THE GILBERTS OF ANTIGUA.
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large grant, in what was then termed Plymouth—the foundation of the afterwards glorious colony of Virginia, in North America—and where, in 1606, he emigrated, along with the Lord Chief Justice Popham ; George Popham, Esq. (his son) ; William Parker, Esq. ; and Thomas Stanham, Esq. Soon after this period, we find Raleigh Gilbert, under the title of Captain Gilbert, in command of a vessel manned with 100 men, and provided with ordnance, stores, and provisions, sufficient for the establishment of a plantation, which he (in conjunction with Captain Popham, a joint patentee, and in command of another vessel, similarly provided) began on the banks of the river " Sagadock," in the year 1608, and where they erected a fort, called Sir George's. Captain Popham, his zealous coadjutor, having died in this place, Captain Gilbert returned to England, where he took possession of an estate, fallen to him by the death of his elder brother, Sir John Gilbert, President of the Virginian Company. Another member of this family, we find, about the same time, leader of an abortive expedition to form a settlement upon the shores of the Bay of Chesapeake, in Virginia, and who, it appears, was well acquainted with those several islands which now form the Leeward Caribbee government. The following extract is taken from a work published in 1741 (second edition) :— " In the same year, Captain Gilbert, in the ' Elizabeth,' of London, made a voyage to Virginia, but not with the like success. He traded with the savages in the Charibbe Islands—viz., St. Lucia, Dominica, Nevis, St. Christopher's, &c, and thence proceeded to the Bay of Chesapeake, in Virginia, being the first that sailed up it, and landed there. The Indians set upon him and his company in the woods, and Captain Gilbert and four or five of his men were killed by their arrows, upon which his crew returned home."
We cannot undertake to say from which particular member of this distinguished family the Gilberts of Antigua sprang, but they were among its earliest settlers, and constituted some of the greatest ornaments of the colony, in which for so many years they have been proprietors. The present M
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