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 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 1623, 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, magnetisque corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure, physiologia 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.

Sir Humphrey, a brave officer and skilful navigator, was born about the year 1539, in Devonshire, of an ancient and honourable family. Though a second son, he inherited a considerable fortune from his father. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards at Oxford; where probably he did not continue long. It seems he was intended to finish his studies in the Temple; but being introduced at court by his aunt Mrs Catharine Ashley, then in the queen's service, he was diverted from the study of law, and commenced soldier. Having distinguished himself in several military expeditions, particularly that to Newhaven in 1563, he was sent over to Ireland to assist in suppressing a rebellion; where, for his signal services, he was made commander in chief and gover- nor of Munster, and knighted by the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, on the first day of the year 1570. He returned soon after to England, where he married a rich heiress. Nevertheless, in 1572, he sailed with a squadron of nine ships to reinforce Colonel Morgan, who at that time meditated the recovery of Flushing. Probably on his return to England he resumed his cosmographical studies, to which he was naturally inclined; for, in the year 1576, he published his book on the north-west passage to the East Indies; and as Martin Frobisher sailed in the same year, probably it was 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 an account of a contagious distemper on board. Our general landed on Newfoundland on the third of August, and on the fifth 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 Sir Humphrey deserves to be remembered as the real founder of the vast American empire. On the 20th of August he put to sea again, on board a small sloop; which on the 29th foundered in a hard gale of wind. Thus perished Sir Humphrey Gilbert; a man of quick parts, a brave soldier, a good mathematician, a skilful navigator, and of a very enterprising genius. We learn also, that he was remarkable for his eloquence, being 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 Cathaia and the East Indies," printed London 1576." This treatise, which is a masterly performance, is preserved in Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages, vol. iii. p. ii. The style is superior to most, if not to all, the writers of that age; and shows the author to have been a man of considerable reading. He mentions, at the close of this work, another treatise on navigation, which he intended to publish: it is probably lost.