Johnathan Gilbert
Biographical information
Born	1800s
Status	Deceased
Occupation	Penman Inventor/Businessman Member of the Town Council
Species	Human
Family information
Family members	Samantha Gilbert † (Granddaughter) Grayson Gilbert † (Descendant) John Gilbert † (Descendant) Elena Gilbert (Descendant) Jeremy Gilbert (Descendant)
Supernatural information
Appearance
Played by	Joe Knezevich
First seen	Children of the Damned (flashback)
Last seen	The Dinner Party (flashback)
.

Johnathan Gilbert lived in Mystic Falls in the year 1864 and was part of the Town Council. He is said to be a mad scientist, as he invented the Gilbert device, the Gilbert rings, and the Gilbert compass. In reality, Emily Bennett spelled all of his inventions with magic.

This character was a member of the Gilbert Family.

Background history

Johnathan was a member of one of the Founding Families that hunted vampires along with Giuseppe Salvatore. He seemed to fancy a woman named Pearl, Pearl seemed to share a mutual attraction to Johnathan as well. However, he shoots her after discovering she was a vampire. He was in possession of a mysterious compass that can find vampires. Sometime later on Pearl comes into possession of the compass. He died more than century ago of a drunken binge according to John Gilbert. However, in his own journal as read by his descendant Elena Gilbert in the episode The Dinner Party, he mentions that he was killed by a vampire. The vampire that killed him was Stefan Salvatore. However it is most certain that Johnathan was wearing his "Gilbert Ring" when he was killed as he survived and went on to do extensive research on the vampire race including their origins.

He was the only Founding Family member to know that Emily Bennett was a witch as Damon said in The House Guest when he realizes it was Katherine who betrayed Emily to the Founders because he had read in the journals that it hadn't been Johnathan. It is possible that Emily offered to enchant the inventions that he had failed to create so that the Founders would be able to stop the vampires in Mystic Falls, allowing Johnathan to take the credit while ensuring her and her family's protection.

Johnathan wrote stories in journals about his life, including the existence of vampires. His descendant Jeremy Gilbert, Elena's adoptive brother, has used the journals to write an extra credit history report for Alaric Saltzman, which eventually caused Jeremy to suspect in vampires actually being real. Johnathan "John" Gilbert, his namesake and Jeremy's uncle, tells Jeremy that Johnathan wrote several journals.

In the casting slides for the role of Johnathan Gilbert, there were lines where he mentions his young children and his wife Margaret (Margaret Gilbert being the name of Elena's sister in the book series). These lines were never used in the TV series and it remains unclear if Johnathan Gilbert is married or not in 1864. He has at least one son, as the pocket watch/vampire compass is passed down in the Gilbert family from eldest son to the eldest son.

Stefan's Diaries

In Stefan's Diaries, he holds the Council meetings in his attic.

Inventions

Johnathan Gilbert was a great inventor. He designed and built a series of devices which Emily secretly enchanted with magic so that they would act as anti-vampire gadgets as they were supposed to since Jonathan Gilbert's inventions never actually work so Emily spelled them.

The watch was in fact a compass which indicated vampires. It was composed of a watch case and a compass head. It was used back in 1864 to detect vampires, and in 2010 by Logan Fell.

The device was a system of wheels encased in a wooden box. It emits a high-pitch sound that only vampires can hear. It was used in 2010 by John Gilbert in order to catch and kill the tomb vampires. In order to be activated it required a certain cog which Pearl had stolen from Johnathan Gilbert back in 1864.

Appearances

This character only appears in flashbacks.

Season 1

• Children of the Damned (flashback)
• Blood Brothers (flashback)

Season 2

• The Dinner Party (flashback)

Trivia

• It was knew to be most mad member of the council, at that time. Probably, because he invented The Gilbert Device, Gilbert Compass and many others.
• He shared a great friendship with vampire Pearl, before knowing that she was a vampire. It is possible that both loved each other, especially Pearl for him.
• He hated vampires so much that his love/friendship towards Pearl turned immediately in hate.
  • It's revealed, by John Gilbert that he regretted so much because he didn't staked her, when he discovered.
• Alexander and Jonathan were both vampire hunters, both had special weapons to destroy vampires and both depised vampires so much to the point they betrayed their own lovers. For Jonathan it was Pearl, and for Alexander it was Rebekah.

See also