Joseph Gilman (5 May 1738 – 14 May 1806) was an American pioneer settler in the Northwest Territory of the United States.

Prior to his immigration to the frontier, he was a state senator in New Hampshire, and member of the Committee of Safety.

[6] In the autumn of 1776, Gilman was appointed by the New Hampshire House of Representatives as Treasurer of Rockingham County, and in 1779 he was commissioned as a justice of the peace.

[7] He was the chairman of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety in the American Revolutionary War, a group responsible for supplies for the state's troops.

President Washington appointed Gilman to the judicial position, with consent of the Senate, and he served until Ohio became a state and the territory was dissolved in 1803.