Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/30

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XIL JULY n, 1903.

before he was released from this bondage by an exchange of prisoners, and in September of the following year he was appointed to the command of 135 vsoldiers, accompanied by Sir John Burgh, Knt., and Sir Nicholas Parker, Knt., each being in command of a similar number of men, to act as reinforcements for the army of Henry IV. of France, which were provided by our Queen Elizabeth. In 1591 ne is with John Dytcher and John Gorynge, as a captain of the Sussex levies, patrolling the south coast for any signs of an enemy ; and this year also he was summoned to London arid consulted as to a means of defence for Pendennis Castle, which he strongly fortified under great difficulties, especially in getting the money to pay for the work of such building. He then pro- ceeded on a special mission to Normandy, and was soon afterwards knighted. Proceed- ing to the Low Countries, he was recalled to England with his men in 1596, and a royal patent was immediately issued making and confirming him captain and keeper of the important castle and fort at Plymouth, and also captain of St. Nicholas Isle, " with all the fees, wages, &c., of such offices, to be taken out of the Customs upon the trans- portation of pilchards from counties Devon and Cornwall," also authorizing him "to muster and call together the militia of Devonshire, in defence of the fort when needed."

During August of this year he fell seriously ill ; and in the following September Sir Robert Cecil was sent by the queen from London to visit him at Dartmouth, and also to inspect the plans and arrangements Sir Ferdinando had made for the defence of Plymouth and Dartmouth. There are two entries in the State Papers relating to Plymouth Fort at this time under date 18 February, 1597 : "Account of ordnance, powder, shot, and other munition required by Sir Ferdinando Gorges for the supply of the New Fort at Plymouth and St. Nicholas Isle, total 1,611J. 8s. 10d."; and again on 9 March, 1597: "There will not be enough of the revenues of Devon and Cornwall due at Lady Day to satisfy the half year's pay due to Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges."

In June, 1597, Sir Ferdinando Gorges accompanied (together with Lord Thomas Howard, Vice- Admiral, Lord Mountjoy, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Vere, and Sir George Carew) the Earl of Essex on what is known as the famous ".Islands Voyage," or expedition to the Azores, during which time he commanded the ships Dreadnought and Warspite. During his absence on this remark-

able voyage, an account of which was written by Sir Walter Raleigh, he left, with the queen's consent, his elder brother, Capt. Edward Gorges, of Wraxall, in his place as Captain of Plymouth Fort and the Isle of St. Nicholas. On his return to England he again proceeded, under the command of the Earl of Essex, to Ireland to quell the rebellion raised there by the Earl of Tyrone : and once more returned to England to take up his duties again as Governor of Plymouth, where, in conjunction with the Earl of Bath and Sir William Courtenay, a muster of 6,000 Devon- shire men was made in consequence of a fear of invasion.

Then came the revolt, imprisonment, trial, and execution of the Earl of Essex, with whom, unfortunately, Sir Ferdinando's name was mixed up. There is in the British Museum a very curious MS. entitled * A Defence of Sir Ferdinando Gorges against a Charge of having betrayed the Earl of Essex.' The following, taken from the Carew MS., is worth recording here. Under date of March, 1601, Sir Robert Cecil wrote to Sir George Carew :

"The 19 th February the Earl (of Essex) was arraigned (together with Southampton) in West- minster Hall before 25 Peers. The Lord Trea- surer (Buckhurst) sitting as Lord Steward. At the bar the Earl laboured to extenuate his fault by denying that he ever meant any harm to her Majesty's person, and by pretending that he took arms principally to save himself from my Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh, who (he gave out) should have murdered him in his house on Saturday night. He pretended also an intention he had to have removed me with some others from the Queen, as one who would sell the Kingdom of England to the Infant of Spain, with such other hyperbolical inventions. But before he went out of the Hall, when he saw himself condemned and found Sir John Davys, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Sir Charles Davers, and Sir Christopher Blunt had confessed all the conferences that were held at Drury House by his directions for the surprising of the Queen and the Tower, which argued a premeditated treason (which he laboured to have had it proved, only a sudden putting himself into strength, and flying into the City for fear of being committed overnight, when the Lords sent for him, which upon my faith to you, to whom I will not lie, was only to have reproved him for his unlawful assem- blies, arid to have wished him to leave the City and retire into the country), he then break out to divers gentlemen in these words, ' that his confederates who now accuse him had been principal inciters to him, and not he to them, even ever since August last, to work access to the Queen with force.'"

The result of this trial of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the queen s favourite, does not appear to have affected the career of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, for he immediately re- turned to his important charge at Plymouth. On the accession of James I. in 1603 we find