[4] Despite a poor formal education, she was motivated to teach herself and was granted access to the personal library of her neighbor, Governor Elbridge Gerry.

These, with Ruth Raymond, or Love's Progress, and others of her popular works, passed through many editions, and were much admired for "their practical lessons as well as their genial simplicity and humor."

She was the author, for several years, of the Lady's Annual Register and Almanac, and wrote also a book entitled The Poetry of Travelling in the United States.

"[4] After Dr. Gilman's death in 1858, she resided for a time at Charleston, Cambridge, and subsequently at Tiverton, Long Island, Nova Scotia[2] with her daughter, Mrs. Charles J. Bowen, and other members of the family circle.

[4] In 1872, she and her daughter, Mrs. Caroline H. Jervey, published a small book of Stories and Poems for children, for whom Gilman, all through her life, rendered a literary service.