Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/377

 GILLING, ISAAC (1662?–1725), presbyterian minister, elder son of Richard Gilling, baker, was born at Stogumber, Somersetshire. He was educated at a nonconformist academy in Taunton, maintained (1678–85) by George Hammond, an ejected minister. John Fox (1693–1763) [q. v.], his relative and biographer, says that when Gilling began to preach ‘he preached often in the churches, though he was never a regular conformist.’ He received presbyterian ordination at Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, 25 Aug. 1687, being at that time ‘curate of Barrington and Seavington St. Mary in Somerset’. His next employment was at Axminster, Devonshire, as usher in a Latin school; while here he preached to a congregation of independents. He then became pastor of the presbyterian congregation at Silverton, Devonshire. Here he married a lady (from Brampford-Speke) ‘somewhat deformed,’ but of good estate. From Silverton he was called to the charge of the presbyterian congregation at Newton Abbot, Devonshire, in succession to William Yeo, an ejected minister (d. 1699).

Gilling, who was a scholarly and genial divine, kept a flourishing boarding-school at Newton Abbot, and got into trouble during the reign of Anne for doing so without the bishop's license. He was more than once obliged to abscond to prevent arrest, the last occasion being in 1712, when (in a disguise) he accompanied Fox to London. In ecclesiastical politics he was for a consolidation of the dissenting interest, and was an active member of the Exeter assembly, formed in 1691 as a union of presbyterians and independents on the London model. Of this body he was for many years the scribe; his quarto volume of manuscript minutes (to 1718) is preserved in Dr. Williams's library. In the disputes of 1719 he sided with the minority against subscription, and hence was excluded from the assembly and deserted by more than half his hearers, who formed a new congregation under Samuel Westcot. Other disappointments followed; Gilling lost heart, fell into a lingering sickness, and died on 20 or 21 Aug. 1725. His age is not given, but the date of his ordination shows that he could not have been born later than 1662. He was buried in his meeting-house. He had wished to be interred in the church or churchyard at Newton Abbot, but the parish being a peculiar, the ordinary, Sir William Courtenay, refused to permit the interment, saying ‘they might bury him in one of the marshes.’

By his first wife Gilling had a son Isaac, educated as a physician at Paris and entered at Leyden 4 Oct. 1723, who did not turn out well, and a daughter, married to John Fox. His second wife, née Atkins, of Exeter, led him into extravagances.

He published: 1. ‘The Qualifications and Duties of Ministers,’ &c., Exeter, 1708, 8vo. 2. ‘The Life of the Reverend Mr. George Trosse,’ &c., 1715, 8vo (an abridgment and continuation of Trosse's very singular autobiography, originally published at Exeter, 1714, 8vo, by J. H. [Joseph Hallett], but superseded by Gilling's more decorous narrative, ‘one of the best pieces of evangelical biography’). 3. ‘The Mischief of … Uncharitable Judging,’ &c., Exeter, 1719, 8vo. Also funeral sermons for the Rev. S. Atkins, 1702, Samuel Atkins, jun., 1703, Susanna Reynell, 1704, and the Rev. S. Mullins, 1711. He prepared for the press the papers of Walter Moyle [q. v.]

[Biographical sketch, by J. Fox, in Monthly Repository, 1821, pp. 327 sq., see also pp. 132 sq.; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, 1814, iv. 393; Evans's manuscript List of Diss. Congr. (1715 sq.), partly printed in James's Hist. Litig. Presb. Chapels, 1867, p. 657; manuscript list of ministers in records of Exeter Assembly; Northcote's transcript of Fox's manuscripts in Plymouth Public Library.]  GILLINGWATER, EDMUND (1735?–1813), topographer, born at Lowestoft, Suffolk, about 1735, was the son of Edmund and Alice Gillingwater of Lowestoft. He was apprenticed to a barber. When about twenty-two years of age he removed to Norwich, which he left on 5 Dec. 1761 for Harleston, Norfolk. There he carried on a small business as stationer and bookseller in the Old Market Place, and was appointed an overseer of the poor. While holding the latter office he published ‘An Essay on Parish Work-Houses; containing Observations on the present State of English Work-houses; with some Regulations proposed for their improvement,’ 8vo, Bury St. Edmunds, 1786. Gillingwater retired from business about 1788. Two years later he brought out by subscription ‘An Historical Account of the ancient Town of Lowestoft in the County of Suffolk. To which is added some cursory remarks on the adjoining parishes and a general account of the Island of Lothingland,’ 4to, London [1790]. Another useful compilation was his ‘Historical and descriptive Account of St. Edmund's Bury … the Abbey,’ &c. [with an appendix], 12mo, Saint Edmund's Bury, 1804. He also made considerable, though not very valuable, collections for a history of Suffolk, consisting chiefly of extracts from printed books. These after his death came into the possession of H. Jermyn, and were sold at his auction. Samuel Burder in the