(Vol. iv., p. 388.)
I am greatly obliged by the communication of your correspondent relative
to the Gays connected with Sidney College. It was as from that quarter I
expected light. The passage in Paley's _Life of Law_, which is to me of
considerable interest, long ago attracted my attention, although it
escaped notice at the moment when I ventured to send my first inquiry.
It runs as follows:
"Our Bishop always spoke of this gentleman in terms of the
greatest respect. In the Bible, and in the writings of Mr. Locke,
no man, he used to say, was so well versed."
Thus I find the passage quoted from Paley in Nichols' _Literary
Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. ii. p. 66. Bishop Law also
mentions him in a letter to Dr. Zach. Grey, editor of _Hudibras_:
"Respects to _honest_ Mr. Gay, and all friends in St. John's." The
letter was written from Graystock, May 31, 1743. The full address of Dr.
Grey unfortunately is not given where I find the letter, in the same
vol. of Nichols, p. 535. But we may safely gather from it, that at that
time "_honest_ Mr. Gay" was at Cambridge, and in esteem; whether a
resident, as should seem most likely from the manner of the notice, or a
casual visitor, does not certainly appear. If a resident, this is not
consistent with the idea of your correspondent, that he became vicar of
Wilshamstead, Bedfordshire, and vacated his fellowship before 1732. I
wish that the identity of the author of the Dissertation with the John
Gay--first in the list of your correspondent--an identity to which my
mind also inclines, could be more clearly made out. He was born, and
partly educated, in Devonshire.
A private correspondent has very kindly furnished me with a few
particulars relative to Nicholas Gay, the second mentioned in your
correspondent's list, and father of the fourth, which Nicholas was vicar
of Newton St. Cyres, near Exeter, and died, æt. seventy-five, in 1775;
and to another, Richard Gay, rector of St. Leonard, near Exeter, who
died in 1755. Of this Richard Gay, on a stone in the church of
Frithelstock, near Torrington, it is said that--
"To great learning, he added a most exemplary life in constant
faithful endeavours to support religion, to glorify God, and to do
good to man. He was equalled by few, surpassed by none of the age
he lived in."
To such a character, one would gladly attach the Dissertation in
question, but no Richard Gay, it appears, is mentioned in the records of
Sidney College. There were many Gays in Devonshire of the family of John
Gay the poet.
Permit me to make another inquiry: Is there any tolerably good account
in existence of the private or domestic life of the celebrated Lord
North, minister and favourite of George III.? Of his political career, a
pleasing sketch is given by Lord Brougham, in his _Historical Sketches
of Statesmen_, and many delightful anecdotes of his incomparable temper
and playful wit are known; but of his domestic history I cannot find a
trace.