Nicholas Gilman, Jr. was a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a signer of the U.S. Constitution, representing New Hampshire. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives during the first four Congresses, and served in the U.S. Senate from 1805 until his death in 1814.
Gilman was the second son in a family of eight children. He had four brothers and one sister Born during the French and Indian War, he was soon aware of the military responsibilities that went with citizenship in a New England colony. After attending local public schools, he became a clerk in his fathers trading house, but the growing rift between the colonies and Great Britain quickly thrust Gilman into the struggle for independence. New England merchants in particular resented Parliaments attempt to end its salutary neglect of the financial and political affairs of the colonies by instituting measures to raise and to enforce the raising of revenuemeasures that many Americans considered violations of their rights as British citizens. Gilmans father, along with Nathaniel Folsom and Enoch Poor, emerged as a leader of the Patriot cause in Exeter.
Source: Wikipedia