GILBERT, or GILBERD, (William), a physician, was born at Colchester, in the year 1540, the eldest son of the recorder of that borough. Having spent some time in both universities, he went abroad; and
and at his return settled in London, where he practised with considerable reputation. He became a member of the college of physicians, and physician in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth, who, we are told, gave him a pension to encourage him in his studies. From his epitaph it appears that he was also physician to King James I. He died in the year 1603, aged 63; and was buried in Trinity-church in Colchester, where a handsome monument was erected to his memory. His books, globes, instruments, and fossils, he bequeathed to the college of physicians, and his picture to the school-gallery at Oxford. He wrote, 1. De magnete, magneticeque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure, physologia nova; London 1600, folio. 2. De mundo nostro sublunari, philosophia nova; Amsterdam 1651, 4to. He was also the inventor of two mathematical instruments for finding the latitude at sea without the help of sun, moon, or stars. A description of these instruments was afterwards published by Thomas Blondeville in his Theoriques of the planets.