grammar-school; and whereas before our forefathers had no other
books than the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be
used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast
built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face, that thou hast
men about thee, who usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such
abominable words, as no Christian ear can endure to hear." Our
dramatic poet is generally more attentive to character than to
history; and I much fear that the art of printing was not introduced
into England, till several years after Lord Say's death; but of some
of these meritorious crimes I should hope to find my ancestor
guilty; and a man of letters may be proud of his descent from a
patron and martyr of learning.

In the beginning of the last century Robert Gibbon Esq. of Rolvenden
in Kent (who died in 1618), had a son of the same name of Robert,
who settled in London, and became a member of the Cloth-workers'
Company. His wife was a daughter of the Edgars, who flourished
about four hundred years in the county of Suffolk, and produced an
eminent and wealthy serjeant-at-law, Sir Gregory Edgar, in the reign
of Henry the Seventh. Of the sons of Robert Gibbon, (who died in
1643,) Matthew did not aspire above the station of a linen-draper in
Leadenhall-street; but John has given to the public some curious
memorials of his existence, his character, and his family. He was
born on Nov. 3d, 1629; his education was liberal, at a grammar-
school, and afterwards in Jesus College at Cambridge; and he
celebrates the retired content which he enjoyed at Allesborough, in
Worcestershire, in the house of Thomas Lord Coventry, where John
Gibbon was employed as a domestic tutor, the same office which Mr.
Hobbes exercised in the Devonshire family. But the spirit of my
kinsman soon immerged into more active life: he visited foreign