Gilbert Rodman (July 21, 1748 - August 21, 1830) was a prominent resident of Bucks County, Pennsylvania who served in the American Revolutionary War.

Biography

Portrait of Gilbert Rodman c. 1800 by Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin

Gilbert Rodman was born to Quakers William Rodman (May 5, 1720 - January 30, 1794) and Mary Reeve in Bensalem, Pennsylvania on July 21, 1748.[1]

Several members of the Rodman family were active in the Revolutionary War and subsequent establishment of the new country. Gilbert Rodman's father took an oath of fidelity and allegiance to Pennsylvania in 1778.[1] His brother, also named William Rodman, was a brigade quartermaster and elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.[2]

On July 4, 1776, the Middletown, Pennsylvania Meeting of Friends minutes show that members of his church discovered Gilbert Rodman "entered into military Discipline to learn the Art of War." Fellow Quakers attempted to talk him out of violating the Quaker beliefs against war, but he was reported to be unwilling to condemn the war in repeated visits by various church members. Later that fall, the Friends formally disowned him.[3] (It was not his first run-in with the Quaker practices. In 1764, Rodman was described as "a Very Raw youth, greatly ignorant of Religion.")[4]

Gilbert Rodman was selected to serve as Major in the 2nd Battalion of Bucks County Associators during the American Revolution.[5] His service is credited during the Amboy Campaign of 1776. In January 1778, Rodman allowed an encampment of American troops on his land based on a letter to General George Washington from Brigadier General John Lacey, Jr.[6]

Gilbert Rodman inherited large property in Warwick, Bucks County, Pennsylvania[7] in addition to an acreage in Virginia.[8] He made his home at Spruce Hill Farm, the 360-acre Warwick property, until 1808 when he sold it to the Bucks County government as a space to build an almshouse for the poor.[7][9] At that time, Rodman relocated to the Bensalem area, closer to his in-laws and other family until the end of his life.

Rodman was the father to 11 children with wife Sarah Gibbs whom he married on June 3, 1784 at Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[10] They included Gilbert Rodman, his son who served as acting Solicitor of the United States Treasury.[8]

After his death in 1830,[11] Rodman was buried with his wife and daughter in the Gibbs Burial Ground in Eddington, Pennsylvania. The Gibbs family burial site was eventually vandalized so badly that all stones and evidence were buried. In 2005, members of the Bensalem Historical Society recovered and reassembled the broken headstones, preserving the uncovered pieces in concrete.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 Jones, Charles Henry (1886). Genealogy of the Rodman family, 1620-1886. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Philadelphia [s.n.]
  2. ↑ "William Rodman". The official website for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  3. ↑ Book B, Records of the Minutes Proceedings of the Monthly Meeting of Friends, held at Middletown in the County of Bucks; Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College
  4. ↑ October 15, 1764 Philadelphia Monthly Meeting Minutes; Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
  5. ↑ John Nixon, John Kidd, John Cox, Joseph McIlvain, James Benezet and Thomas Harvey (1891). "Minutes of the Committee of Safety of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1774-1776". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 15 (3): 257–290. JSTOR 20083427.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ "Founders Online: To George Washington from Brigadier General John Lacey, Jr., 2 …". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  7. 1 2 Davis, W. W. H. (William Watts Hart); Ely, Warren S. (Warren Smedley); Jordan, John W. (John Woolf) (1905). History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time. New York Public Library. New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
  8. 1 2 Will Book 10, 1821-1831; Bucks County, Pennsylvania; Register of Wills
  9. ↑ Fretz, A. J. (Abraham James) (1899). A genealogical record of the descendants of Henry Stauffer and other Stauffer pioneers : together with historical and biographical sketches. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Harleysville, Pa. : Press of Harleysville News.
  10. ↑ Christ Church (1896). Marriage Record of Christ Church, Philadelphia, 1709-1806.
  11. ↑ Memorandums & Records of Births & Deaths, Byberry Preparative Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Minutes
  12. ↑ "Gibbs Burial Ground, Bensalem". Bucks County Genealogical Society. Retrieved December 9, 2019.


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