Robert Gould, Esq.

Robert Gould was born on the 27^th of August in 1753, to Thomas and Sarah Johnson Gould, a pioneering family in the area that is now Caldwell.

On the 29^th of February 1776, at the age of 23, Robert married 21 year old Mary Denman Bond. It was a month after Thomas Paine wrote his pamphlet, Common Sense and less than 2 months before Lexington and Concord would become battlefields in a new war.

During the Revolution, Robert served as a Private in Captain Squire’s company, Second Regiment, Essex County militia. Robert was part of a large family of patriots including his father, Lt Thomas Gould, his brothers Timothy (a Sergeant) and William (a private in the Revolutionary War, who later became a General). Also serving were Joseph, John, Josiah and Samuel Gould.

Robert was a major landowner in Horseneck and dedicated member of the church community. In 1784, the year peace with Great Britain was proclaimed, Robert was among the 40 founders of the First Presbyterian Society of Horseneck, which would become the First Presbyterian Church at Caldwell. He was involved in hiring ministers, funding the building of the meeting house, and along with John Gould, leading the congregation in song. In the same year, he and Mary had a daughter Martha Speer. They had their next child, Thomas Denman, around 1785. Their son William Wheelock was born on the 19^th of June in 1796 and christened in the First Presbyterian Church at Caldwell. It is likely they had other children whose records were not found.

Mary Gould died at the age of 61 on June 4, 1820 and rests in the Old Burying Ground by the First Presbyterian Church at Caldwell. In December of that year, Robert married Rhoda Force and lived another 5 years. On the 23^rd of July in 1825, Robert died at the age of 71 and was also laid to rest in the Old Burying Ground with the other members of the Gould family.