WILLIAM GILBERT.
51
Fuller, in enumerating the worthies who have adorned the county
of Essex, quaintly writes of him as follows: "Mahomet's tombe at
Mecha is said strangely to hang up, attracted by some invisible Load
stone; but the memory of this Doctor will never fall to the ground,
which his incomparable book 'De Magnete' will support to eternity."
What manner of man this was, and why we ascribe to him
honours so unique, it is our present task to set forth.
William Gilbert, or Gilberd, as his name is sometimes spelled,
was born, in 1540, in Colchester, of which ancient borough his
father, Hierom Gilberd, was at one time Recorder.
Of his boyhood little or nothing is known ; indeed it is sur-
prising that there is little to chronicle about so great a man beyond
the dates of a few salient events in his career. In May, 1558,
being then eighteen years old, he matriculated at St. John's College,
Cambridge, at which university he remained for eleven years. At
the end of 1560 he proceeded to his bachelor's degree ; and on
March 21st, 1560/1, he was admitted as a Fellow on Symson's Founda-
tion. In 1564 he "commenced" M.A. For the two following
years he was mathematical examiner in his college, and appears to
have turned his attention to medicine; for on May 13th, 1569, he
was admitted M.D. ; and on December 29th of the same year was
elected to a Senior Fellowship. After this he left England to travel
in foreign countries. His precise course of travel is unknown ; but
he made the acquaintance of many persons of distinction in the
great historic universities, with some of whom he is known to have
been subsequently in correspondence. Passages in his published
works show him to have resided in Mantua, Venice, and other
cities ; and his knowledge of geography was very considerable. He
returned to England in 1573, and was at once made a Fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians. On November 27th, 1577, was
granted to him the coat of arms which is figured behind the title-
page of his book, and was subsequently emblazoned in carved stone
upon his tomb. From 1581 till 1590 he was Censor of the Royal
College : he was its Treasurer from 1587 to 1591, and again from
1597 to 1599. In 1600 he was made President, an honour which
he did not long retain, as he died on November 3rd, 1603, aged
sixty-three years. He was never married ; but the name of the
family was preserved by his four brothers, one of whom, by a curious
circumstance also named William, was a proctor in the Court of Arches.
Seventy years later there was living at Burnt, Ely, another
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