Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/374

 

 GAINSFORD, THOMAS (d. 1624?), author, belonged to the Surrey family of Gainsford. He with Edward Stene apparently purchased of the crown Alne manor, Warwickshire, and a cottage in Stutton, Yorkshire, 27 Nov. 1599 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598–1601, p. 347). He is known to have served in Ireland under Richard de Burgh, fourth earl of Clanricarde, as ‘third officer’ of the ‘earl's regiment’ when the Spaniards were dislodged from Kinsale on 24 Dec. 1601 (Hist. … of … Tirone, ded.). He was also engaged in the war against Tyrone in Ulster. As captain, Gainsford undertook to occupy land in Ulster at the plantation of 1610 (Irish State Papers, 1608–10, p. 367). On 4 Sept. 1624 Chamberlain wrote to Carleton that the deaths of the week in London included ‘Captain Gainsford, the gazette maker’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–5, p. 334). This is doubtless a reference to our author. Gainsford published the following: 1. ‘The Vision and Discourse of Henry the seventh concerning the unitie of Great Britaine, Lond., by G. Eld for Henry Fetherstone, 1610,’ in verse of six-line stanzas; dedicated to ‘the truly religious and resolute gentlemen of England.’ An address from Henry VII to James I figures in the poem. Only two copies are now known, one at Bridgewater House, the other at the British Museum (, Bibliogr. Manual, i. 300–1;, Collectanea, vol. vi.). 2. ‘The Historie of Trebizond in foure books, by Thomas Gainsforde, esquier,’ Lond., 1616, a collection of romantic stories. The books are separately dedicated to the Countess Dowager of Derby, the Countess of Huntingdon, Lady Frances Egerton, and Lady Chandos respectively. 3. ‘The Secretaries Studie; or directions for the … judicious inditing of Letters,’ Lond., 1616; no copy is in the British Museum. 4. ‘The True and Wonderfull History of Perkin Warbeck,’ Lond., 1618, dedicated to the Earl of Arundel; reprinted in ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ vol. iii. 5. ‘The Glory of England, or a true Description of many excellent Prerogatives and remarkable Blessings whereby she triumpheth over all the Nations of the World,’ Lond., 1618, dedicated to Buckingham. All ‘the eminent kingdoms of the earth’ are here compared with England to their disadvantage. A curious account of Ireland from the author's own experience concludes book i. Book ii. treats of Russia, and compares London with Paris, Venice, and Constantinople. A revised edition appeared in 1619, and was reissued in 1620. 6. ‘The True Exemplary and Remarkable History of the Earl of Tirone,’ Lond., 1619, dedicated to the Earl of Clanricarde; of no great value, but interesting as a nearly contemporary record.

Mr. W. C. Hazlitt also conjecturally assigns to Gainsford ‘The Rich Cabinet furnished with varietie of excellent discriptions, exquisite characters, witty discourses and delightfull histories, deuine and morrall,’ Lond., for Roger Iackson, 1616. An appendix—‘an epitome of good manners extracted out of the treatise of M. Iohn della Casa called Galatea’—is signed T. G., together with a Latin motto. This signature resembles those in Gainsford's undoubted books, but the question of authorship is very doubtful. Some hostile remarks on players, ff. 116–18, are interesting. The book was popular; a fourth edition is dated 1668, and a sixth 1689. ‘The Friers Chronicle, or the True Legend of Priests and Monkes Lives’ (Lond., for Robert Mylbourne, 1623), has a dedication to the Countess of Devonshire, signed T. G., and has been attributed to Gainsford. But Thomas Goad (1576–1638) [q. v.] is more probably the author.

 GAIRDNER, JOHN, M.D. (1790–1876), eldest son of Captain Robert Gairdner of the Bengal artillery, was born at Mount Charles, near Ayr, on 18 Sept. 1790. When he was only five years old his father was killed by the kick of a horse, and the care of five sons and a daughter fell upon his widowed mother, who lived to see them all grow up, and was regarded by them with deep and reverent affection. He received his school education at Ayr academy, but, he and his brother William [q. v.] having chosen a professional career, his mother removed with her family to Edinburgh in 1808, and there he took his degree of M.D. in 1811. He spent the winter of 1812 in London, studying anatomy under Mr. (afterwards the celebrated Sir Charles) Bell, and in 1813 commenced practice in Edinburgh in partnership with Dr. Farquharson, one of the leading physicians there. In the same year he became a fellow of the College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and four years later began to act as examiner for that body, a duty which he continued to discharge till within a few years of his death. He always took a most lively interest in the