Robert Gosman

[Text that follows is quoted from the "Genealogy of the Gosman Family and Collateral Families", by Lillian May Briggs Gosman, Dec 1963, starting at p.4 in that manuscript]: Robert Gosman was a master builder in New York City. The death of his first wife during the birth of their second son, John, left Robert with the sole care of two children under three years of age and the following may 9th, 1785 he again married as he realized he needed a mother for his two sons. Robert's second wife, Joanna Blake, he found to be a real helpmate and loving wife and mother who gave fond care to all his seven children. Sometime soon after the beginning of the 1800s, Robert migrated with his family to up-state New York and resided several years in Albany, N.Y. before settling at Stuyvesant, Columbia County, N.Y., where he and his second wife died and were laid to rest. Family records state Robert Gosman has a pleasing fatherly personality and by nature was philanthropic and definately a devout Christian of the Protestant faith. He donated the sum of $2,500 to Princeton Theological Seminary in 1824 to be used as a scholarship for his lineal descendants who desired to study theology. In 1954, Lillian May Briggs Gosman received a letter from the Seminary stating: "You are correct in understanding that the said Robert Gosman left a scholarship fund of $2,500 to Princeton Seminary. The following is a record which we have of the scholarship: The Gosman Scholarship, founded by Robert Gosman, Esquire, of Upper Red Hook, New York in 1824. Conditions: The donor retains during his natural life the right of appointing beneficiaries of said scholarship. After the decease of the donor, the right of presentation shall be vested in his two sons, Rev. John Gosman of Kingston NY and Jonathan Gosman of Tompkins Co. N.Y., in joint trust with the Rev. Andrew N. Kittle of Red Hook, N.Y. and the Rev. Peter S. Wynkoop of Gent, N.Y. and in the survivors of them. And in case of their refusal or neglect the presentation shall be vested in the Board of Directors of the Seminary and afterwards it shall vest in the said Board forever." [signed George Loos]. It is said that a portrait of Robert Gosman hangs in the Chapel of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Notice of death in NY Geneological & Biographical Society Coll. Bk. 27, Page 43: Jan 10, 1841, age 85 years. Birth and death dates for Robert Gosman and for his two marriages, and the names of his children, were obtained by LMBG from McBean's Biographical Register of St. Andrews Society of the state of N.Y. (1922). Vol. 1, pg. 256. Robert and his two brothers George and James came to America sometime between 1777 and 1780 according to tradition and worked for a builder in New York City. Later George and Robert took over the business and James went to Kentucky. Eventually, Robert settled in Ithaca, N.Y.