Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/343

 largest prizes of the year; she bore him two sons, one of whom became a clerk-extraordinary to the privy council, and the other served in the navy. He married, secondly, Mary, daughter of Lieut.-Colonel George Craufurd, and with her he retired into Staffordshire, devoting his time and his money to the improvement of his estate. Gilbert died at Cotton on 18 Dec. 1798, and his friend John Holliday printed anonymously a monody on his death, praising his generosity for building and endowing in 1795 the chapel of ease of St. John the Baptist at Lower Cotton. He was bencher of the Inner Temple in 1782, reader 1788, and treasurer 1789.

Gilbert's publications on his schemes of reform were very numerous. He published in 1775 ‘Observations upon the Orders and Resolutions of the House of Commons with respect to the Poor;’ and ‘A Bill intended to be offered to Parliament for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor in England.’ These were followed in 1781 by a ‘Plan for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor,’ together with bills for those objects; followed by a ‘Supplement.’ At the same time he brought out as a separate tract ‘A Plan of Police,’ which passed into a second edition, ‘with objections stated and answered,’ in 1786. In 1782 he brought out a volume of ‘Observations on the Bills for amending the Laws relative to Houses of Correction,’ &c. The Poor-law Bill of 1787 was preceded by three tracts: (1) ‘Plan to amend and enforce the Act 23 George III;’ (2) ‘Heads of a Bill for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor and for the Improvement of the Police;’ (3) ‘Considerations on the Bills for the better Relief of the Poor,’ &c. His opinions found many supporters and opponents. He was supported by John Brand (d. 1808) [q. v.] in 1776, and was attacked in ‘Observations on the Scheme before Parliament for the Maintenance of the Poor,’ 1776 (anonymous, by Edward Jones of Wepré Hall, and printed at Chester). A candid friend published in 1777 some critical ‘Remarks on Mr. Gilbert's Bill for Promoting the Residence of the Parochial Clergy;’ and Sir Henry Bate Dudley criticised his Poor-law Bill in 1788 in ‘Remarks on Gilbert's Last Bill.’ Gilbert edited in 1787 ‘A Collection of Pamphlets concerning the Poor,’ written by Thomas Firmin [q. v.] in 1678, and others. His report on the king's household in 1782, and some letters from him on its management, are among the manuscripts of the Marquis of Lansdowne (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 145). Other letters are referred to in the 7th Rep. p. 238. Stebbing Shaw, in the preface to his ‘History of Staffordshire,’ records his obligations to Gilbert and praises his plantation at Cotton.

[Eden's State of the Poor, i. 362–6, 389–95, 600–1; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 203–4; Smiles's Engineers, i. 347–51; Gent. Mag. 1784 pt. i. p. 460, 1798 pt. ii. pp. 1090, 1146; Horace Walpole's Reign of George III, ii. 89; Walpole's Last Journals, ii. 221, 595; Correspondence (Cunningham's ed.), iv. 340, viii. 396; Corresp. of George III and North, ii. 146; Letters of first Earl of Malmesbury, i. 380–1; G. Robertson's Ayrshire Families, p. 177; John Holliday's British Oak, p. 56.] 

GILBERT, WALTER RALEIGH (1785–1853), lieutenant-general, son of the Rev. Edmund Gilbert, vicar of Constantine and rector of Helland, Cornwall, by his wife, the daughter of Henry Garnett of Bristol, was born in Bodmin in 1785. He belonged to the Devonshire family of Gilbert of Compton to which Sir Humphrey Gilbert [q. v.] also belonged. Sir Humphrey's mother was by a second marriage mother of Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1800 Gilbert obtained a Bengal infantry cadetship. In 1801 he was posted as ensign to the late 15th Bengal native infantry, in which he became lieutenant 12 Sept. 1803, and captain 16 April 1810. In that corps, under command of Colonel (afterwards Sir) John Macdonald, he was present at the defeat of Perron's brigades at Coel, at Ally Ghur, the battle of Delhi, the storming of Agra, the battle of Laswarrie, and the four desperate but unsuccessful attacks on Bhurtpore, where he attracted the favourable notice of Lord Lake. Afterwards he was in succession barrack-master and cantonment magistrate at Cawnpore, commandant of the Calcutta native militia, and commandant of the Rhamgur local battalion. He was promoted major 12 Nov. 1820, lieutenant-colonel of the late 39th Bengal native infantry, then just formed in 1824, and colonel of the late 35th native infantry in 1832. He became a major-general in 1841, and lieutenant-general in 1851. He commanded a division of the army under Sir Hugh Gough [q. v.] in the first Sikh war, at the battles of Moodkee and Ferozeshah in December 1845, and at Sobraon 10 Feb. 1846. Gough in his despatch spoke highly of Gilbert's services. Gilbert commanded a division of Gough's army in the second Sikh war, at the battles of Chillianwallah, 13 Jan. 1849, and Goojerat, 21 Feb. 1849. After Goojerat, Gilbert with his division crossed the Jhelum in pursuit of the remains of the Sikh host, part of which surrendered to him at Hoormuck on 3 March, while the rest, sixteen thousand fine troops with forty-one guns, laid down their arms to him at Rawal Pindi three days later. He pursued their