Sir Arthur Gorges, Kt.

Sir Arthur Gorges (c. 1569 – 10 October 1625), was an English sea captain, poet, translator and courtier from Somerset.

He was the son of Sir William Gorges (d.1584) 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.

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.

He lived at Gorges House (later named Milman House).[5] His family possessed considerable property in Chelsea in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, where he built "Brickills", later named Stanley House.[6] In November 1599 when Queen Elizabeth passed the "fair new house in Chelsea", Gorges presented her with a fair jewel.[7]

Arthur Gorges married twice, first to Douglas Howard in 1584, with whom he had one daughter, Ambrosia (1588-1600). Douglas Howard was the daughter and heir of Henry Howard, 2nd Viscount Howard of Bindon. His father, Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon, was the second son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two wives of Henry VIII.[8]

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.[9]

Queen Elizabeth obtained the marriage rights of Ambrosia Gorges. Gorges contracted with the queen for the wardship, paying £1000, with a gift of a pearl bracelet with a clasp set diamonds and rubies which cost £500. He lost these investments on his daughter's death in 1600.[10]

Gorges' second marriage was to Elizabeth Clinton, daughter of Henry Clinton, 2nd Earl of Lincoln, in 1597. They 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.

Books

• Arthur Gorges, Spenser's Alcyon and Ralegh's friend. Author: Helen Estabrook Sandison. Publisher: [n.p., 1928?]
• Poems. Author: Arthur Gorges, Sir; Helen Estabrook Sandison. Publisher: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953.
• The Story of a Family through Eleven Centuries, Illustrated by Portraits and Pedigrees: Being a History of the Family of Gorges. by Raymond Gorges, Frederick Brown; Merrymount Press, 1944. 293 pgs.

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• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/go...
• https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemoratio...
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Gorges
• https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemoratio...