students in London, Mr. W. Noël Sainsbury, of the Public Records Office; likewife to Mr. B. F. Stevens, who is as prompt as he is able to affift his countrymen in their hif torical researches in Europe; and to Mr. E. J. Phelps, our minifter to the court of St. James, who procured for me, from the Colonial Office, privileges which greatly facilitated my researches in the public archives of London. At home, I have received favors from Dr. Charles E. Banks, Hubbard W. Bryant, John Ward Dean, and the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter. To the latter I am particularly indebted for a critical examination of my work as it has advanced, and for many valuable corrections and fuggef tions. Though I was fortunate in finding fo much material for the Memoir of Gorges, I fully realize how unfortunate I was in not finding more; but I cannot doubt that hiftorical ftudents will find in this monograph fome flight contribution to American history. LERKENWELL, in the county of Middlefex, in 1568, was a picturefque rural hamlet, lying peacefully within a girdle of green fields and fresh groves. The gray walls of London, bright with emblazoned banners, were in plain view across a little ftretch of meadow-land; and from its guarded gates merry crowds had often come to the ancient well, which gave the place its name, to witness the facred dramas performed by the clerks of the religious houfes near by, or to engage in rural sports away from the din and duft of the great town. Hither, too, often came the invalid, drawn by faith in the medicinal virtues of the wells which abounded in the vicinity; and departed in due time refreshed, benefited as much, maybe, by the air and quiet of the place as by its healing waters. The fultry fummer days had flipped by, one by one, until the 29th of Auguft had come. When the day began, VOL. I.I Edward Edward Gorges, then in the flush of manhood, having only attained the age of thirty-one years, was lying mortally ill in this old hamlet of Clerkenwell, where he was refiding with his young family. Life had opened to him full of promife. At the early age of twenty-one years, he became, by virtue of primogeniture, the poffeffor of the ancient patrimony of the Gorges family of Wraxall,2 with all which that implied of wealth and honor; and later he had increased his influence by marriage with Cicely Lygon, who belonged to a Worcestershire family of distinction. On Sunday, the 10th of Auguft, nineteen days before the date just mentioned, he had made a final disposition of his worldly poffeffions, and had fince awaited death, which came ere the day 1 For accounts of Clerkenwell, vide A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John Stow, edited by John Strype, 1720, Book IV. p. 64; A New and Compleat History of London and Westminster, etc., by Henry Chamberlain, p. 603. Edward Gorges was undoubtedly living in one of the old manfions of his family. Moft families of wealth and diftinction had their town houses, and Clerkenwell was a favorite place of refidence for gentlemen defiring to take part in London life. We find Sir Ferdinando residing here in 1595, where his eldest fon Robert was born on November 15th; and here, on July 30th, 1620, his fon John Gorges, Efq., was married to Lady Frances Fynes, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln. Members of the Gorges family appear at Clerkenwell as early as 1567, there being a marriage record of John Gorges on the parish register of that date. 2" Wroxall or Wraxall, but in ancient writings Wrokeshale, the manor and eftate for a long time of the family of Gorges, who had their first seat here. Ralph de Gorges had fummons among the Barons of this realm from 2d Edw. II. to the 16th of the fame King; and his father Ralph, 4th Henry III., was made governor of Sherborne Castle and, a little after, of the caftle of Exeter. Theobald de Gorges, the fon of the former Ralph, was high fheriff of the county of Dorset, and this shire in the reign of King Edward III.; he also obtained of the fame King a license for a market every week upon Thursday, at this his manor of Wrokeshale, and for a fair yearly upon the eve day and morrow of the feast of All Saints, and five days next following. None of the defcendants of this family were fummoned to Parliament after Ralph, Lord Gorges; but they have lived, in the place for many fucceffions, and but of late are reduced to a female heir, which will bring this seat into another family or be extinct." Vide A Compleat Hiflory of Somerset, Sherborne, 1742. day ended; and it was foon known in Clerkenwell, and by friends and acquaintances in the city beyond, that Edward Gorges of Wraxall was dead. Three days later, on the first day of September, his body was borne to the old parish church of St. James, Clerkenwell, where its afhes repose to-day, though Clerkenwell is now a part of the mighty metropolis. His young widow was left with two fons: Edward, the elder, baptized September 5th, 1564, at Wraxall, and at the death of his father four years of age; and Ferdinando, the record of whofe birth or baptifm has not yet come to light. It was at Wraxall that the Gorges family were wont to record their births, marriages, and deaths, as though they took especial pride in folemnizing these important family events there; and the fact that the younger fon's name is not to be found in the registers of the ancient parish church, fo endeared to the family by long affociation, renders it probable that he was born at Clerkenwell while his father was lying fick there. Like his predeceffors, however, he is entitled as of Wraxall, the old manor of the Gorges family, which had then been in their possession for more than three centuries, The registers of St. James, Clerkenwell, are imperfect; thus, in the first volume purporting to contain marriages, christenings, and burials from 1561 to 1653, no marriages are recorded until 1587; but bound into the volume are feveral leaves of marriages, chriftenings, and burials in a confused manner, and these interpolated leaves purport to be "A trewe note of fuche Marriages, Christeninges and burialls as founde in fundery boockes and papers after the makinge of this regefter boocke, were begyn'inge at the yeare of or Lorde god 1551 vntill the yere of or Lorde god 1578 as followeth." A glance at these leaves reveals the fact that lapses are frequent; indeed, in one cafe, no record appears for a period of eight years. There can be no doubt that this volume is a compilation from a more ancient regifter. It is therefore quite poffible that the chriftening of Ferdinando Gorges took place here and was not recorded, or if recorded that the record was loft. centuries, having come to them through the marriage of Ralph de Gorges with the heirefs of Richard de Wrokeshale, the early poffeffor of the manor to which the family name attached, and which in time became abbreviated to Wraxall. The family of Gorges itself derived its name from a hamlet in Lower Normandy, near Carentan. It was from this hamlet that Ranolph de Gorges came in the year 1066 to the conqueft of England. Left by the death of her husband with the fole charge of two young children, it became the chief duty of Cicely Gorges to rear and educate them; and although she subsequently became the wife of John Vivian, and thereby affumed new responsibilities, we have reason to believe that she fairly fulfilled her trust. Edward, we know, entered Hart's College, Oxford, in 1582; and it is reasonable to fuppose, although we have no definite data refpecting the education of Ferdinando, that he was not neglected, but was educated in a manner befitting the family importance. The period during which Ferdinando Gorges was paffing from youth to manhood was pregnant with events of worldwide importance; indeed, the year 1568, the date when this narrative begins, is fet down by Camden as the year in which Puritanism began to affert itself in England; and he dates from this year the aggreffive movement against the established order throughout the kingdom. The word “Puritanism," however, limited to a religious fenfe, is not fufficiently broad to defignate properly the movement indicated, which embraced political as well as religious purification and reformation, although at times it feemed limited to mere cavil against ecclefiaftical form and ceremony. Really |