Gilead Secord, son of William and Ruth (Hunt) Secord
I have a copy of a transcription of William's will. It lists his daughters all by name, and his son William who predeceased him. The will mentions four other sons, still living, but only names one of them, James, as executor. The other three are commonly agreed to be Gilead, Elijah, and Carmel. I have not yet seen proof of this but I am comfortable that it is correct as it appears that a listing of the children of the other Secord family in the area, Elias and Abigail (Babcock) Secord, has survived and been passed down. This gives their children by name with date of birth, and it does not include Gilead, Elijah, or Carmel. These three also seem to be connected to Kings County, where William lived, and not Queens County, where Elias lived.
Gilead married Margaret Spragg on March 21, 1813. He was of the parish of Norton and she was of the parish of Springfield, both in Kings County. This record appears in the book "Yesteryear/Kings County, New Brunswick Marriages (Register A)" by Ruby Cusack. According to this, his name was spelled Gillead Seacord in the record. I have a copy of Gilead's will, as recorded in the Kings County Probate Record Books. It is a transcription of the original, and it indicates that he signed his name as Gilead Seacord. The children listed for him are sons Gilead, Harding, Caleb, William and Elias, and daughters Leah and Margaret, though one daughter had predeceased him, leaving a daughter named Ruth Burgess. I don't know the order of birth of Gilead's children.
According to cemetery records at https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2350563/memorial-search, Gilead and Margaret were buried in Riverbank Community Cemetery in Sussex Parish, Kings County. Here are their records:
555: Gilead Seacord d. 3 Jun 1856 ae 68 - FATHER
556: Margaret w/o late Gilead Secord d. Oct 1883 ae 95
The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) website at http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/?culture=en-CA has death records for Gilead and Margaret in Daniel F. Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics:
Date November 6 1883
County Saint John
Place Saint John
Newspaper The Daily Telegraph
d. Apohaqui (Kings Co.) Wednesday 24th ult., Margaret SECORD relict of Gilead SECORD, Esq., 94th year.Date July 11 1856
County Saint John
Place Saint John
Newspaper Religious Intelligencer
Died at Sussex (Kings Co.) 3rd June, Gilead SECORD, age 86. He was born on the St. John River where he lived at home with his father for 21 years, at which time he asked his father's liberty to seek out a living for himself. After getting that liberty, he started up the same river towards Wakefield (Carleton Co.) where he lived for about a year, after which time he came to Norton on the Kennebecasis and lived there some three or four years and then removed about ten miles up that river to the lower part of Sussex parish where he remained until some two or three months before his death. He experienced religion under the labors of Elder J. Gunter and was baptized by him six or seven years ago. - left 9 children, grandchildren.
The cemetery record suggests a year of birth for Gilead of about 1788. The newspaper announcement of his death gives his age as 86, but that would give him a year of birth of 1770, which is clearly incorrect. My guess is that the newspaper record should show 68 instead of 86 as his age. For Margaret, the cemetery record indicates that she was born about 1788 and the newspaper announcement suggests 1790. The 1851 census for Sussex, Kings County, gives Gilead's age as 64 and Margaret's 60, which corresponds to 1787 and 1791, respectively. In any case, Gilead was born after the family had moved to what is now New Brunswick.