THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
175
Street and Little Knightrider Street, possibly the house of the College of
Physicians. Here he practised, as his epitaph in Holy Trinity Church, Col-
chester, records, ",for more than thirty years with singular credit and success."
"He was received," says Morant, "with the highest favour by Queen Elizabeth,
becoming one of her Physicians in Ordinary," and he adds, "she had so high
a value for him that she allowed him an annual pension to encourage him in his
studies." These studies were very comprehensive, for in addition to medicine
and magnetism, he was addicted, says Fuller, "to Chemistry, attaining great
exactness therein." In February, 1600, he was appointed Chief Physician to
the Court. Mr. Cooke says, "The date of this appointment is fixed by a letter
from John Chamberlaine (who resided with Gilberd), addressed to Sir Dudley
Carleton (afterwards Lord Dorchester), and dated February 3, 1600-1, in which
the following passage occurs: 'The Queene hath made choise of our Doctor for
her phisition but he is not yet sworne ;' and this was followed by another letter
THE BIRTHPLACE OF DR, GILBERD, IN COLCHESTER.
dated February 24, 1600-1, and addressed 'To my very goode frend Mr. Dudley
Carleton geve these, at the Haghe or elsewhere,' in which Chamberlaine tells
his friend 'The Covie' (i.e., covey) 'is now dispersed, and we are driven to
seeke our feeding further off, our Doctor being alredy settled in Court, and I
redy to go to Askot ['Letters of John Chamberlain,' London, 1861]."
Gilberd was Treasurer of the College of Physicians from 1587 to 1591 and
again from 1597 to 1599, and in 1600 he was elected President. "The Queen
died in March, 1603, and her successor, James I., on his accession, continued
Gilberd's appointment as principal Court Physician, but he held it only for a few
months, for he died on November 30th of the same year, in the sixty-third year
of his age." Morant says that Elizabeth left him the only legacy mentioned in
her will.4 
It is greatly to be regretted that not a single book or instrument which had
4 We have been unable to find any confirmation of this statement, nor is any will mentioned
in the biographies of the queen to which we have access. Morant's statement is interesting, and
it is to be hoped that some one may be able to confirm it by historical records.—Ed.