William Gilbert

Annuitant under the will of his brother Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert of Bedlow (q.v.). William Gilbert has an entry in the ODNB as 'poet', which says of him: '[In 1796] he published The Hurricane: a Theosophical and Western Eclogue, a poem that expressed Gilbert's obsession with Africa, which had provided the slaves whose work generated his private income, and with the American and French revolutions, which he believed were inspired by African spiritual power, unwittingly transferred to America through slavery, and then to Europe. The revolutions were understood as 'the preliminary stages of humanity's progress towards millenarian fulfilment''. His life-dates are approximate: he did at Charleston South Carolina c. 1825.

Garnett, Richard. "Gilbert, William (1763?–c. 1825), poet." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 19 Feb. 2018. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-10706.