LIST OF PORTRAITS. Joseph Gulston, Esq.... The Rev. Peter Francis Courayer, D. D. The Rev. Francis Peck..... The Rev. Sir Herbert Croft, Bart... George Steevens, Esq.... The Rev. John Price, B. D.. The Hon. Daines Barrington.. The Hon. and Right Rev. Bishop Barrington... ERRATA. P. 65, line 12, for 1806 read 1809. P. 271, 1. 5 from bottom, for John read William Hopkinson, Esq. P. 417, note, 1. 3 from bottom, for p. 328, read 398. P. 642, 1. 8 from bottom, after Free-schools, add Shrewsbury. P. 682, line 24, for Protestant read Protesting. P. 730, it is omitted to be stated that Dr. Hoadly-Ashe died May 3, 1826, aged 75.. P. 750, 1. 28, read no ampler. P. 759, last line of notes, for or read for. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE LITERATURE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. JOSEPH GULSTON, Esa. F. S. A. THE notices of this respectable Gentleman in the "Literary Anecdotes" * are so brief and imperfect, that I gladly avail myself of the opportunity of presenting to my Readers a Biographical Sketch of Mr. GULSTON-by one who is well qualified to do justice to the subject, and "who is too great a venerator of the Johnsonian School, not to think Truth the first essential in any narrative." The GULSTONS were originally of Wymondham in Leicestershire; when, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, John Gulston, one of the Prothonotaries of the Common Pleas, son of Willam Gulston, son of Thomas Gulston of Wymondham, bought the * Vol. II. p. 44, 160; vol. V. p. 263; vol. IX. p. 605. + The first of this family that can be traced at Wymondham is William Gulston, who was presented to the Rectory in 1538, by the Prior and Convent of Tutbury, and held it till 1560. After one intermediate incumbent, Nathaniel Gulston, son of William, was presented to the rectory by Queen Elizabeth, and VOL. V. B וד manor and advowson of Widihall, co. Herts, and had the arms granted to him by Camden*. The family remained there till the year 1770, when they sold the estate to Mr. Comyns, at whose death, five years after, it was sold to Mr. Ellis. Of a younger branch of this family was Joseph Gulston, Dean of Chichester, and Chaplain to King Charles the First. Peck, in his Desiderata Curiosa, mentions his preaching in Carisbrook Castle, Nov. 12, 1648. That he was attached to Charles's person till his execution is most probable. His will was proved in 1674, and mentions several children. That the family emigrated to Portugal is most certain, and nothing more is known of them till the father of Mr. Gulston, whose memoir is intended to be here given, appears as head of the first mercantile died in 1581. William Gulston occurs Parson in 1584. Nathaniel Gulston, D. D. Rector in 1632, died in 1647. William Gulston, probably Rector also, died in 1654.-William Gulston, Clerk, occurs as Patron of the Rectory in 1660 and 1669.— William, son of Nathaniel Gulston, D. D. was born at Wymondham; educated at Grantham School for three years, under Mr. Stokes, the then master there; after which, being seventeen years of age, he was entered a Sub or Proper Sizar in St. John's College, Oct. 4, 1653, having for his tutor Mr. Baker, at that time one of the Senior Fellows there. He took the degree of M. A. 1661, was afterwards S. T. P. and at length Chaplain to Frances Duchess of Somerset, by whom he was, in 1669, presented to the rectory of Simondsbury, co. Dorset. Being nominated to the See of Bristol by King Charles II. he was consecrated at Lambeth on the 9th of February, 1678; but continued to hold, in commendam, his rectory of Simondsbury; and dying at his parsonage, April 4, 1684, was buried on the 18th day of the same month, in the chancel of the parish church. Before his advancement to the See of Bristol, he gave intimation of an intention to annex to it this rich rectory, of which he had purchased the perpetual advowson, but on his promotion forgot his promise. His son, Seymour Gulston, M. A. who was afterwards Rector on his own presentation in 1695, sold the advowson to Robert Biron, of Frampton, Esq.; and dying in 1706, was buried with his father.-See the Hist. of Leicestershire, vol. II. p. 404. N. * Argent, two bars nebulée Gules, over all a bend Sable, charged with three plates. Crest, an ostrich's wing of five feathers, three Argent, two Gules, over all a bend Sable, charged with three plates. house in the British factory at Lisbon, where he was born. His father (who never was in England) left him a brother and two sisters to provide for. The brother was sent to Barbadoes, where an estate was purchased for him; he proved very idle and extravagant, married ill, and when he died left a widow and five children pennyless. Mr. Gulston took them all under his own care; the eldest son he placed in his own house, Edward was lost at sea, and Charles was smothered in the Black Hole at Calcutta ; the eldest daughter married ill; Dorothy, the youngest, married the Rev. Mr. John Penton. Of Mr. Gulston's sisters, the youngest married, in Lisbon, Mr. Brooke, who immediately carried her to England, to seven maiden sisters of his own she lived but two years. The eldest sister Anne was uncommonly beautiful, haughty, vain, and overbearing to the greatest degree; Mr. Gulston was proud of her, and the ascendancy she gained over him amounted to absolute fascination. She first married Mr. Simondi, a Swede, who was Consul from Sweden to Lisbon. Mr. Gulston did not approve of the match; nor did she like the man; but his diplomatic dignity, and a litter which cost him five hundred pounds, the only carriage in which women of distinction were conveyed, turned the scale in his favour. He did not live long, and left her little more than her litter, and one daughter. She returned to Mr. Gulston, and had the command of his house and fortune. She soon after fell in love with Mr. Goddard, a merchant, married him, and a second time became a widow, not much benefited in circumstances. Money was a thing vastly beneath her attention, and her brother's generosity prevented her ever feeling the want of it. She was still in the zenith of her beauty, and might have married to very great advantage; but she had acquired a taste for independence: she coquetted with all, tyrannized over some, and governed her brother with despotic sway. The daughter, Miss Simondi, was brought up in a style then unknown: Mrs. Goddard idolized her, and thought no indulgence too great, no expence too profuse. The girl, naturally not good tempered, became as tyrannical as her mother, and when any disappointment happened, fits and faintings were the certain con sequence. A Portuguese merchant, whose name was Sylva, being particularly connected with Mr. Gulston in the line of business, became very intimate with the family; he was far from opulent, and was burthened with seven daughters; Mericas, the youngest, was nearly as old as Miss Simondi, they were fond of each other, and by degrees Miss Simondi was never contented without her playfellow. Mericas was very pretty, and uncommonly engaging; except to attend the duties of her religion, she lived entirely at Mr. Gulston's; he was very fond of her, and while quite a child, would set her on his knee, and call her his little wife. In process of time, it was decided that the whole family should come and settle in England. Miss Simondi could not part with her companion, and insisted upon taking her with them. Mons. Sylva was but too happy to settle his daughter so advantageously, making only one condition; "That she should continue to be a Roman Catholick." The young Mericas was much more attached to her English friends than to her paternal roof; her mother was dead, some of her sisters were become nuns; the same fate might be her own, and she had no inclination for the convent. When they arrived in England she was nearly seventeen. Mr. Gulston took a house in Pall-mall, and a smaller one in the city, where his clerks, counting-house, &c. were established; but he resided entirely with his sister. For a long time every thing went on very well. Miss Simondi preserved |