Richard Gildersleeve II, was an able son of an able father, and closely associated with him as town official and proprietor in the continued battle against the evils of exploitation by the provincial authorities that blighted the growth of New York, which after the Revolution was a weak fourth among the states notwithstanding advantages of position and of resources, as well as settlers. The careers of his two sons, Richard of Northport, and Thomas of
Hempstead, amply show the varying influences of the royal governors as the large holdings of the now diminished Indian tribes of Long Island were purchased by the struggling pioneer towns.
He was town clerk at Hempstead, Long Island, New York.
His will was probated at Jamaica, New York.
His marriage to Dorcas Williams is not proven and is disputed.
Gaylords and Gildersleeves, Helen Gaylord Gildersleeve, 1989, page 135:
Richard III made the voyage to America with his family during the great Puritan exodus. They had a "happy voyage" of six to eight weeks, contrasting with less fortunate ones that were from three to five months. He was associated with his father in his business undertakings, and they worked against the exploitation by royal governors. He was a Sergeant in the 1656 Dutch-Indian War. He was one of the fifty-six men who bought the Newtown land in 1656 from the Indians.
He became proprietor of Hempstead and then surveyor, tax collector, town drummer, and town clerk. In 1664 he wrote and signed the Hempstead Petition to Connecticut Colony, revolting against the Dutch, however, the Duke's Laws took over the town. He wrote and signed with his father the Hempstead Petition 1669, "No taxation without representation". In 1678, he was elected constable.
The Quakers protested his acts to the governor. Their crops were planted outside the village, as was the English custom, and cattle were herded together. He was a Town Clerk for 30 years, and acquired considerable property. His will is printed in "Gildersleeve Pioneers" pages 179-180. He was Presbyterian.
New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol 42, 1911, Descendants of Edward Tre(a)dwell through his son John, page 187: In the division into bands to draw lots for lands for planting, orderedat a full town meeting held at Hempstead the 11th of January, 1668, John Tredwell fell to "Company No. 2," together with Mr. Hicks, Mr. Gildersleve (probably the immigrant), John Eleson, Thomas Eleson, and Richard Gildersleve.
Richard Gildersleeve was born 1626 in Suffolk County, Shire, England
(Source: International Genealogical Index, 1994 Edition, Version 3.4. Census information from Norfolk County, England), and died 21 May 1691 in Hempstead, Nassau Co., Long Island, NY (Source: Colonial and Revolutionary Families, Vol. 8. pg. 1067-68, by Penna.). He married Dorcas Williams 1654 in Middleburg, Hempstead, Nassau Co., NY (Source: Colonial and Revolutionary Families, Vol. 8, pg. 1067-68, by Penna.), daughter of Michael Williams and Ann Valentine.
Richard came to the North American Colonies with his father about 1634/35, and was a young boy of nine when the family settled first in Watertown, Massachusetts. Five years later he was in Stamford,and in the beginning of the year 1644 the young lad of seventeen or eighteen years came to the new settlement of Hempstead, Long Island, New York, then in the shadow of the New Netherlands (Dutch). It was in Hempstead that he was destined to become a permanent and well known resident.
Richard Gildersleeve the second first appears in the records for 1652 when he helped to build a cottage roofed with thatch, and where he gathered his first harvest. During the next six years hewas to have a residence in Newtown, nearer to New Amsterdam and where the family undoubtedly felt safer in view of Indian attacks. Hewas to settle again in Hempstead when on March 26, 1658 where he bought a house on the south side of the main highway with another highway on the west side and Mr. Coe's property to the south. He became a
freeholder and proprietor of Hempstead, and in his father's name was therefore entitled to share in all future divisions and grants of town lands, as well as in whatever advantages accompanied them.At a general town meeting on November 29, 1658, he was granted ten acres on the north side, provided the land was improved and fenced within a year (the land was on Great Neck).
At 34 years of age (1600), Richard held his first public job. He was collector of the rate for the pasturage of cattle in Hempstead. He was granted a six or seven acre lot in 1662, (No. 8 at Herricks, towards Success Pond, onthe west side) , provided that he fence it. He left this property on the hill to his daughter Dorcas Lester. With his father father and his brother-in-law, John Smith,he rented at the same time the town barn for thirty-one shilling,
to be paid in corn.
