Gilbert Haven, au American clergyman, born near Boston, Sept. 19, 1821. He graduated at Wesleyan university in 1846, and for two years taught Greek and Latin in Amenia seminary, of which in 1848 he became principal. In 1851 ho joined the New England conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was stationed successively at Northampton, Wilbra-ham, Westfield, Roxbury, and Cambridge, Mass. In 1861 he was appointed chaplain of the 8th Massachusetts regiment, the first commissioned chaplaincy after the breaking out of the civil war. In 1862 he made a tour in Europe and the East, and on his return was stationed as pastor for two years in Boston. His earnest advocacy of the cause of the colored population, both before and during the civil war, led to his appointment in 1865 to the supervision of the interests of the destitute freedmen and whites in the state of Mississippi. In 1867 he was appointed editor of "Zion's Herald," Boston, and continued in this office till 1872, when he was elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church. The general conference assigned his residence at Atlanta, Ga., and placed under his special superintendence the interests of the Methodist Episcopal church in the extreme southern states.

He has been a persistent advocate of Protestant missions in Italy and among the Spanish-speaking peoples, and in 1872 and 1873 visited Mexico in the interest of this cause. He has published " The Pilgrim's Wallet," a book of travels (1864), and "National Sermons: Sermons, Speeches, and Letters on Slavery and its War" (1869).