Arthur Gorges

Sir Arthur Gorges (circa 1569 - 10 Oct 1625), was a poet and translator, and courtier.

He was born the son of Sir William Gorges of Charlton (Charlton in the parish of Wraxall, Somerset), and his wife Winifred Budockshede, heiress to the manor of Budockshede. Sir William Gorges died in Dec 1584, in the Tower of London - he was knighted in Ireland in 1579, Vice Admiral of the Fleet in 1580, and Constable of the Tower of London [1].

Arthur Gorges' brother Tristram Gorges (circa 1562 - 8 May 1608, St. Budeaux, Devonshire, England) was entrusted by Sir Francis Drake with the custody of Don Pedro de Valdez who was captured in the fight with the Spanish Armada. He took Don Pedro to the Tower of London[[2]].

The Gorges family in the Elizabethan era include Sir Ferdinando Gorges, founder of the Province of Maine, and Arthur Gorges' uncle, Sir Thomas Gorges of Longford Castle, married to Helena, Marchioness of Northampton.

Life

A cousin of both Walter Raleigh and Charles Arundell, Arthur Gorges was a member of the Howard circle (the Oxford-Howard circle of Catholic courtiers in the late 1570s [3]) - Arundell claimed Oxford had tried to have Gorges murdered, on the Richmond green[4].

He lived at Gorges House (later named Milman House)[5].

His family possessed considerable property in Chelsea, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and he built "Brickills" - later named Stanley House - there [6]. Sir Robert Stanley, second son of William, sixth Earl of Derby, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Arthur Gorges, and Stanley then seems to have lived at Stanley House[7].

Arthur Gorges married twice, first to Douglas Howard in 1584, with whom he had one daughter. Douglas Howard was the daughter and heir of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Bindon. Henry Howard’s father, the first Viscount (Thomas Howard, Viscount Howard of Bindon), was the second son of Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk, uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two wives of Henry VIII.

Gorges' second marriage was to Elizabeth Clinton Fiennes in 1597, with whom he had twelve children.

On the death of Arthur Gorges' first wife, Edmund Spenser wrote the poem Daphnaïda.

Daphnaïda

AN ELEGIE

VPON THE DEATH

OF THE NOBLE AND

VERTUOUS DOVGLAS

Howard, daughter and heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byn- don, and wife of Arthur Gorges Esquier.

Dedicated to the Right honorable the Ladie Helena, Marquesse of Northampton.

By Ed. Sp.

[8]

In 1597 he commanded the War-Spite, in which Walter Ralegh sailed as Vice Admiral under the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, on the Islands Voyage.

He was one of nine who were knighted on 29 Oct 1597.

Alcyon is sir Arthur Gorges.—Spencer, Daphnaida (in seven fyttes, 1590)[9].

His monument is in Chelsea Old Church. A brass plate, now fixed to the north wall, is engraved with the kneeling effigies of Sir Arthur Gorges and his six sons on one side of a small table, and his wife and five daughters on the other [10].

Works

His works include "Lucans Pharsalia" (with a preface in poetry by Walter Raleigh), and a translation into English of Francis Bacon's The Wisedome of the Ancients[11] from the original Latin.

He is included in the Oxford Book of Sonnets (2000) published by the Oxford University Press, along with Walter Ralegh, Michael Drayton, and other poets of the time.

Books

Arthur Gorges, Spenser's Alcyon and Ralegh's friend. Author: Helen Estabrook Sandison Publisher: [n.p., 1928?]

Poems. Author: Arthur Gorges, Sir; Helen Estabrook Sandison Publisher: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953.

The Story of a Family through Eleven Centuries, Illustrated by Portraits and Pedigrees: Being a History of the Family of Gorges by Raymond Gorges, Frederick Brown; Merrymount Press, 1944. 293 pgs.

Notes

Arthur Gorges' mother, before her marriage, was Winifred Budockshede, heiress to the manor of Budockshede.

This appears to be the same place as St. Budeaux, where some of the Gorges family lived.

The name St. Budeaux comes from St Budoc, the Bishop of Dol (Brittany).

The village is documented in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086. Known as Bucheside, it was valued at 30 shillings (around six times the amount of neighbouring manors). Over the course of the next few hundred years, Bucheside became Bodekishide, Budeokshed, and even Bottockishide. The modern name, St. Budeaux, is itself a Frenchified "elegant" form.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Budeaux)

References

• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ArthurGorges.htm

• http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45224 Date accessed: 04 September 2009.

• http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=99959 Date accessed: 07 September 2009.

• http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=74629 Date accessed: 07 September 2009.

• http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/search_results.aspx?st=q&queryText=Gorges&aqgQueryText=Gorges&queryType=ALL has data about the Gorges family