1740–1746 Business ventures and investments

Though never being considered wealthy, Gale had several business ventures and investments, including trading horses to the West Indies. He also built and operated steel mill, along with his brother-in-law Aaron Eliot, until as late as 1787.^[9] Jared had made some unsuccessful experiments of an early prototype of the drill plough, and after his death, Gale continued to work on the prototype, and sent a model to the Royal Society of Arts,^[10] and was subsequently awarded with a gold medal in January 1770.^[1] Though this was then seen as a controversy, when Benoni Hillyer, a wheelwright who built the model, claimed that he was the sole constructor of it and that Gale had only acted as an agent communicating with the society.^[10] Hillfyer then unsuccessfully filed a fifty-pound damage suit against Gale.^[10]

He also owned two acres of land within a mile of his residence and acquired six slaves, and managed 200 further acres of land in 1767, on his wife's inheritance of his father-in-law.^[9] Later, he constructed a "mansion house", which was then used as a tavern after his death.^[9]

1747–1773 Political activities and the pamphlet war against Thomas Clap

Gale was firstly elected justice of the peace in May 1747, serving continuously for twenty-two years until 1773, except for four years from 1755 to 1759,^[1] due to the French and Indian War causing him to have heavy responsibilities as a Killingworth state representative,^[9] in which capacity he served from May 1747 to October 1770.^[1] He was allied with the Old Lights, due to his unwillingness to accept the strict Calvinism of the New Lights,^[11] and when governor Roger Wolcott was voted out of office in 1754, it is thought that one factor was him dropping the repressive laws against the New Lights, of which Gale and other Old Lights were of opposition, which was criticized by a political enemy, hinting to the fact that he was the reason Wolcott was voted out, as Gale was considered a leader of the Old Lights in Connecticut politics.^[12]

Subsequently in 1755, Gale began his avocation of added control and launched a political attack on Yale president Thomas Clap,^[1] who was quoted as a "calm and still judicious great Man," who was firm to the point of "absolute "Despotism", and as such seen as a strategic and vulnerable target.^[13] Gale wrote The Present State of the Colony of Connecticut Considered, in which he called Clap "an Assuming, Arbitrary, Designing Man; who under a Cloak of Zeal for Orthodoxy, design'd to govern both Church and State and Damn all who would not worship the Beast", as response to Clap's pamphlet, which he wrote in 1754 at the time of Wolcott's defeat, called The Religious Constitution of Colleges, Especially of Yale-College,^[1] in which he pointed out that Yale had been founded and governed by ministers for the purpose of properly training the clergy.^[14] This attack was successful, leading to a decline in standards of political decorum and an increased political bitterness, subsequently prompting a pamphlet war with Clap throughout the next fifteen years.^[1]

The next pamphlet called A Letter to a Member of the Lower House of Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut: Shewing, That the Taxes at Yale-College, Are Stated Higher Than Necessary to Defray the Annual Expences was published in March 1759, by Gale,^[1] in which he claimed that Yale was not only making a profit of students' fees, but also that Clap should be investigated by the Connecticut General Assembly.^[15] Though no investigation was launched, Reverend John Graham accepted the challenge of his pamphlet, causing Clap to again be the centre of another pamphlet war.^[15]

This pamphlet led to even more criticism to Clap's administration, and though Gale eventually withdrew from the controversy, his pamphlets continued to be used against Clap's administration leading to his resignation after a dramatic defense in 1766.^[15]