My family is originally derived from the county of Kent. The fouthern district, which borders on Suffex and the fea, was formerly overfpread with the great foreft Anderida, and even now retains the denomination of the Weald, or Woodland. In this district, and in the hundred and parish of Rolvenden, the Gibbons were poffeffed of lands in the year one thousand three hundred and twenty-fix; and the elder branch of the family, without much increase or diminution of property, still adheres to its native foil. Fourteen years after the firft appearance of his name, John Gibbon is recorded as the Marmorarius or architect of King Edward the Third: the strong and stately castle of Queensborough, which guarded the entrance of the Medway, was a monument of his skill; and the grant of a hereditary toll on the paffage from Sandwich to Stonar, in the Ifle of Thanet, is the reward of no vulgar artist. In the vifitations of the heralds, the Gibbons are frequently mentioned: they held the rank of Esquire in an age, when that title was lefs promifcuoufly affumed: one of them, under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was captain of the militia of Kent; and a free school, in the neighbouring town of Benenden, proclaims the charity and opulence of its founder. But time, or their own obfcurity, has cast a veil of oblivion over the virtues and vices of my Kentish ancestors; their character or station confined them to the labors and pleasures of a rural life: nor is it in my power to follow the advice of the Poet, in an inquiry after a name —

Go! Search it there, where to be born, and die,
Of rich and poor makes all the hiftory.

So recent is the inftitution of our parish registers. In the beginning of the feventeenth century, a younger branch of the Gibbons of Rolvenden migrated from the country to the city; and from this branch I do not blush to defcend. The law requires fome abilities; the church imposes fome restraints; and before our army and navy, our civil establishments, and India empire, had opened fo many paths of fortune, the mercantile profeffion was more frequently chofen by youths of a liberal race and education, who afpired to create their own independence. Our moft refpectable families have not difdained the countinghoufe, or even the fhop; their names are inrolled in the Livery and Companies of London; and in England, as well as in the Italian commonwealths, heralds have been compelled to declare, that gentility is not degraded by the exercise of trade.

The armorial enfigns which, in the times of chivalry, adorned the creft and shield of the foldier, are now become an empty decoration, which every man, who has money to build a carriage, may paint according to his fancy on the pannels. My family arms are the fame, which were borne by the Gibbons of Kent in an age, when the College of Heralds religiously guarded the diftinctions of blood and name: a lion rampant gardant, between three schallopfhells Argent, on a field Azure. a field Azure. I fhould not however have been tempted to blazon my coat of arms, were it not connected with a whimsical anecdote. - About the reign of James the First, the three harmless fchallop-fhells were changed by Edmund Gibbon efq. into three Ogreffes, or female cannibals

with a design of ftigmatizing three ladies, his kinfwomen, who had provoked him by an unjuft law. fuit. But this fingular mode of revenge, for which he obtained the fanction of Sir William Seagar, king at arms, foon expired with its author; and, on his own monument in the Temple church, the monsters vanish, and the three fchallop. shells resume their proper and hereditary place.

Our alliances by marriage it is not difgraceful to mention. The chief honor of my ancestry is James Fiens, Baron Say and Seale, and Lord High Treasurer of England, in the reign of Henry the Sixth; from whom by the Phelips, the Whetnalls, and the Cromers, I'am lineally defcended in the eleventh degree. His difmiffion and imprisonment in the Tower were infufficient to appease the popular clamor; and the Treafurer, with his fon-in-law Cromer; was beheaded (1450), after a mock trial by the Kentifh infurgents. The black lift of his offences, as it is exhibi ted in Shakspeare, difplays the ignorance and envy of a plebeian tyrant. Befides the vague reproaches of felling Maine and Normandy to the Dauphin, the Treasurer is fpecially accused of luxury, for riding on a foot cloth; and of treason, for fpeaking French, the language of our ennemies: "Thou "haft moft traiterously corrupted'the youth of the realm, "fays Jack Cade to the unfortunate Lord, in erecting a grammar school; and whereas before "our forefathers had no other books than the score "and the tally, thou haft caused printing to be used; "and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, "thou haft built a paper-mill. It will be proved to

thy face, that thou haft men about thee, who 66 ufually talk of a noun and a verb, and fuch abomi"nable words, as no chriftian 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 feveral years after Lord Say's death: but of fome of these reritorious crimes I fhould hope to find my ancestor guilty; and a man of letters may be proud of his defcent from a patron and martyr of learning.

In the beginning of the laft century Robert Gib. bon efq. of Rolvenden in Kent, (who died in 168,) had a fon of the fame name of Robert, who settled in London, and became a member of the Clothworkers' 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 ferjeant-at-law, Sir Gregory Edgar, in the reign of Henry the Seventh. Of the fons of Robert Gibbon, (who died in 1643,) Matthew did not aspire above the station of a linen - draper in Leadenhall - ftreet; but John has given to the public fome curious memorials of his existence, his character, and his family. He was born on the 3d of November in the year 1629; his education was liberal, at a grammar-school, and afterwards in Jefus 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 domeftic tutor, the fame office which Mr. Hobbes exercised in the Devonshire family. But the spirit of my

kinsman soon immerged into more active life: he vifited foreign countries as a foldier and a traveller, acquired the knowledge of the French and Spanish languages, paffed fome time in the Isle of Jersey, croffed the Atlantic, and refided upwards of a twelvemonth (1659) in the rifing colony of Virginia. In this remote province, his tafte, or rather paffion, for heraldry found a fingular gratification at a wardance of the native Indians. As they moved in meafured fteps, brandifhing their tomahawks, his curious eye contemplated their little fhields of bark and their naked bodies, which were painted with the colors and fymbols of his favorite fcience." At " which I exceedingly wondered; and concluded

that heraldry was ingrafted naturally into the fenfe "of human race. If fo, it deferves a greater esteem "than now a days is put upon it. His return to England after the Restoration was foon followed by his marriage his fettlement in a house in St. Catherine's Cloifter, near the Tower, which devolved to my grandfather and his introduction into the Herald's College (in 1671 ) by the ftyle and title of Blue-mantle Pursuivant at Arms. In this office he enjoyed near fifty years the rare felicity of uniting, in the fame purfuit, his duty and inclination: his name is rememberd in the College, and many of his letters are ftill preferved. Several of the most respectable characters of the age, Sir William Dug. dale, Mr. Afhmole, Dr. John Betts, and Dr. Nehemiah Grew, were his friends; and in the fociety of fuch men, John Gibbon may be recorded without difgrace as the member of an aftrological club. The