He was elected townsman February 3, 1662, in company with John Smith, Jeremy Wood and Samuel Denton.
Because of its border position between the Dutch towns to the west and the English towns on the east, Hempstead was an ambiguous political position, although in the earlier days it acknowledged the sovereignty of the Director General of the New Netherlands. In 1662, John Youngs of Southold was sent by the Connecticut Colony to inform Hempstead that they were considered part of that colony.Richard Gildersleeve seems to have been receptive to the English claims, although his townsmen were not all of the same opinion. However, when the notorious Captain John Scott endeavored to assume authority by virtue of an alleged commission (he knew of this plan in the King's Council for Great Britain to take the New Netherlands by force for the Duke of York), Richard Gildersleeve, who preferredthe suzerainty (a nation that controls another nation in international affairs but allows it domestic sovereignty) of Connecticut, opposed Scott. As a consequence the two Richard Gildersleeves, the one of this generation and his father, joined with the others in signing a
petition at Hempstead, acknowledging their gratitude to Connecticut in sending a commissioner to settle the political relationships involved. Then they requested protection against Captain Scott, whowas endeavoring to establish political control on behalf of the Duke of York. John Hicks was sent to Hartford with the petition. In due course Scott was arrested, brought to Hartford and jailed.
Richard Gildersleeve was chosen surveyor for mending the highways February 5, 1666/7, and was elected town clerk May 22, 1668. His annual compensation for the latter office was forty shillings.He was again elected town clerk June, 16 1669, and was also chosen drummer at the same time, at 20 shillings per annum. He again held the office of town clerk in 1670, 1682 and 1683 and was town auditor in 1678.
The town records show that in 1660, Henry Parsall had bought the fort about the meeting house (probably meaning the palisades forming the protective part of the fort); however the sale appears not to have been comsummated, because on May 12, 1680 the old meeting house and the fort were sold at auction to Richard Gildersleeve---excepting the part of the fort that stood on the land of Jeremy Wood. Richard paid two pounds, 12 shillings for the property. This first meeting house was twenty-four feet square and had been built in 1643 near Burley Pond (the northwest corner of Fulton and Franklin Streets, Hempstead).
The side of the meeting house is considered to have been, more exactly, about two blocks towards the east, fronting on the small Meeting House Pond which was a part of the stream that joined the brookfrom Burley Pond nearby. Here the Rev. Robert Fordham, the Rev. Jonah Fordham and the Rev. Samuel Drisius had preached.
Richard Gildersleeve augmented his landed estate considerably not only in right of his father's proprietorship but also by dint of his own ability. He assigned propriety rights on February 12, 1682/83 to his sons Richard and Thomas. His house was near the shoemaker's shop of Robert Williams in the west end of Hempstead and was also near the homestead of Justice Treadwell.
Richard's will dated April 7, 1690 was proved at Jamaica, New York, May 21, 1691 and filed in the office of the County Clerk at Jamaica, New York. He was probably buried at hempstead, New York.
Richard's will only mentions 4 children. "All my remaining lands remaining in the woods, I give and bequeath to my four children. I will that L25, that is due from the estate of Nathaniel Lyonsthat L5 of the money be so the peace of my family and the remainder to be divided amoungst my four children."
Gildersleeve, Richard, of Hempstead, 7 April 1690. To wife Dorkiss, the dwelling, some land, riding horse, etc.; to sons Richard & Thomas, meadow at Merrick west neck; to dau. Dorkiss Lester eight acres at Newfield; to dau. Elizabeth Gildersleeve eight acres; to Phebe Thickstone a cow. Son Richard exr. Wits: John Sering & Joseph Pettit. Pro. 21 May, 1691.
He and his father were Presbyterians, having been Puritans in England and
New England.
"Brother" Gildersleeve mentioned in bill of sale between John Firman and William Lawrence November r, 1959; (Town minutes of Newtown 1656-1688, Vol 1, p 156.) Gildersleeve Pioneers, by Willard HarveyGildersleeve, 1941:
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Downloaded from the Nick Hayes-Sue Drake family tree. Richard Gildersleeve had person sources.
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