Rev. Timothy Phelps Gillett
Heritage Recognition
Timothy P. Gillett was born in 1780 in Wolcott, Connecticut, the son of Rev. Alexander and Adah (Rogers) Gillett. He obtained his early education in the home of his father and graduated from Williams College in 1804. He was a teacher and tutor for several years while preparing for the ministry and shortly after was invited to preach for two Sundays in East Haven. The Congregational Church in Branford, which had been without a minister for four years, asked Timothy Gillett to give a sermon. He came to Branford on the second of January 1808 and as he put it, "having obtained the help of God, continued there ever since."
Rev. Gillett and his wife Sally purchased a house (now 700 Main Street) just west of the present Blackstone Library and lived there throughout his pastorate. He served the church with wise counsel, sanity, calm and good judgment preserving the congregation in unity and accord. The members of the church fondly called him "Father Gillett".
Perhaps always a teacher, he kept a "select school" in his own home when education in Branford was sorely lacking. In 1820 he gathered a number of the leading town's people, and the result was the organization of an Academy. Subscriptions were sold to Branford citizens to build a small white building on the Green. He continued to teach at the Academy for nearly twenty years, charging two dollars per pupil, per term for his services while still serving as the Congregational Church minister.
The Academy was sold to the Masons in 1871 and the town often rented the building for overflow school space. The Academy was deeded to the Town of Branford when the building was moved to its present location in 1974 and remains the oldest building on the Green. Rev. Gillett also had considerable influence as a teacher among ministers of the state. He was a major contributor to a historical prospective entitled "The Ancient Platforms of the Congregational Church in New England". He was one of a group of Connecticut ministers who founded the theological college at East Windsor, which later became the Hartford seminary.
On July 7, 1858, Father Gillett celebrated his fiftieth year as the minister of the First Congregational Church of Branford with a discourse reviewing the history of the town, the church and of his pastorate. He had performed 584 baptisms, 306 marriages, 750 funerals and presided over the buildings of the present meeting house in 1845. In 1860 he became Pastor Emeritus and died in Branford November 5, 1866.
The Gillett's had no children and after his death his wife Sally went to live with her great nephew, Rev. Alpheus C Hodges of Buckland, Massachusetts. She died there in 1887 at the age of 100. Rev. and Mrs. Gillett are buried in Center Cemetery in Branford.
Rev. Gillett and his wife Sally purchased a house (now 700 Main Street) just west of the present Blackstone Library and lived there throughout his pastorate. He served the church with wise counsel, sanity, calm and good judgment preserving the congregation in unity and accord. The members of the church fondly called him "Father Gillett".
Perhaps always a teacher, he kept a "select school" in his own home when education in Branford was sorely lacking. In 1820 he gathered a number of the leading town's people, and the result was the organization of an Academy. Subscriptions were sold to Branford citizens to build a small white building on the Green. He continued to teach at the Academy for nearly twenty years, charging two dollars per pupil, per term for his services while still serving as the Congregational Church minister.
The Academy was sold to the Masons in 1871 and the town often rented the building for overflow school space. The Academy was deeded to the Town of Branford when the building was moved to its present location in 1974 and remains the oldest building on the Green. Rev. Gillett also had considerable influence as a teacher among ministers of the state. He was a major contributor to a historical prospective entitled "The Ancient Platforms of the Congregational Church in New England". He was one of a group of Connecticut ministers who founded the theological college at East Windsor, which later became the Hartford seminary.
On July 7, 1858, Father Gillett celebrated his fiftieth year as the minister of the First Congregational Church of Branford with a discourse reviewing the history of the town, the church and of his pastorate. He had performed 584 baptisms, 306 marriages, 750 funerals and presided over the buildings of the present meeting house in 1845. In 1860 he became Pastor Emeritus and died in Branford November 5, 1866.
The Gillett's had no children and after his death his wife Sally went to live with her great nephew, Rev. Alpheus C Hodges of Buckland, Massachusetts. She died there in 1887 at the age of 100. Rev. and Mrs. Gillett are buried in Center Cemetery in Branford.