Benjamin Gale

Succeeding Jared Eliot, the pastor-physician and medical instructor, was Benjamin Gale, his son-in-law and a leading physician of his time. Not a pastor though he dabbled in theology, not a politician though he represented his town for twenty years in the legislature, not a loyalist though he hated the constitution and at one time wished for reunion with Great Britain he was, "a man of integrity and uprightness, of great skill in the medical profession" and, withal, a lover of controversy. Of Gale's ancestors and early life little is known. His greatgrand-father, Edmond Gale of Cambridge, Massachusetts, died in I642; Edmond's son, "Abell", was a "husbandman" of Jamaica, Long Island, who was "granted a lot to set his house on" in I665. Abel's son, John, the father of Benjamin Gale, owned mills, and was the town miller in Jamaica. He served as a soldier, probably against the French. In I 72 I he sold his business and property in Jamaica and removed to Goshen, New York, as one of the proprietors of the new town.* Benjamin Gale, the subject of this sketch, was born in Jamaica, Long Island, on December I4, I75. Of his childhood and youth, which were, no doubt, spent in Goshen, we have no record. We first hear of him as a student at Yale College where he entered, probably just two centuries ago, and graduated in 1733. The College was then at Saybrook, under the presidency of Elisha Williams. Here he must have seen and heard the Reverend Jared Eliot whose fame as a clergyman was in all the churches, and whose skill as a physician and instructor of physicians was known throughout the New England colonies. The two were probably drawn together by similar tastes. Both were fond of the classics, both were much interested in natural science, and both had a zeal for the study and practice of medicine. Thus it was that after graduation, Gale took up the study of medicine with Eliot, who may justly be called the father of regular medical practice in this region. Gales's whole professional