Benjamin Gale was the son of John and Mary Gale and grandson of Abel Gale. He was born on December 14, 1715, at Jamaica, Long Island, where his family had lived for three generations. Early in his childhood, his parents removed to Goshen, Orange County, New York.
After obtaining the degree of M. A. from Yale in 1733, Benjamin Gale studied medicine and surgery with Dr. Jared Eliot of Killingworth, Connecticut, as his preceptor.
Gale gradually took over his father-in-law’s practice and settled permanently in Killingworth.
He carried on a large correspondence with English and Continental scientists, chiefly upon agricultural matters. He also wrote in 1783, Observations on the culture of Smyrna Wheat for the American Academy.
From 1747 until 1767, Gale served as representative in the General Assembly.
Thus in 1755, he published The Present State of the Colony of Connecticut Considered, which was an anonymous attack upon the claim of Yale to financial support from the Colonial Assembly.
In November 1775, he became associated with David Bushnell in devising the “American Turtle, ” a kind of depth bomb with which they intended to blow up the fleet of the enemy.
Finally, he was an ardent Biblical critic, his chief theological work being A brief Essay, or, An Attempt to Prove, from the Pro- phetick Writings of the Old and New Testament, what Period of Prophecy the Church of God is now Under (1788).
Gale advocated the use of mercury and antimony inunctions, prior to receiving the pustule. The paper was well written and is noteworthy for his use of the statistical method and for his record of the population and the mortality rates of Boston during epidemic years.
He claimed that before the heavy metals were used, one in one hundred died after inoculation, afterward only one in eight hundred succumbed.
Gale violently opposed the Stamp Act.
Quotations:
“A more wicked scheme I think never was on foot, in this colony to destroy us. ”
“There is not public virtue enough in the Nation to save them; they are doomed to remain a kingdom of Tyrants and Asses. But how much this Country must suffer in the conflict, God only knows. ”
He is said to have stipulated that Gale was buried in such a position, that, when he rose from the dead, his eyes would look upon his own house.
Quotes from others about the person
“Gale was by nature intensely interested in politics, and when the rupture with England occurred was strongly in favor of the American cause, though too independent a thinker to give up the privilege of criticizing the measures adopted. ”
On June 6, 1739, Benjamin Gale married Eliot’s daughter, Hannah, by whom he had six daughters and two sons.
15 October 1713 - 27 June 1781
December 1740 - November 1818
12 April 1748 - 26 November 1797
21 June 1742 - 19 June 1797
9 December 1751 - 21 December 1751
