Painting
- Title:
- Josiah Gillis
- Object Name:
- Painting
- Object ID:
- 2018.030.01
- Creator:
- Spencer, Frederick R. (1806-1875)
- Date:
- circa 1825
- Description:
- Portrait of Josiah Gillis (1789-1825) of Merrimack, NH, and Wilmington, MA; attributed to Frederick R. Spencer (1806-1875), c. 1825. Oil on board. Half-length portrait of man turned to left, wearing black coat, white shirt with turned-up collar, and black neck cloth. Pencil inscription on back of canvas: "By F.R.S."
- Material:
- Wood
- Dimensions:
- H-27 W-22.1 inches
- Provenance:
- Josiah Gillis (1789-1825) was the son of Jotham and Abigail (Codman) Gillis of Merrimack and Manchester, NH. Mary Stark (1795-1878) was the daughter of John and Mary (Huse) Stark of Dunbarton and Goffstown, NH, and granddaughter of General John and Elizabeth (Paige) Stark of Derryfield, NH. They were married on September 14, 1813 in Goffstown. The Gillises lived on a family farm in Merrimack through 1818. Josiah was a land speculator and lumber dealer who owned 20,000 acres of land in the towns of Sandwich, Burton, and Thornton, NH. In 1818 the Gillises moved to Wilmington, MA, where they operated a hotel and shipping business on the Middlesex Canal. The donors purchased the portraits from the estate of Stark and Gillis descendant Nina Moore Frey of East Poultney, VT, in 1994.
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Joe and Betty Ellovich
- Subjects:
- Gillis, Josiah
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