Temple, April 17. 1851.
_T. Gilbert on Clandestine Marriages_ (Vol. iii., p. 167.).--Thomas
Gilbert, the author of the MS. treatise mentioned by your correspondent,
was the son of William Gilbert, of Priss, in Shropshire. He was born in
1613, and at the age of sixteen entered the University of Oxford. He
took the degree of M.A. in 1638, and was afterwards appointed minister
of Upper Winchington, in Buckinghamshire. He joined the Puritan party at
the beginning of the rebellion, and was made vicar of St. Lawrence,
Reading. Wood says that he turned Independent, "was actually created
Bachelor of Divinity in the time of the Parliamentarian visitation," and
was preferred to the rich rectory of Edgmond, in his native county of
Shropshire. Being very active against the Royalists, he was commonly
called the "Bishop of Shropshire." After the Restoration he was, of
course, ejected, when he retired to Oxford, and lived obscurely many
years, with his wife, in the parish of St. Ebbs. He lived latterly upon
charity, and died in the extreme of poverty, in the year 1694. For more
minute particulars of the life of this person, and a catalogue of his
writings, see Wood's _Athenæ Oxon._, edit. Bliss, vol. iv. p. 406.