He was born at Twickenham. His father, Stirling Gilchrist, lieutenant and surgeon in the 3rd Dragoon Guards, had retired there. In 1803 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
And in the following year he married Elizabeth, daughter of James Nowlan, a merchant, of the Hermitage, Wapping.
He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, but left the university early without a degree, in order to assist a relative, Alderman Joseph Robinson, grocer, in business at Stamford, Lincolnshire.
Octavius was one of a family of sixteen. On 30 June 1823 Gilchrist died at his house in the High Street, Stamford. He had long been tubercular.
His library, which contained Elizabethan and early printed books, was sold by auction 5–11 January 1824.
The Quarterly Review for June 1812 contains a severe article by Gilchrist on Stephen Jones"s edition of David Erskine Baker"s Biographia Dramatica. Jones published a reply entitled Hypercriticism Exposed, 1812.
The Quarterly Review for October 1820 had some uncomplimentary remarks on William Lisle Bowles, in a review of Spence"s Anecdotes. Bowles replied in The Pamphleteer, volunteer xvii., ascribing the Quarterly article to Gilchrist, who (while disclaiming the authorship) published a Letter to the Review
William Lisle Bowles, Stamford, 1820.
An acrimonious controversy ensued.
