Gledhill had some good ideas. In 1720 he proposed that as his men were idle, and Fort Frederick was the only garrison in the country, they should build a road to St. John's. The office and the colonial secretary ignored his request.
By 1725 reports of Gledhill's monopoly in business were drifting across the Atlantic, and on June 2nd, 1725, William Teshech merchant resident of Placentia brought a suit against Gledhill, claiming that in 1720 Gledhill had taken over his house. Colonel Moody also took this time to claim damages. The colonial office refused to listen to the complaints. At this time the influence of the New Englanders had began to decline for the Jersey ships were now coming, and their business houses stretched all around Placentia Bay. It is from this period that Jersey Side, Placentia Bay got its name.
The port of Placentia which for five years after the French evacuation had seen little or no shipping was now on the port of call and the trade route of many British Americans, and Jersey ships. The fishery was excellent and the town was the chief center of trade and defense in the Island. There was however trouble with the fishing admirals again. The Admirals claimed that they by right of law, and by custom could and should control the fishery, the sharing out of boat rooms, and others matters. Gledhill refused to recognize their authority, saying the only person who could legally lay down laws in Placentia was the governor of Nova Scotia.
Colonel Samuel Gledhill participated whole-heartedly in the fishery, and restricted others who wished to do so. By the 1720s it was clear that Gledhill had the properties, including the all important beach room where the fish were dried, in his control. He had one salmonry which he kept for himself and another he rented out. Gledhill appears to have been the main merchant of the harbour. Gledhill appears to have been involved with smuggling, buying Canary wines from sack ships which he sold in turn to American vessels, making his harbour something of a "free port". When the local knowledge of the French inhabitants had been sufficiently absorbed by the British, Gledhill is represented as having driven them out of Placentia Bay to more weakly controlled ports of the South Coast and even to Cape Breton. And not only were the French pressured out, but more than thirty families presumably most of them English, had moved out of Placentia to other harbours to avoid his tyranny. Gledhill's years at Placentia (1719 - 1727) may have hastened the occupation of the outlying harbours of Placentia Bay; but his interference at Placentia town itself, key place of the whole southern coast, may have been a large contributing factor to the area's slow development under the British.
Gledhill had three daughters born to him at Placentia, one of whom he named in honour of the town, Bathshun Placentia.