GILBERT, Sir Humphrey

GILBERT, Sir Humphrey, a brave officer and skilful navigator, was born about the year 1539, in Devonshire, and descended of an ancient family. Though a second son, he inherited a considerable fortune from his father. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards at Oxford, where he did not probably continue long. It was intended that he should finish his studies in the Temple; but being introduced at court by his aunt Mrs Catharine Ashley, then

the queen's service, he was diverted from the study of war, and commenced soldier. Having distinguished himself in several military expeditions, particularly in that against Newhaven in 1563, he was sent over to Ireland to assist in suppressing a rebellion; and there, for his signal services, he was made commander-in-chief and governor of Munster, and knighted by the lord deputy, Sir Henry de Grey, upon the first day of the year 1570. He returned on afterwards to England, where he married a rich heiress. Nevertheless, in 1572, he sailed with a squadron of his ships to reinforce Colonel Morgan, who at that time edited the recovery of Flushing. On his return to England he appears to have resumed his cosmographical studies, to which he was naturally inclined; for, in the year 1576, he published his treatise on the north-west passage to the East Indies; and as Martin Frobisher sailed in the same year, he probably did so in consequence of this treatise. In 1578 he obtained from the queen a very ample patent, empowering him to discover and possess in North America any lands then unsettled. He sailed to Newfoundland, but soon returned to England without success; nevertheless, in 1583, he embarked a second time with five ships, the largest of which put back on account of a contagious distemper on board. Gilbert landed on Newfoundland on the 3d of August, and on the 5th took possession of the harbour of St John's. By virtue of his patent he granted leases to several people; but though none of them remained there at that time, they settled afterwards in consequence of these leases, so that he deserves to be remembered as the real founder of our first American empire. On the 20th of August he again put to sea on board a small sloop, which on the 29th foundered in a hard gale of wind; and thus perished Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a man of quick parts, a brave soldier, a good mathematician, a skilful navigator, and an enterprising genius. We learn also that he was remarkable for his loquacity, and much admired for his patriotic speeches both in the English and Irish parliaments. He wrote a Discourse to prove a Passage by the north-west to Canada and the East Indies, 1576, which is preserved in Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages (vol. iii. p. 11). The style is superior to that of most of the writers of the age, and shows the author to have been a man of considerable reading.