Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/277

 makes him the subject of Watts's elegy on [q. v.], who was the son of Robert Gouge. He married, in 1639, Anne (d. 3 Dec. 1671, aged 55), daughter of Sir Robert Darcy. William, his eldest son, died 13 Oct. 1706, aged 64, leaving an only child, Meliora, married to William Prestley of Wild Hill, Hertfordshire.

His Welsh schools appear to have ceased at his death; but the distribution of Welsh books went on for some time, Firmin acting as treasurer of the trust. His accounts show that Tillotson, after Gouge's death, contributed 50l. In Wynne's edition of Powell's ‘History of Wales,’ 1697 (cited by Rees), Tillotson is attacked for his remarks on the religious destitution of Wales, and for calling Gouge an ‘apostolical man.’ Wynne thinks the main result of Gouge's travels was the growth of ‘presbytery,’ meaning dissent. His ‘Works’ were collected in 1706, 8vo. Among the contents are: 1. ‘The Christian Householder,’ &c., 1663, 4to. 2. ‘Christian Directions,’ &c., 1664, 8vo; translated into Welsh by Richard Jones, 1675. 3. ‘The Principles of Christian Religion,’ &c., 1676, 4to; translated (1676) into Welsh by W. Jones, who also translated (1684) Gouge's ‘Rest in Christ,’ &c. 4. ‘A Word to Sinners and a Word to Saints,’ 1672, 8vo. 5. ‘The Surest and Safest Way of Thriving,’ &c., 1673, 4to. 6. ‘How Alms may be acceptable to God,’ &c., 1677, 4to. At a later period several of Gouge's tracts were reproduced in Welsh, with some modifications, by James Owen.

[Funeral Sermon by Tillotson, 1682, also prefixed to Works, 1706; Life by Samuel Clarke, in Lives of Eminent Persons, 1683, i. 202 sq.; Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 8; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 12; Birch's Life of Tillotson, 1753, pp. 88 sq.; Middleton's Biographia Evangelica, 1784, iii. 450 sq.; Life of Firmin, 1791, p. 43; Wilson's Diss. Churches of London, 1810, iii. 555; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 169; Granger's Biog. Hist. of Eng. 1823, v. 68; Rees's Hist. Prot. Nonconformity in Wales, 1883, pp. 196 sq., 203 sq.; Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography; extract from admission book, per the Provost of King's.]  GOUGE, THOMAS (1665?–1700), independent divine, son of [q. v.], was born at Ipswich. He was educated for the ministry in Holland, and before completing his twenty-second year became pastor of the English church at Amsterdam. Calamy met him there in 1688, and found him ‘very great’ with Partridge, the astrologer. Partridge and he ‘had with great exactness calculated the year, the month, the day, and the very hour, when the city of Rome was to be burnt and destroyed so as never to be rebuilt any more.’ When Calamy asked for this date, Gouge ‘desired to be excused,’ but assured him he ‘might live to see that time.’ In 1689 Gouge returned to England, and became pastor of the independent congregation at Three Cranes, Fruiterers' Alley, Thames Street, London. He became exceedingly popular. Isaac Watts speaks of him as one of the three greatest preachers he had heard in his youth, the others being [q. v.] and Joseph Stennett. In 1694 he was chosen one of the merchants' lecturers at Pinners' Hall, in the room of Daniel Williams, D.D., whose removal was occasioned by the doctrinal disputes which broke up the union (1691) of London presbyterians and independents. Gouge's own congregation was not free from internal troubles. In 1697 an eccentric divine, (1667–1722) [q. v.], was permitted to conduct a weekday lecture at Three Cranes. He introduced politics, and was dismissed at the instance of Arthur Shallet, M.P., a member of Gouge's flock. He carried away a following, and next year (1698) several more withdrew owing to a dispute about the admission of a member. These trials broke Gouge's health, but he persevered in his duties, and died in harness. He was reckoned a living library; as a preacher his strength lay in the illustration of scripture. He died on 8 Jan. 1700; his funeral sermon was preached by John Nesbitt at Pinners' Hall. Watts's ‘Elegiac Essey,’ which dilates on ‘the charming wonders of his tongue,’ was published separately in 1700, dedicated to Shallet; it is reprinted in Watts's ‘Lyrick Poems.’

[Nesbitt's Funeral Sermon, 1700; Watts's Lyrick Poems, 1709, pp. 331 sq.; Calamy's Own Life, 1830, i. 181; Wilson's Diss. Churches of London, 1808, i. 139 sq., ii. 69 sq., 253; Davids's Annals of Evang. Nonconf. Essex, 1863, pp. 364, 618.]  GOUGE, WILLIAM, D.D. (1578–1653), puritan divine, son of Thomas Gouge, a gentleman of good descent, was born at Stratford-le-Bow, Middlesex. In the life by his son the date of his birth is given as 1 Nov. 1575, but it appears from the ‘Protocollum Book’ of King's College, Cambridge, that he was born on 25 Dec. 1578. His mother was a daughter of Nicholas Culverwel, a London merchant; her brothers, Samuel and Ezekiel, were noted as preachers; her sisters were married to [q. v.], master of Emmanuel, and William Whitaker, master of St. John's, Cambridge. Gouge was educated, first at St. Paul's School, next for three years at the grammar school of Felstead, Essex, where his uncle Ezekiel was vicar,