or GILBERD, William, a physician, born at Colchester in the year 1540, was the eldest son of the recorder of that borough. Having spent some time in both universities, he went abroad; and on 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 sixty-three, and was buried in Trinity Church, 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, magnetisique Corporibus, et de magno magnetie 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, 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 ment acute and solid, and a genius active and inventive, he soon distinguished himself by departing, in various important particulars, from established but unsuccessful modes of practice. Several of the improvements which he introduced have procured him great and deserved reputation both at home and abroad. His practice, in ordinary cases, was allowed to be judicious, and placed him high in the confidence and esteem of the inhabitants of that part of the country where he lived. But his usefulness was not confined to his own neighbourhood. Upon many occasions he was consulted by letter from the most distant parts of the country. In different collections are to be found several of his performances, which prove that he had something new and useful to offer upon every subject to which he applied himself. But those writings which do him the greatest honour are two dissertations on nervous fevers, in the medical essays and observations published by a society in Edinburgh; and a treatise on the use of sea voyages in medicine, which first made its appearance in the year 1757, and was afterwards reprinted in 1771. Dr Gilchrist died in 1774.