16, 1909, Mr. Gilpin was married, at Palm Beach, Fla., to Emily
Campbell Reynolds, of Kittanning, Pa., granddaughter of Judge James Campbell,
of Clarion county, Pa., and daughter of the late Ross Reynolds, of Kittanning.

_________________

A second emigration in the Gilpin family took place in 1783, when John
Gilpin, son of Rev. William Gilpin, born at Scaleby Castle and vicar at Boldre,
came to Philadelphia and married Ann W. Sims of that city. He shortly removed
to Nova Scotia, married twice, and had thirteen children, all of whom either
settled in British provinces in America or returned to their ancestral homes,
so that this branch of the family cannot be considered as part of the American
house.

It is frequently difficult in tracing the genealogies of American families
to find an unbroken family tree connecting them with their English ancestors.
There is usually a ragged break at the date of emigration to America, where
links, other than circumstantial, are wholly lost, but the Gilpin annals in
both the Old and New World have been so carefully kept that the exact line of
descent is followed even unto the present generation in the United States. The
records include extracts from a genealogical chart accompanying a manuscript
entitled “Memoirs of Dr. Richard Gilpin, of Scaleby Castle,Cumberland,
written in the year 1791 by Rev. William Gilpin, vicar of Boldre, together
with an account of the author and a pedigree of the Gilpin family.” This
manuscript was published in 1879 by the Cumberland and Westmoreland
Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. George Gilpin, nephew of the
Ambassador to The Hague, also contributed researches concerning the family
tree, as did Sir Daniel Fleming, noted in the sixteenth century for his
genealogical researches into the history of Westmoreland. Alan Chambre,
recorder of Kendal, likewise extended his inquiries into the antiquity of the
Gilpin family, and to these are added the genealogical collections at Scaleby
Castle.

The American annals of the family have also been most carefully and
interestingly compiled by Dr. Joseph Elliot Gilpin. Much of this accuracy is
doubtless due to the marked literary attainments for which many members of the
family have been distinguished. The Apostle of the North was a prolific and
forceful writer, and many of his ecclesiastical essays are held in high
esteem. Rev. William Gilpin, M.A., prebendary of Salisbury and vicar of Boldre,
in the New Forest, near Lymington, dedicated to Queen Charlotte in 1786 a
volume illustrated by himself upon the picturesque beauties of Westmoreland
and Cumberland. Rev. William Gilpin is believed to be the original of Dr.
Syntax, hero of the delightful tale in verse that describes the adventures of
a simple-minded, pious, henpecked clergyman who leaves home in search of the
picturesque.

The songs and ballads of Cumberland were edited by Sidney Gilpin, of
Derwent Cottage.

The artistic temperament was also, and still continues to be, strongly
developed in the family. The pictures of Rev. William Gilpin sold for ^
3,200, the whole of which he devoted to the establishment of schools in his
parish, where his memory is regarded with almost sacred reverence.

Sawry Gilpin, a descendant of Dr. Richard Gilpin, who bought Scaleby
Castle, was a member of the Royal Academy, renowned for his paintings of
horses and distinguished for the untamed beauty of expression he imparted in
his pictures of animals. It was Ann Gilpin, sister of Thomas Gilpin, of
Warborough, who married Thomas West and became grandmother of Benjamin West,
president of the Royal Academy. The late Henry Dilworth Gilpin, of
Philadelphia, attorney general of the United States under Van Buren, and at
one time acting secretary of treasury, possessed the same artistic
perceptions. He was a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, and his kinsman, Mr.
Jordan Stable, of Baltimore, is prominently associated with the artistic
circles of that city, and his home is beautified by many rare old pictures.

A leaning toward the religious life is indicated by the many divines in the
Anglican Church of this blood. Besides the Apostle of the North (who, aside
from the Archdeaconry of Durham, refused preferment many times) that list
includes several bishops and many of its clergy, not to speak of that fighting
Quaker, Thomas of Warborough, who laid down his sword of steel to take up the
sword of spirit. In America is included Dean Gilpin of Halifax Cathedral, who
is a member of the family. A poet of the period of the Reformation has said
concerning the Gilpins: “The race that once went bravely forth to slay
the wild boar in his den now meets the bigots in their wrath and boldly claims
the rights of men.”

Members of the family have become equally distinguished in statesmanship.
Queen Elizabeth�s minister plenipotentiary to The Hague was a brother to
Bernard the Apostle. Col. George Gilpin, founders of the American branch of
the family, held an important government position under George Washington. The
late Gov. William Gilpin, of Colorado, did equal service as a statesman in
another field. Sent in is boyhood to England, he was a classmate of Gladstone.
He also had Hawthorne as his tutor, and returning to the United States he
entered West Point, from which institution he was graduated. The spirit of
adventure and progress so deeply rooted within the Gilpin family led him to a
life of observation and exploration in the West, and embodied in a report
brought before Congress in 1845, he called the attention of that body to the
immense possibilities and value of the western country of the United States.
Bancroft says of Gilpin�s report: “Coming just at this time, on the eve
of the settlement of the Oregon question, the Mexican war and acquisition of
California, its influence and importance cannot be estimated.”

Among others of the family noted in public life are Charles Gilpin, three
times mayor of Philadelphia; Edward Woodward Gilpin, for many years chief
justice of Delaware; and most honored in Baltimore has been the late President
Bernard Gilpin, of the Merchants� and Manufacturers� Association, who bore
the same name as that of the Apostle of the North.

Source: Page(s) 336-344, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and
Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed July 1998 by Patti Godesky for the Armstrong County Beers Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)

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