110 TUK ]U)YAL S(X'IETY OF CANADA 



town that his son George was born in 1772. About 1776 he was de- 

 nounced liy Gov. Turnbull as more to be censured for his attachment 

 to the British Government than the Episcopalian Tories. Feeling 

 against him in the community then soon ran high, the people generally 

 hated him and his friends forsook him. The members of his flock 

 refused to attend the services he conducted and w^ould not even allow 

 their children to be baptized by him. They demanded rent from him 

 for the farm he occupied, and later, dispossessed him and warned him 

 to leave. There were but two Presbyterian clergymen in Connecticut 

 at this time, says Mr. Gillmore, a Mr. Drummond and himself, both of 

 whom espoused the cause of George the Third, and both of whom fled 

 from the State at about the same time, Mr. Drummond being killed in 

 New York by a British officer, under what circumstances is not stated. 

 The Rev. Mr. Peters, an Episcopalian, in his "History of Connecticut" 

 published in London in 1781, says of the Presbyterians in Connecticut, 

 "This sect has met with as little Christian Charit}' and humanity 

 in this hair-brain'd county as the Anabaptists, Quakei's and Church- 

 men. The Sober Dissenters of this town [Voluntown] as they style 

 themselves, will not attend the funeral of a Presbyterian. " 



Forced finally to leave his Church, Mr. Gillmore " demitted " 

 preaching, and for a time he and his family lived on what money he 

 had saved, and on the proceeds from the sale of what cattle he had. 

 When his resources were exhausted, he did not know what to do, and 

 in his extremity he took up farming. Through the combined efforts 

 of himself, his wife, and such of their children as were able to work, 

 they had barely sufficient to keep body and soul together. For some 

 twelve months they lived in this way, but at last partly from his failure 

 to succeed at farming, but more on account of the popular odium and 

 the excitement of the mob, the clergyman was compelled, in the winter 

 of 1776-1777, to leave his family in Voluntown and go in search of 

 another place of residence. At last he procured a small farm in Noble 

 Town, near Albany, N.Y., and sent for his wife and children. Here 

 the family resided for a few years in "low circumstances". 



Mr. Gillmore preached to the people of his denomination in this 

 town until the defeat of Gen. Burgoyne, when, being recognized by 

 some who knew his principles, he was ' 'stopped from exercising the 

 office of the ministry. " He was, however, able to support his family 

 by keeping a school at Spencer Town, Columbia County, N.Y., until 

 the capture of Lord Cornwallis, when the "Patriots", encouraged by 

 success, obliged him to leave his family at the mercy of their enemies 

 and make his escape through the woods to Canada. His flight was 

 through a then dreary wilderness and across the length of Lake Cham- 

 plain, so that before he reached St. Johns, Quebec, in the Fall 1782, 



