[3] His father Peter Bulkeley was a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge; and a founder of Concord, Massachusetts, as well as the first minister in the community.
In 1661, Gershom Bulkeley became the minister of the Congregational church in New London, Connecticut, where he served for about five years.
In particular, he argued that Mercy Disborough, one of the only two women accused in Connecticut who actually stood trial for witchcraft, was the victim of the malice of her neighbours.
[4] He was the father of Dorothy Bulkeley Treat (1662-1757) whose medical journals are included in the Bulkeley manuscript collection[7] maintained by the Hartford Medical Society Library, University of Connecticut,[8] and the Trinity College Watkinson Library,[9] A third manuscript located at the Watkinson Bulkeley collection entitled “Medical Cabinet” may also be in Dorothy’s handwriting and emphasized the secrecy of alchemical research.
[10] As executrix of her father’s estate by codicil,[13][14] and one of few women who gained insights into alchemy, early chemistry, and seventeenth-century clinical practice largely due to the abundant library of books and manuscripts, often hand copied, during Bulkeley's extensive travel abroad, Dorothy shared her father’s interest in alchemical healing.