Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert of Bledlow

Son of Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert of Antigua (q.v.) and father of Nathaniel Gilbert the younger (also q.v.). The Rev. Thomas Scott counterclaimed unsuccessfully for compensation from Gilbert's estate in Antigua as the representative of his wife's aunt, Elizabeth Gilbert, for a legacy of £1800 'under the will of Nathaniel Gilbert.' Presumably the legacy was under the will of Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert (1736-1774) of Antigua, rather than of this man, Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert (1761-1807) of Bledlow, whose will is silent on any legacy to anyone named Elizabeth. The compensation was awarded to the son of Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert of Bledlow, Nathaniel Gilbert the younger (also apparently a clergyman).

1. The will of Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert Vicar, Clerk of Bledlow Bucks was proved 29/01/1808. Under the will, he left £500 to his brother-in-law, an annuity of £60 p.a. to his aunt Mary. He said that 'whereas my plantations and other Estates in the island of Antigua are yet charged and encumbered with divers debts and legacies owing from my late father at the time of his decease or given and bequeathed by his will...I give to my brother William an annuity or yearly sum of fifty pounds only', to be increased to £100 p.a. once all debts owing from his late father had been paid. Once his own debts had been cleared he left an annuity of £20 p.a. to each of his cousins Harriet, Martha and Grace Gilbert, daughters of his uncle John Gilbert. His estates in Antigua he left to his son, Nathaniel Gilbert the younger.

2. His brother (and apparently dependent), William Gilbert (1763-c.1825), is in the ODNB as 'poet.'

T71/877 Antigua claim no. 131 (Gilbert's and Mercers Creek).

Langford Vere Oliver, History of the Island of Antigua (London, Mitchell and Hughes, 1894) Vol. 2 pp. 12-17, 'Pedigree of Gilbert'.

1. PROB 11/1472/283.

2. Richard Garnett, ‘Gilbert, William (1763?–c.1825)’, rev. S. C. Bushell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10706, accessed 29 Jan 2014]