Arthur Gorges


Sir Arthur Gorges, was a sea captain, poet, translator and courtier.

Origins

He was the son of Sir William Gorges of Charlton, in the parish of Wraxall in Somerset, lord of the manor of Wraxall, by his wife Winifred Budockshed, heiress of the manor of Budockshed in the parish of St Budeaux, near Plymouth in Devon. Sir William Gorges was knighted in Ireland in 1579, was Vice Admiral of the Fleet in 1580, and Constable of the Tower of London. He died in December 1584, in the Tower of London. Arthur Gorges' brother Tristram Gorges was entrusted by Sir Francis Drake with the custody of Don Pedro de Valdez who was captured in the fight with the Spanish Armada in 1588. He took Don Pedro to the Tower of London.
The Gorges family in the Elizabethan era included Sir Ferdinando Gorges, founder of the Province of Maine, and Arthur Gorges' uncle, Sir Thomas Gorges of Longford Castle, who married Helena, Marchioness of Northampton.

Life

A cousin of both Walter Raleigh and Charles Arundell, Arthur Gorges was a member of the Howard circle - Arundell claimed Oxford had tried to have Gorges murdered on the Richmond Green.
He was elected Member of Parliament in 1584 for Yarmouth, IoW, in 1589 for Camelford, in 1593 for Dorset and in 1601 for Rye.
He fought in the campaign against the Spanish Armada. In 1597 he commanded the War-Spite, in which Walter Ralegh sailed as Vice Admiral under the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, on the Islands Voyage.
He was one of nine who were knighted on 29 Oct 1597.

Family life

He lived at Gorges House.
His family possessed considerable property in Chelsea in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and he built "Brickills" - later named Stanley House - there.
Sir Robert Stanley, second son of William, sixth Earl of Derby, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Arthur Gorges, and Stanley then seems to have lived at Stanley House.
Arthur Gorges married twice, first to Douglas Howard in 1584, with whom he had one daughter. Douglas Howard was the daughter and heir of Henry Howard, 2nd Viscount Howard of Bindon. Henry Howard’s father, the first Viscount, was the second son of Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk, uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two wives of Henry VIII.
Gorges' second marriage was to Elizabeth Clinton Fiennes in 1597, with whom he had twelve children.
On the death of Arthur Gorges' first wife, Edmund Spenser wrote the poem Daphnaïda. In the poem Alcyon is Sir Arthur Gorges.
Daphnaïda


An elegie vpon the death of the noble and vertuous Dovglas Howard, daughter and heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and wife of Arthur Gorges Esquier.
Dedicated to the Right honorable the Ladie Helena, Marquesse of Northampton.
By Ed. Sp.
His monument is in Chelsea Old Church. A brass plate, now fixed to the north wall, is engraved with the kneeling effigies of Sir Arthur Gorges and his six sons on one side of a small table, and his wife and five daughters on the other.

Works

His works include "Lucans Pharsalia",
and a translation into English of Francis Bacon's The Wisedome of the Ancients from the original Latin.
He is included in the Oxford Book of Sonnets published by the Oxford University Press, along with Walter Ralegh, Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, and other poets of the time.

Books