Joseph was one of seven childen of Thomas & Joan [Bartholomew] Gilpin. He was reared in the Society of Friends, of which his father was a minister, and held that faith throughout his life.

On 23 Feb 1691 in Baghurst, Hampshire, England Joseph married Hannah Glover. Joseph worked as a weaver while in England.

In 1695 Joseph with his wife and two children left England for Pennsylvania. On 10 Dec 1695 the Friends certificate from England was presented at the Concord meeting.

Joseph & Hannah had fifteen children:

1. Hannah 1692-1746, m. Wm Seal, 6 ch
2. Samuel 1693-1767, m. Jane Parker, 7 ch
3. Rachel 1695-1776, m. Joshua Pierce, 4 ch
4. Ruth 1697-unk, m 1718, Joseph Mendenhall, 7 ch
5. Lydia 1698-1750, m. Wm Dean, 3 ch
6. Thomas 1700-1766, m 1728, Hannah Knowles
7. Ann 1702-1759, m. Joseph Miller, 2 ch
8. Joseph 1704-1792, m. Mary Caldwell, 12 ch
9. Sarah 1706-1783, m. Peter Cook, 7 ch
10. George 1708-1773, m. Ruth Caldwell, 1 ch
11. Isaac 1709-unk, m 1736, Mary Painter, 1 ch
12. Moses 1711-unk, m 1742, Ann Buffington
13. Alice 1714-unk, m 1739, Richard Eavenson
14. Mary 1716-1806, m. Phillip Taylor, 10 ch
15. Esther 1718-1795, m. Samuel Painter, 7 ch

Joseph's 1739 will mentions his wife Hannah, 4 of his sons (Samuel, Joseph, Moses, George), 2 of his daughters (Esther & Rachel) 4 grandsons and one of his son in laws (Joseph Mendenhall). See Chester County Archives, Will Bk B, Vol 2, pgs 51-2.

Evans Whitting & Davis, pg 25
Joseph Gilpin, American pioneer descendant of Richard de Guylpn of Westmoreland ... family in England had deed dated in the middle of the 13th century for Castle Kentmere which was in possesion of the family until 1672.


History of DE Co, by Ashmead 1884, p 312
Joseph Gilpin and Hannah, his wife, are believed to have settled in Birmingham in 1695, certainly not later than that date. They were people of position in England, being descended from Richard de Guylpin, to whom in 1206 the baron of Kendal gave the manor of Kentmere, as a reward for having slain a ferocious wild boar that infested the forest of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Under the will of William Lamboll, of the city of Reading, England, Joseph Gilpin received a part of the large tract of land which had been surveyed and located in Birmingham in 1683, to Lamboll. Gilpin, as did all the Quaker settlers of the day, knew the power of religious oppression, and gladly came to the province to take possession of his inheritance. When he settled on the estate he dug a cave at the side of a large rock, on the present farm of Albin Harvey, wherein he resided for a number of years, and where thirteen of his family of fifteen children were born.1 It was on this property that two valuable varieties of apple originated, - the Gilpin, also called carthouse and winter red-streak, and the house-apple, also called gray house-apple. They were two of several hundred of new varieties produced from seeds brought from England by the first settlers. Only these two were worthy of perpetuation by grafting.

Johnson's "History of Cecil County, Md.," p. 511.
The farm in Birmingham, where the first Gilpin settled, remained in the ownership of their descendants until recent years. Joseph Gilpin, some years after he made his settlement, built a frame house, and removed from his cave to that dwelling. In 1745, adjoining the frame, a brick house was erected. On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 11, 1777, the house then owned by George Gilpin was occupied by Gen. Howe as his headquarters, and there the commander-in-chief remained until the following Tuesday, when the British army moved to the Boot Tavern, in Goshen township. The farm, with the old dwelling standing thereon, is now owned by Elias Baker, and the latter every now and then in plowing turns up British pieces of coin, dropped by the invaders of a century ago