The history of the Goring property is traced in the ‘Collections of the Sussex Archæological Society,’ xi. 67.
[Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges; Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion; Cal. State Papers, Dom.; Sussex Archæological Society's Collections, xi. 66, xix. 97; authorities above.]
GORMANSTON, Viscounts. [See Preston.]
GORT, second Viscount (1768-1842). [See Vereker, Charles.]
GORTON, JOHN (d. 1835), compiler, accomplished a considerable amount of bookwork of a meritorious character, including a translation of Voltaire's ‘Dictionnaire Philosophique,’ 1824; ‘A General Biographical Dictionary’ (2 vols. 1828, with an appendix, 1830 (?), new edition, with a supplement by Cyrus Redding [q. v.], bringing the work as far as 1850, in 4 vols. 1851), which is compiled from rather obvious sources of information; and ‘A Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland, the Irish and Welsh Articles by G. N. Wright, with fifty fine maps by S. Hall,’ 3 vols. 1831–3, a work of some accuracy and value; this was first published in separate parts. Gorton was also the author of a poem in indifferent blank verse, ‘Tubal to Seba, the Negro Suicide,’ 1797, and a pamphlet entitled ‘A Solution of that great Scriptural Difficulty the Genealogy of Jesus … with a treatise on the Fall of Adam.’ Gorton died early in 1835.
[Gent. Mag. 1835, i. 666 (where the christian name is wrongly given as William); Brit. Mus. Cat.]
GORTON, SAMUEL (d. 1677), founder of the Gortonites, was ‘born and bred’ at Gorton, Lancashire, as also were the ‘fathers of his body for many generations.’ He came of a good family, and says that his wife ‘had bin as tenderly brought up as was any man's wife then in that towne’ (Plymouth, New England). He gives thanks that he was not ‘bred up in the schooles of humane learning,’ and therefore not misled by heathen philosophers (letter to Nathaniel Morton). He probably knew the Bible by heart, and was a powerful speaker. He must have served an apprenticeship in London, for in a certain conveyance he calls himself ‘a citizen of London, clothier.’ He regarded outward forms with contempt, holding ‘that by union with Christ believers partook of the perfection of God, and that heaven and hell have no actual existence.’ Fearing persecution, he sailed to New England, arrived at Boston in 1636, and thence went to Plymouth. His stay at Boston was probably shortened by his religious pugnacity, and though welcomed at Plymouth, he gradually ‘discovered himself to be a proud and pestilent seducer, and deeply leavened with blasphemous and familistical opinions’ (Morton, New Englands Memoriall, 1669, p. 108). He had religious differences with Ralph Smith, a Plymouth minister, in whose house he lodged. Smith only got rid of him by appealing to the courts. For alleged contempt of court in defending a contumacious widow he was afterwards committed to prison till he could procure sureties for his good behaviour ‘till ye next court.’ At the next court he was fined and again ordered to find sureties. He found sureties, but immediately left for Rhode Island. He was there welcomed as a religious refugee by the little band at Portsmouth, most of whom were outcasts from Massachusetts and Plymouth. On 27 June he was enrolled as an inhabitant. Edward Winslow intimates, however, that difference in religion was not the ground of the hard measure he received at Plymouth (Hypocrisie Vnmasked, 1646). He fixed himself for a while at Aquidneck (now Newport), but became so odious for insulting the clergy and magistracy that he was sentenced to be publicly whipped (see account of an eyewitness in ‘An Answer to ye many Slanders & Falsehoods contained in a Book called Simplicities Defence,’ &c., printed for the first time by Charles Deane in vol. iv. of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register). From Aquidneck Gorton sought refuge with Roger Williams in Providence, some time before 17 Nov. 1641. It is said that he was never admitted an inhabitant of that town, but in January 1641–2 he purchased land at Pawtuxet, in the south part of the territory. Here he was soon joined by a number of his followers who had been expelled from Aquidneck. He took the lead in a quarrel about land, which, though restrained for a time by Williams, soon became serious, and even led to bloodshed. His opponents were defeated, and applied to the Massachusetts government, which finally decided to assume jurisdiction over Providence, which was beyond the limits of its charter. Gorton and his friends protested in a violent letter full of theology. The Massachusetts people detected in it twenty-six blasphemous propositions. Gorton and his friends now retired to Shawomet, now Old Warwick, and purchased of the Narragansett chief, Miantonomo, in January 1642–3, a tract of land which now comprises the town of Coventry and nearly the whole of the town of Warwick. Certain inferior Sachems, however, repudiated the sale, and put themselves under the protection of Massachusetts. A warrant was issued (12 Sept. 1643) summoning Gorton and his companions to appear. They denied the jurisdiction;
