of John Howard, first duke of Norfolk. Gorges's elder brother, Edward, was baptised at Wraxall on 5 Sept. 1564, and he himself is mentioned in his father's will, dated 10 Aug. 1568; the date of his birth may therefore be approximately fixed at 1566. It would seem that he early adopted the profession of arms; may possibly have served in the Low Countries under the Earl of Leicester, and probably against the Great Armada, with his father's cousin, Nicholas Gorges, who commanded the London contingent of the squadron under Lord Henry Seymour. He may have been with Norreys in Portugal in 1589, and was certainly with the Earl of Essex in Normandy in 1591. He is spoken of as having distinguished himself at the siege of Rouen, as being wounded, and knighted by the general (‘Journal of the Siege of Rouen,’ pp. 68, 71, in Camden Miscellany, vol. i.; Devereux, Lives of the Earls of Essex, i. 271). Some years before that he was acting as overseer of the fortifications of Plymouth and its neighbourhood (Calendar of State Papers, Dom. 1591, p. 152), and four years later is referred to, in a similar connection, as ‘a gentleman of worth and experience’ (ib. 13 Oct. 1595), though even at this later date certainly not more than thirty. But from this time onward he was intimately connected with Plymouth, and for many years was officially designated as ‘governor of the forts and island of Plymouth.’ His duties, however, did not by any means confine him to that neighbourhood. He does not appear to have had any part in the expedition to Cadiz in 1596, but is mentioned as having, with the Dreadnought and Foresight, joined Essex for the ‘Island Voyage’ in 1597 (Devereux, i. 434), though his name has no place in the lists as given by Monson or Lediard. We find him, after the expedition, arranging with the mayor of Plymouth for the return of ‘such parcels of armour and other furnitures as remain in the fort of Plymouth, furnished by the city [of London] for the late service to the islands’ (Gorges to Mr. John Trelawney, 30 Jan. 1597, Addit. MS. 5752, f. 104). In January 1598–9 Gorges is named as serjeant-major of the army in Ireland with Essex (Devereux, ii. 9), an appointment which he must have either refused, or given up within a very short time (Archæologia, xxxiii. 249). In July, at any rate, on a rumour of a threatened Spanish invasion, he was at Plymouth taking measures for the defence of the town (ib. xxxv. 213), and it would seem that he continued at Plymouth till January 1600–1, when, in answer to a summons from Essex [see Devereux, Robert, second Earl of Essex, (1567–1601)], he joined him in London on the 31st. By thus summoning him to London, Essex showed that he counted on him as a partisan—a fact that throws great doubt on Gorges's statement that he had not heard from Essex for two years before. His own evidence proves that he was at once received as a member of the party, that he was present at the meeting at Drury House on Tuesday, 3 Feb., when rebellion was at least suggested (Jardine, i. 332), and was still with Essex on 8 Feb., when the lord keeper, the lord chief justice, and others were made prisoners and (it was asserted) held as hostages by Essex. Whether alarmed by Raleigh's warning (Edwards, Life of Ralegh, i. 256; Archæologia, xxxiii. 250), and desirous to secure the lord keeper's interest in his favour, or misunderstanding an order of Essex, Gorges released the prisoners; and though arrested along with Essex and his companions, he seems to have been admitted at once as a witness against his chief. That he did not give his evidence with a clear conscience may be judged by Essex's address: ‘My lords, look upon Sir Ferdinando, and see if he looks like himself. All the world shall see by my death and his life whose testimony is the truest’ (Jardine, i. 335). Notwithstanding Gorges's subsequent protestations (Archæologia, xxxiii. 261) it cannot be maintained that his conduct at this period was in the slightest degree chivalrous. And yet, two years later, he was spoken of as implicated in the so-called ‘Main plot’ (Edwards, i. 396), though of the fact there was no evidence whatever, and, indeed, he seems to have been at the time on bad terms with Raleigh (ib. ii. 312).
In 1605 George Weymouth [q. v.], returning from a voyage to the north-west, and bringing back five natives of North America, put into Plymouth. Gorges undertook the charge of three of these Indians, who, in course of time, as they learned English, described to him their country, its climate, its rivers and its harbours, with which they had an intelligent acquaintance. From this grew up in Gorges's mind a desire to colonise the country of which he had learned so much, and during the following years he set on foot many expeditions for discovery or settlement, though with but scanty success. A Plymouth company, associated with a company in London, was formed in 1606, and the two together obtained a grant from the crown of the territory in America, extending fifty miles inland, between the parallels of 34° and 45° north latitude. The attempts at settlement, however, all failed, and in 1619 the association was dissolved. Gorges then formed another company, incorporated on
