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 board and Gambier, as the board's nominee, should be held blameless. Care was taken to assemble a friendly court; the president, Sir Roger Curtis, was a personal friend of Gambier's; as many inconvenient witnesses as possible were sent out of the way; and thus, after a grossly partial trial, Gambier was ‘most honourably acquitted,’ 9 Aug. 1809. He retained the command of the Channel fleet till 1811, after which he had no naval service, though in 1814 he was one of the commissioners for negotiating a treaty of peace with the United States. On 7 June 1815 he was nominated a G.C.B., and on 22 July 1830 was promoted to the rank of admiral of the fleet. He died on 19 April 1833. His portrait, by Sir William Beechey (Royal Academy, 1809), was exhibited at South Kensington in 1868, lent by the family. He married in 1788, but left no issue.

Gambier's long connection with the board of admiralty, his command at Copenhagen, and the scandal of Basque Roads have given his name a distinction not altogether glorious. His conduct on 1 June 1794 prevents any imputation of personal cowardice, but emphasises the miserable failure in April 1809, which certainly suggests that he was out of place in command of a fleet. He seems, indeed, to have had a very distinct preference for life on shore, and one of the most noticeable features in his career is the shortness of the time he spent at sea, which between his promotions to lieutenant and to rear-admiral amounted in all to five and a half years. His experience was thus extremely limited, nor have we any reason to suppose that his ability in any one point had a wider range. His kinship with the Pitts and Lord Barham stood him in good stead.



GAMBLE, JOHN (d. 1687), musician and composer, was apprenticed to Beyland, one of Charles I's violinists, and afterwards played at a London theatre. In 1656 (according to the title-page) he published ‘Ayres and Dialogues to be sung to the theorbo, lute, or base violl,’ many of the verses for which were by Thomas Stanley. This music won Gamble renown at Oxford, and Anthony à Wood in July 1658 was proud to entertain him and another eminent musician after their performance at Will Ellis's meeting-house. A second book of ‘Ayres and Dialogues, for one, two, and three voyces,’ was published in 1659 ; a manuscript commonplace book, formerly in the possession of Dr. Rimbault, but now in America, containing songs by Wilson for the ‘Northern Lass,’ and many compositions by H. and W. Lawes, as well as common songs and ballads, bears the same date. Gamble's admission to the king's household dated from the Restoration; his services as ‘musitian on the cornet’ were available at the Chapel Royal, where in 1660 the want of trained boys' voices was supplied by wind instruments and men's falsetto, and where at a later date cornets and sackbuts were employed on Sundays, holy days, and collar-days to heighten the effect of the music. Docquet-warrants of 1661 and 1663 record Gamble's claim to wages of twenty pence per diem and 16l. 2s. 6d. per annum for livery, from the midsummer of 1660; a petition in 1666 represents Gamble as having lost all his property in the fire of London; his name also appears in an exchequer document of 1674 (, Roger North, 99) as one of the musicians in ordinary, with a salary of 46l. Gamble is said (, MS. Notes) to have played the violin in the King's band, and to have been composer of lessons for the king's playhouse. He signed a will in 1680, leaving his books of music and 20l. due to him out of the exchequer to his grandson, John Gamble, ‘now servant to Mr. Strong,’ cutting off other relatives with a shilling, and bequeathing the residue to his widow. Gamble died in 1687, advanced in years. His portrait, engraved by T. Cross, is prefixed to the volume of ‘Ayres’ of 1656.



GAMBLE, JOHN (d. 1811), writer on telegraphy, was a member of Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. 1784, M.A. 1787, became a fellow of his college, was chaplain to the Duke of York, and chaplain-general of the forces. He published (London, 1795) a quarto pamphlet of twenty pages entitled ‘Observations on Telegraphic Experiments, or the different Modes which have been or may be adopted for the purpose of